Clothesline

[PotterWatch]

So I read in another thread about many people who use a clothesline. I have never had one but I plan on putting one up tomorrow. Anyone have any good tips about how to get the best results? Tricks on how to hang certain items of clothing or linens to get the least amount of wrinkles? Thanks for any advice!

 

[rebbetzin]

I have found to have less wrinkles, I use my clothes dryer for a few minutes. It takes out the worst wrinkes from the spin cycle. Then hang things up to finish drying.

Here in Tucson with temps being 100+ and windy, it takes less time to dry clothes on the line than it does in the dryer!

 

[Davaroo]

Attach the line to a screw hook by a short length of chain, like this:

line - - chain - - screw hook bolted/attached to cross beam.

Then, as the line stretches, you can take up links as needed to keep it taut.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

The best thing with a clothesline, is to have it long, and high

ours is a good 100ft long, at mounted from the top of the house, to the trunk of a large tree down in the valley by the neighbors fence.

 

[PAChickenChick]

My Mother swears by her "clothes prop" which is simply just a piece of wood with a "V" cut out of the top. When you hang a bunch of clothes and the line starts to sag in the middle you put the prop there. The clothes line goes into the "V" and it will lift the line up. The weight of the clothes keeps the piece of wood from falling too. This will keep your clothes from touching the ground.
Also, she hangs her shirts upside down. So instead of hanging them from the shoulders, she hangs them from where your waist is at. Strangely this helps with less wrinkles and makes folding them easier.
My Mother also swears by putting your whites out at night so that the morning dew will collect on them and then that acts like a whitener for them. I don't know if I buy that one or not

BTW...I love Elderoo's tip about the chainlink... It's hard to keep those lines taunt.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Since morning dew is just condensed water, I doubt it has any special whitening properties.

The sun shining on dewey white clothes might give the impression they are whiter, though.

Here are some tips:
To save on clothespins when hanging bath towels, overlap the corners of bath towels with one another and use one pin to secure the corners to the line. This works with most clothes, but towels are the easiest to learn with.

Hang matching socks together/near each other. When they're done drying, you can pull them off the line and fold them together.

Don't ever yank the clothespinned clothes from the line. This will send clothespins flying into the lawn, and dropped pins and lawnmowers don't mix well.

If you can find wooden clothespins, they work the best (at least in my experience). I prefer the ones that have metal springs; the U-shaped pins limit the size of the clothes that can be attached to the line.

Never hang clothes outdoors if a manure odor is wafting from a nearby farm. Your clothes will smell like manure.

Line-dried towels and jeans can be notoriously scratchy, probably because of the absence of fabric softener (dryer sheets). If you prefer a fluffy towel or softer jeans, make sure to use fabric softener in your washing water.

I think that's about it. You'll do your share of dropping towels into a freshly-cut lawn and having to shake grass clippings out of them until you get the hang of it.

 

[ChickieWhickie]

I can't think of any thing else to add to hanging clothes out. It is a great way to save money & keep the environment green. I think, more people should do it.

I do have to watch one of my roosters when he is in the yard. He likes to sit up there.

I live in the country but the town that is the county seat has a ordinance in part of the town that prohibits hanging clothes on the line. (Crazy) Of course, that is in the country club district. If you live in town, you might need to ask someone.

 

[punkin]

I have 3 retractable clotheslines on my deck. I can also hang clothes out on hangers in my breezeway. I hang out clothes all year long. Sometimes on winter mornings they will freeze before I am finished hanging them out. If it's sunny and 40 degrees or above, out they go. After they have been on the line, I bring them in and put them in the dryer on air only to pull the lint off.

 

[BearSwampChick]

I only have one suggestion: If you or any family members have bad pollen allergies, it's probably not a good idea to hang clothes out in pollen season.

 

[Silkie's Grandma]

Lots of great advice from everyone. (I want to add my 2 cents worth) I ALWAYS give shirts & pants a good shaking when I remove them from the line for folding. My reasoning is that I didn't do that before & got a nasty surprise 2 days after I removed & folded a pair of jeans from the line. There was a large hornet folded up into the leg of the jeans, I got stung twice before I got the jeans off - lesson learned there!