No, I’m not working on the unicorn sweater! 🙂
Last year the lines on my clothesline were needing replacing so Vince went down to the hardware store and bought new clothesline wire. There’s some kind of “strong” metal wire in the middle with vinyl or plastic smooth coating.
Every single time I use that clothes line, which is pretty often, it sags and he has to go out and re-stretch it. Last week, I said “Vince! Can’t we just get some line that doesn’t stretch?” It isn’t like . . that line looks a little saggy. It’s like I’m having to hang my jeans with the knees over the clothesline so they aren’t dragging the ground.
He now thinks the line is just slipping out of the fastener thing but . . he keeps cutting extra line off when it sags so I don’t believe that’s the issue but this morning, he redid the fasteners and wants to try it that way.
Oops! Maybe the line got stretched a bit too much because with three pairs of jeans on it, the line broke and everything ended up on the ground. Thank goodness for dead grass to cushion the fall
The jeans were transferred to another line. There’s a bit of sag but so far not so much I can’t live with it. If it were me, I’d still get better line. I’ve had clotheslines my entire life and never had recurring issues with sagging lines but . . things ain’t like they used to be.
The good news is that we can laugh about it. Even as frustrating as the small things can be, they are small things and my problems are small. There’s a gas dryer in the house; an electric dryer (or two!) in the shop. This isn’t like back in my grandma’s time when drying clothes on the line was the only option, when they could only do laundry on sunny days.
Sheets and towels are what I really love having dried on the line. It’s so dry and dusty that I never know if I should use the line for the sheets but they dry within about half an hour so as long as I can get them off the line before anyone drives down our dusty driveway, they’re usually ok.
Actually, I love everything hung on the clotheslines, even my jeans. Vince isn’t so much in love with “crunchy” clothes. I’m betting his mom didn’t hang their clothes on the clothesline . . maybe that’s why he prefers his in the dryer. That’s good news too because he knows if I’m doing the laundry, the clothes get hung on the line. If he does his own laundry, he puts them in the dryer. That has worked out so well. 🙂
Toni Macomb says
I love my sheets, towels, and blankets hung on the line. I prefer everything else dryer “soft”. No dryer sheets, just the process of being tumbled makes them soft enough for me.
shirley bruner says
Can’t he make you a clothesline pole to hold up the line. you know….the wooden pole with a “V” at the top. i’m sure your mom or grandma had one of those. it would be a solution to your problem.
Judy Laquidara says
With the right clothesline, I don’t need the support. It’s finding the right line that’s the problem. They’re only 30′.
Tony Bogusz says
Cut a vee not only into the top of the 1×2 (into which to support the line), but also sharpen the bottom of the 1×2 (bluntly is good enough) to dig into the ground a bit. This not only will hold up the line from sagging, but will also prevent a strong wind from moving the 1×2 “prop”,
Lines will always stretch over time. It’s just their nature. Leaving lines tied in the elements and the high uV light of your strong TX sun doesn’t help either. My wife always takes down her line after use to preserve it. We’ve been using the same woven fiber rope clothesline for years w/o problems. Clare zig zags it back and forth with a small bowstring loop (taught to her by her Navy vet father years ago) to also further reduce sagging. Our T-shaped clothes poles look a lot like yours and have at least 4 hooks equally spaced across the top of each pole.
Clare likes crunchy towels. I don’t. We both love the bleaching effect on stubborn spots…even though we’re currently in IL and the September sun is waning sharply over that of June/July/August.
Good luck.
p.s.–Even solid metal line will eventually fracture from metal “cold-creep” due to stretching. You can’t win…only take preventive measures.
Judy Laquidara says
We’ve had lines before that did not stretch and sag. What we have now does but we’ll get something that will be fine. I think the “props” are horribly ugly and our clothesline is in a spot where we see it often . . not way off in the back somewhere. The line we had before lasted about 6 years and it did not sag. With the Texas heat and sun, I’m happy to have it last even just 5 years, even leaving it outside all the time.
W Jordan says
We had a 1×4 that had a notch cut in it . We then used that to hold the clothes line up when we had a heavy load on it. I never remember one not sagging.
Judy Laquidara says
The lines I had when we first put it up, did not sag at all. We had those lines for about 6 years and then they started breaking. I wish we could find those again. My clothesline is between the house and the driveway and I think the notched board looks kinda bad. We can get line that doesn’t sag but it may take a bit of trial and error til we find it.
JEAN says
Stink bugs have arrived. I’m done hanging clothes out for awhile. 🙂
-Jean
Jen says
I had that same problem this summer and looks like same clothesline. Loaded it up and it snapped! I had some sort of galvanized wire for almost 20 years and then it started to rust. This green line is horrible!
Joyce says
I remember my mother hanging up clothes on our basement clotheslines when it was raining or the weather was bad during the winter. Once we had a clothes dryer she rarely hung things on the line. I don’t have a clothes line outside, and I can’t really say I miss it. I like the convenience of a dryer…:)
Nelle Coursey says
Sounds like a plan to me!
Linda in NE says
My clothes lines are made of plain old #9 wire. They do the job, but could use a little tightening up now…it’s been years! They haven’t gotten much use this summer. Seems like all I have to do is even think about doing laundry and it clouds over & threatens to rain.
Amy in PA says
Wow, we have regular old fashioned clothesline (no wire or plastic) and it’s been over 10 yrs, never had to tighten it or anything. Ours is hung between 2 trees, nothing fancy here!
montanaclarks says
I too hang clothes such as jeans on the line but I’m with Vince–I don’t like crunchy towels. And Michael doesn’t like crunchy socks and underwear so it’s usually just the jeans that go on the line. My clothes line in Montana isn’t long enough for sheets.
Twyla says
If you have allergies hanging your clothes out to dry is not recommended.
Judy Laquidara says
I do have cedar pollen allergies in very early spring and that’s the one time of year I don’t get to hang clothes out. I’m pretty lucky that other than that, neither of us have allergies that bother us.