Clothes line question

[Grant Fan]

Hey ladies, my husband has finally caved and is going to put a clothes line in for me ( as most of my clothes get air dried) . Anyway is it best to put it in a place with a lot of sun? And do clothes pins leave dents or wrinkles in the clothes? If they do what should I use to hang them?

 

[LizzieMaine]

A lot of sun, and a bit of breeze -- don't put it right up against a wall where the air doesn't circulate. Also avoid putting in near trees or bushes that shed a lot of pollen.

Clothespins will leave a small dent, but you'll get rid of it when you iron your clothes. Keep in mind that clothespins weather with age -- when they start to look moldy or splintery, you should replace them. Likewise the clothesline rope itself -- run your hand over it now and then to be sure it's not getting dirty.

 

[lolly_loisides]

In regard to clothes pegs, I find the dolly pegs are the longest lasting. The wooden ones are good, but the plastic ones last alot longer. When I hang shirts to dry I put them on a coat hanger hanger & use a coathanger peg, the best thing about that is, no dents from the clothes pegs.

Here's a picture of my rotary clothesline, as you can see you need to keep the birds away when hanging out your clothes

 

[Doctor Strange]

If you are running your line across some distance, I strongly recommend using a taut-line hitch at one or both ends. This will allow you to tighten up the line as it wears, stretches, and sags without having to retie it. I did this when I set up a clothesline for my mom, and it worked beautifully for many years.

The taut-line hitch is nearly the only thing I learned as a Boy Scout back in the sixties that has proven continually useful! Greatest. Knot. Ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taut-line_hitch

 

[Sharpsburg]

, but you'll get rid of it when you iron your clothes.

When you what???? What's ironing?

 

[dhermann1]

Added bonus: the absolutely terrific smell that line dried clothes and sheets give off. Another added bonus: since it's the dryer that really wears out your clothes (check the lint trap) your clothes will last longer.

 

[olive bleu]

And for Pete's sake.... Make sure you learn the correct order in which clothes should be hung ..(Largest-smallest items, light to dark, etc) of course this can vary depending on your Geographic location, the alignment of the planets and the sheer lunacy of your neighbours...

 

[stevew443]

I always used these to keep the line taut Line tightener.

It is also nice to have a good stout pole... about 7 or 8 feet long to raise the center of the line into the breeze... that is if the line is a good long line.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And always hang your unmentionables on the middle rope, with the sheets in front of them and the towels in back, so your neighbors don't find out more about you than you want them to know.

 

[dhermann1]

I can see it now. "Artisinal clothes washing", with clothes expertly dried on a clothes line, instead of a dryer. It'll cost you extra.

 

[fortworthgal]

I use a clothesline for most of our drying, and I love it! I grew up with a long t-post clothesline. I didn't have a dryer until I moved out on my own at 18. Now I have an umbrella-style line in our backyard, and the line is woven through the end poles, so you can tighten it as needed. It is in a sunny spot, and in all the years I've been hanging laundry, I have never once had bird poop on my laundry. And I live in grackle country! :laugh: The best part is during our Texas summers I can hang a load out and have it dry sometimes in 20-30 minutes. It is such a huge money saver for our electric bills, too.

I use the wooden clip type pins rather than the dolly pegs. They can leave a small indentation, but for most garments, it really doesn't matter. For shirts, I hang them up by the bottom hem rather than the shoulders or sleeves. Socks, I hang by the toe. For heavy things like jeans, I hang from the bottom hem, so the heaviest portion is fully exposed to the breeze & not folded over on the line where it will stay damp. I always hang unmentionables on the inner lines, behind sheets or towels, so they aren't visible.

There's nothing better in the world than line-dried sheets!

If you aren't used to line-dried clothes, towels & jeans will probably be take some getting used to. My husband didn't grow up with a clothesline, and he complains sometimes about "crunchy" stiff jeans & towels. Lots of solutions online suggest using less soap, adding vinegar to the rinse cycle, etc. Well, I'm here to tell you none of that stuff actually works. :laugh: The *only* thing I found that will reduce the crunchiness is to toss the garments in the dryer on the fluff/air cycle for about 10 minutes with either a tennis ball or a rubber spiked dryer ball, to break up the fibers.

