Some old fashioned housekeeping - hanging the laundry

In the first house I owned, we inherited a washing machine with the house but not a dryer. While we were there, we hung the clothes on lines in the basement. Particularly with the dress shirts, it was a good way to dry things. Hanging them on hangers decreased the ironing. However, I appreciated the dryer in our next house. At first, it was located under the thermostat. If I used the dryer in the winter, the house would get quite cold. When we did some remodeling, we fixed that issue. For the next few years, I used the dryer for most of my laundry.I bought one drying rack for occasional use and for things that need to avoid the dryer like sweaters.

Fast forward to about 2006. We now have the Internet. I can find people who are interested in the same retro things I am. My local paper has a weekly section on homemade, organic and other such things. I learned how to make my own laundry detergent (that has saved quite a lot of money over the past 8 years.) I reconsider the dryer as I read about how much easier it is on the clothes to air dry them. Ikea opens near us in Utah. I find this great rack. It holds an entire load of laundry for me. So I start drying most of the laundry on the racks. In the summer, they are on the patio. In the winter, they are in the entry way from the patio in the basement.

When we moved to Arizona, I bought a clothes line. It is the umbrella kind because the CC&Rs for our association say that a line is fine if it is not visible from the street. Ours is hiding behind a tree. I didn't bury it in a nice hole though, but put it in an umbrella stand. I have had to weight it down with heavy stuff because, when the wind blows here, it really blows. Once two years ago, it blew down the line (laden with clothes) and bent one of the arms. This week, that weakened arm finally gave out, so I have purchased another one.

I do two or three loads of laundry per week and almost all of it ends up on the line outside for about 8 months of the year. In the winter, I still use the racks. Or, if monsoons threaten, again I use the racks. The dryer gets used for 15 minutes to fluff the towels before I hang them. When I do that, they don't get all stiff. The Pro likes stiff, but I do not.

This is the load of towels from this week, not quite a full load. If you're wondering why they are doubled over, I used to hang them from the top, but they start to shift out of shape. When I fold them over this way, they don't change shape. Shirts still go on hangers, sometimes in the laundry room, sometimes on the line. That is dictated by wind (we had gusts of 50 mph this week). I have the lovely old-fashioned wooden clothes pins.

This new line is different than the old one in that the height is adjustable. I  sawed 4 inches off the  pole to make it lower on the old one. For this one, I only have to lock the upper portion four inches down the pole from the top. This means when my shorter daughter visits, we can lower it so she can use the upper lines. I still have to stretch for those, so I may lower it again.

So, laundry for me is a combination of modern and historical. I use a washing machine but make my own detergent. I don't usually use a dryer. The clothes get clean and they last a very long time. Yes, the sun can do some bleaching, so I make sure to bring in the bright colors when they are dry and not leave them hanging in the sun all day. I find I really enjoy the 10 minutes or so that it takes to hang one load of clothes. I am out in the sun enjoying the fresh air. It is almost relaxing. And most of the time, the clothes smell so nice. Even when we have high pollen counts, I still hang them, but inside on the racks. It is a link to the past that I truly enjoy.