Despite today's temps in the 30's, you can tell here in southwestern Ohio that Spring is just around the corner. I expect within the next two weeks our temps will get up into the 50's and 60's, the buds on the trees will start pushing to open, and my daffodils and tulips will come up in all their glory.What else does Spring mean? It's almost time to start hanging out my laundry to dry.
My clothesline is one of those multi-line umbrella-type clotheslines and I can actually hang about 4 loads of clothes at a time on the lines. I was lucky enough to find the old style non-spring wooden clothespins at an estate sale, and that's what I use to hang the clothes. And the silly thing is? I love hanging clothes out to dry! I'm very systematic in the way I hang out clothes -- as I put them on the line, for example, I match socks up, so when I take them down I can simply fold them together and drop them in the basket. I hang all kitchen towels together, so when I bring the basket of dryed clothes into the house, I can drop off the kitchen items. I hang jeans upside down with their seams matched up, so they have a nice crease and are wrinkle free. I save a LOT of time by hanging out clothes as well. It often takes my dryer twice as long to dry a load of clothes as it does the washer to wash them, so I often end up waiting to put the next load of clothes in the dryer. With the clothesline I'm able to hang the clothes as soon as the washer is done, without waiting for a load to finish in the dryer.
We notice a dramatic decrease in our electric bill -- about 10% a month -- when I stop using the clothes dryer. That, by itself, makes it worthwhile.
I love how air-dryed clothes smell and feel. Towels are so much more absorbent after they are air-dryed! Sheets have that wonderful "crisp" feeling to them and just smell so good when you climb into bed at night. One of my fondest childhood memories is helping my grandmother bring in the clothes from her clothesline.
I did a little Internet searching and lo and behold, there is actually a web page called "Project Laundry List" and it originates in my home state of New Hampshire! And "National Hanging Out Day" is April 19th!
So almost Happy National Hanging Out Day, everyone. If you live in a situation where you can hang your clothes out to dry, I do hope you'll consider it!
3 comments:
I've always said that if I were a rich person I would instruct my maid to strip my bed EVERY day, wash the sheets and hang them out to dry so I could smell them every night when I go to bed.
I remember this also. Reading about it actually brought back the smell I remembered from bringing the clothes in with my mother. That smell can't be bottled! I also had a coal stove for heat, as a child, and after playing outside in the cold air, it was really great to stand next to that coal stove and warm up. Thanks for the memories. I also enjoy your blog. I have it bookmarked.
I can't wait to hang my clothes...I think I need to wait till the snow banks are gone from under them first though! I think I need to put up some more though...I just use clothes line rope strung from tree to tree and the guys tend to cut them down to use the rope for something else!
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