Also, I have more lint on my clothing (especially anything black) when I'm not using my dryer. T-shirts and some cotton items that tend to stretch while worn will not spring back to shape when line-dried vs the dryer. I notice that my t-shirts seem larger & stretched out when I line dry. Don't get me wrong, I love my clothesline & use it all the time. I'm just saying if you've never line-dried before, you will notice some differences.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you aren't used to line-dried clothes, towels & jeans will probably be take some getting used to. My husband didn't grow up with a clothesline, and he complains sometimes about "crunchy" stiff jeans & towels. Lots of solutions online suggest using less soap, adding vinegar to the rinse cycle, etc. Well, I'm here to tell you none of that stuff actually works. :laugh: The *only* thing I found that will reduce the crunchiness is to toss the garments in the dryer on the fluff/air cycle for about 10 minutes with either a tennis ball or a rubber spiked dryer ball, to break up the fibers.

The traditional method for doing this is to snap the towel or garment in the air a few times after you take it off the clothesline but before you drop it into the basket. Just take it by one end and give it a series of good sharp cracks before you fold it.

 

[Idledame]

My mother always wiped all the lines clean with a rag before hanging anything. Then that rag went into the next load of wash. She also recycled water into a deep sink next to the washer. One load's rinse water became the next load's wash water. So her first load was delicates and last load was levis. And this was in the '50s. Oh, and she always used one clothes pin for two items: so the left side of one sheet overlapped the right side of the next sheet and only needed one clothespin. We also had an umbrella type clothes line that came with a cover to turn it into an umbrella for entertaining.

 

[Idledame]

Oh that's right Lizzie! Only we snapped items before hanging so they would dry with fewer wrinkles.

 

[fortworthgal]

The traditional method for doing this is to snap the towel or garment in the air a few times after you take it off the clothesline but before you drop it into the basket. Just take it by one end and give it a series of good sharp cracks before you fold it.

Yup, tried that too. That didn't seem to do the trick either. Maybe our towels are too thick? I've noticed when I wash thinner towels, I don't have the crunch issue. It only seems to happen with very heavy weight cotton garments like heavy jeans or thick fluffy towels. I do snap my wet laundry before hanging though, to get the wrinkles out, as Idledame posted.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It almost sounds like you aren't getting enough water extracted from those items --- that's the sort of item I'd run thru the wringer three or four times before hanging them out.

 

[3fingers]

If your water is very hard, the minerals in it will also cause the stiff and crunchy problem. Snapping will help, as will tumbling it in the drier for a bit, but short of getting a water softener, some of it you just have to live with.

 

[Grant Fan]

I do hand thing all over the laundry room to cry and on a small drying rack now. My jeans only come out stiff if my husband put the load in and forgot fabric softener. As for my under garments those will be getting dried inside. But I did not realize there were so may different ways to put clothes out to dry. bedding will still be going in the dryer( we have energy efficient washer and dryer so I am not too worried about that.) I just don't like to dry my clothes in the machine because I am tall and I swear it makes everything loose and inch or two in length.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If your water is very hard, the minerals in it will also cause the stiff and crunchy problem. Snapping will help, as will tumbling it in the drier for a bit, but short of getting a water softener, some of it you just have to live with.

Short of getting a water softener, add a quarter-cup of sal soda to the wash water at the same time you add the soap -- that will make a *big* difference.

 

[lareine]

This thread is fascinating - it never crossed my mind until recent years (when it became possible to "meet" so many people from all over the world on the internet) that drying clothes on the line could possibly be unusual or something that needed to be learnt as an adult. Of course now I know that it's not the norm for some places and here we get threads like this!

I've found that my clothes-drying behaviour has needed to change when I've moved house. When I lived near an airport, the line had to be wiped clean regularly because there were so many smuts in the air, and I couldn't leave whites out for long or they started to look grubby. Now that I live in New Zealand, the sun here is so strong that I can't leave darks out for long or they start to fade! I've always wanted my clothes line to be out in the open, but now I'd prefer one that is in a covered area so the clothes stay dark longer. And wooden pegs last much longer here than the plastic ones I brought with me from Ireland (which of course wouldn't have the required UV resistance as Ireland has so much less sunshine).

There definitely is a bit of an art to getting it all right