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The Clothes Line

This morning I had two loads of clothes on the line very early, and our sheets were in the washer and not yet on the line.

Walking away with the empty clothes basket, going to get the sheets out of the washer, I giggled a bit . . thinking about the push for green energy and efficiency and yet many HOAs prohibit clothes lines. I would think, for those who truly feel going green is the thing to do, they would allow them in the least and maybe even require them and having clothes hanging on the line should be seen as being a good steward of the environment.

I do understand no one wants to look out the window and see the neighbor’s undies on the line but good grief . . most of us wear them and hopefully we all wash them so if it’s time to force drivers to drive electric cars, maybe it’s time to suggest every yard have a clothes line. Of course, not everyone can hang their clothes but many who can do not. I don’t think folks should be forced to hang their clothes but there are other things I don’t think people should be forced to do that happen. Please always remember that even though one person’s way of life isn’t the way you want to live your life, they should not be condemned for what they do, nor should they be forced to change what they do so long as what they’re doing is within the confines of the law and are not hurting others (and “hurting others” does not mean hurting feelings because I don’t want to see your clothes on the line!).

I told Vince . . don’t you think it’s a bit ironic that so many are prohibited from being able to hang their clothes on the line while the green agenda is being pushed? He said “Not at all, no one’s pockets are being lined because folks are investing in clothes lines.”

For the record, there are undies on my clothes line but they’re in the middle and even someone walking right by the clothes line wouldn’t see them unless thy walked between line #2 and line #3.

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Comments

  1. I agree whole heartedly….especially with Vince’s line no one’s pockets are being lined….it says it all.
    In California we are going to be forced to drive electric cars. Then yesterday Californians are being told DO NOT CHARGE YOUR ELECTRIC CARS because the power grid is low on electricity and there will be rolling blackouts…..I guess they didn’t figure everything out…..hahahaha

    • I heard all that and laughed. I just cannot imagine that in this country we have gotten to the point that this is happening.

  2. I have always loved how the sheets smell when they are hung outside to dry! I used to have a clothesline, but it was between two trees and one of them died! I would love to have one again! Besides here in Texas it would only take a few minutes for the clothes to dry!! With the exception of this last week and next week. We have rain predicted for every day the next week and a half! The highs are in the lower 90’s and the lows are in the 70’s. As you know this is not usual for this area!! But a very welcome sight!

    • I don’t know of anyone in Texas who wouldn’t mind their clothes on the line getting wet if it was raining! I brought my clothes line to Texas when we moved from MO and back to MO when we moved from Texas. I’ve actually been surprised at how quickly the clothes dry here even with the horrible humidity. I suppose there are days when they would take forever to dry. If I put them on the line and they aren’t totally dry when I bring them in, I toss them in the dryer for a few minutes and, instead of 60 or 70 minutes, they’re good after about 10 minutes.

  3. Sheets always smelled so good and felt nice and crisp after drying out on the clothesline. But I didn’t like how towels felt, so I often threw them into the dryer for a few minutes just to soften them up. I no longer have a clothesline but not due to any local rules or ordinances. It’s mostly because our entire backyard is trees with no decent place to put a clothesline.

    • Vince feels the same way you do but I figure a towel off the line is better than body scrub with chemicals. I rub my arms and legs and they feel like I’ve used a scrub on them.

    • That’s funny. That was one of my chores too and I loved it and still do. 🙂

  5. I don’t have clotheslines, my yard is all shade. I used to have them, and I miss them. The only thing that goes in the dryer are towels, rags, socks and underwear. And socks and underwear only go in the dryer if they are washed in the same load as towels and rags. Right now I have two rugs drying on the front banister outside, which really faces the side yard and is hidden from public view by trees. Sheets go on the bed damp from the washer, I learned this trick from The Pioneer Woman. When I have the windows open, and the ceiling fan on, several times during the year the sheets still get that fresh smell like if they were hung outside.

    My mom hung clothes out to dry in the winter, but I’m sure it wasn’t the deep cold. The closes freeze dry, and the sheets get too hard to handle to get them back indoors. Honestly, if I had clothes lines, I likely wouldn’t use them from November – April, it’s too cold.

    I think my clothes last longer because they don’t go in the dryer.

    • Here in MO, we can get some really cold days/nights but there are almost always warm days here and there. I’ll put off doing the laundry til those warmer days, especially towels and jeans that take a long time to dry in the dryer but sometimes I do have to give up and use the dryer. I’m not going to risk going out and walking across ice in order to hang the clothes out. My mom tells about when my sister was an infant and I was 18 months old; dad was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood and she had to hang diapers out. She said they would freeze before she was finished hanging them. She didn’t have the luxury of using a dryer but today, we do so in those kinds of temps, I definitely use the dryer.

  6. I miss pegging the wash. We moved to a community where clothesline’s aren’t allowed, but there’s really no space anyway. There’s one neighbor who string a line in her garage opening. Not sure if there’s been complaints.

  7. I have been on a lot of different groups concerning clothes lines. Did you know there are state laws prohibiting HOAs from interfering in people wanting to put up clothes lines in quite a few states. I know in Texas you can put up a clothes line no matter what your HOA says. I am sure it is that way in quite a few other states–but the HOAs try their hardest to intimidate it’s members in thinking they can’t put a clothes line out. I for one use mine quite often. Like you said you can hide your undies where people can’t see them even in plain sight.

    • I did not know that. Thanks. I found this 2013 article that was interesting. Things may have changed since then. I didn’t spend a lot of time researching it.

  8. Living in a Baltimore row house, you could look down the alley and everybody’s laundry was on the line. Jammies undies slips brassieres diapers and all!! I do miss that, and the good smell. Sleep well on your nice clean sheets!!

  9. OK, I admit I just scrolled up to see if I could catch a glimps of your undies. I’m officially a pervert now.

    • I keep line #2 a bit looser than it needs to be and I always hang a couple of towels on each side of here I’m hanging undies so that causes the line to droop just a bit farther down than the other lines. Plus we’re on a hill and the two neighboring houses are a bit lower than we are so my private clothing is kept private but really – the people who might complain probably walk through the mall and gawk at Victoria’s Secret!

  10. You make a really good point. Yes, there are neighborhood councils and such that forbid clotheslines because they don’t look good. Global warming isn’t a good look either I suppose! I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and my Mom still talks about the incredible smell of freshly dried clothes being brought inside from the clothesline. I was surprised to learn that she dried clothing that way all year long. We are indeed spoiled rotten these days.

  11. Love, love, love hanging clothes and sheets out!! I wish someone could figure out how to bottle that smell!! Being in Michigan, I get excited when the weather cooperates in the winter for me to use the clothesline. And I do the same with undies….they go on the middle line! ??

    • Your weather is a whole lot different from mine so kudos to you for even thinking of hanging clothes out during the winter.

  12. I don’t even own a dryer if their not on the line they are on a rack inside,in Australia it is common to hang clothes out on the line most new houses have a clothes line installed as part of the building and those of us lucky enough to have some yard have a rotary clothes line some people even go searching for them as they are not so easy to buy theses days.we still get cold wet days by the dozen but clothes will still dry on a rack inside.especially i you have some sort of heating going.

    • Y’all have had so much rain – you must have had to get creative in drying some things! I am thankful I have a dryer for backup. I try to stay ahead of the laundry and not get to the point that I have to use the dryer but sometimes it happens.

      That’s very interesting that most new homes have clotheslines installed. The smaller, rotating type lines are fairly easy to find here but the heavy duty poles that are installed into concrete are very hard to find here. Our house in Kentucky had a clothesline with the heavy duty poles when we moved there but then when we moved to MO the first time, we could not find poles anywhere and Vince ended up having a welder make them for us. He dug them up and moved them to Texas, then when we moved back to MO, he dug them up and moved them again. I think he used about 6 bags of concrete on them here and said he’ll never move them again.

  13. I need to figure out where I can put one in our backyard! We feed a lot of birds and out back the yard is narrow. I sure don’t want the birds hanging around a clothesline! lol If I ever give up the garden that would be the perfect place. One of my sisters lives in California and her HOA even prohibits them from drying clothes on a line in the garage!! How crazy is that?!! I dry a lot of my clothes by hanging them on a rack in the guest room but it’s not the same as outside!

    • Cindy California is a right to dry state, meaning that you can have a clothes line no matter what an HOA states. If it were me I’d be challenging that. Just because you want to dry your clothes in the privacy of your own yard, or garage is horrible. I’d be a bit of a rebel if I were her. Just a thought. She might check into it a bit more. Especially since California is one of these that want everyone to go “green” per se’.

      • Thank you so much for mentioning that “right to dry” law! It makes no sense to me the push to go green and yet, something as simple as a clothes line is forbidden.

    • When we lived in MO the first time, we had mulberry trees and lived in town on a city sized lot. I knew I’d end up with mulberry stained clothes but it never happened, which was amazing considering the way the deck looked most of the time when mulberries were ripe.

      I do remember as a kid that mom had to re-wash some of the clothes due to bird droppings.

  14. My husband is on a committee going over the HOA rules & regulations. We had banned clotheslines, but California is, as Sibyl mentioned, a “right to” dry” state. The committee is trying to figure out how to keep “personal items” out of the front yard. There are probably some who would like clotheslines out of sight, but that’s not going to happen.

    When I heard this, I started thinking about where I want to put our line, but remembered that we get not just dust, but black pollution, and am unsure if I want to hang clothes out after all.

    • Yes, dust and black pollution would be a deterrent for me. My grandparents lived on a dusty, dirty road and never had a dryer so everything was hung out but that was life. They didn’t have a/c either so the windows stayed open and everything stayed dusty.

      Not that I have any input in the clothesline rules but I always feel less rules are better. You hope folks will use good judgment but we know that isn’t always the case. Really though . . who hasn’t seen the personal items? You can’t walk through a department store or a mall without seeing them so my thinking is .. why pretend they don’t exist?

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