Hanging Clothes

 

Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth.  One women's quest for a slower, simpler, more sustainable life.  The library's card catalog suggested this book when I was searching for something entirely different.  It sounded good, so I borrowed the book and took the next three weeks to read it!  I need to borrow and read it again sometime when I'm less distracted by life.  She had a lot of good thoughts on living and I would recommend the book to others.  The clutter parts though, ouch.  I have clutter.  I like my clutter, but I can and am going to try to do better.

I don't recall whether she suggests hanging ones clothes to dry or if reading her book made me think of it, but for the last month I've been hanging my laundry. I've been a clothes line hanger all of my childhood and my parents still hang their clothes out, so I knew what to expect. 

I have clothes line poles in the backyard, but they can't be used due to the new fence constructed last fall and the growth of trees.  There is a very small patch of grass that I could put a round type clothes line like either of these;

 

Picture from Homedepot.com

I have so many birds in the backyard, I'm thinking bird droppings might be an issue.  Another issue is that my backyard is one big chigger patch.  I'd have to spray with deet every time I went out.   Inside it is!  Someone suggested I not hang in the basement as that would add moisture to a space I'm trying to remove moisture from and I'm happy to not have to navigate the basement steps to hang clothes.

I'm using this hanger from Ikea:

 

It can lay like this or;

 

This works better for pants. I leave the clothespins attached. I set it up for clothes in the dining room and store it beside the washer in the utility room. 

I love it and the price was right.  You can find similar items for several dollars more that don't hold as much.  

A few things I've learned;

I am drying all my bedding in the clothes dryer.  If I had a clothes line like my parents (4 really long lines), I might dry them outside, but I'm not having them hang around inside and get dusty from the floor.

You can't build up several loads and expect to wash and dry them all on the same day. 

Yes, your clothes are stiff, but I only notice that when I first put them on.  All the clothes I'm wearing while I type this were "line" dried.  All and I don't feel any stiffness.

Bath mats can be dried for 10 minutes, then hung and will be as soft as if they dried the entire time in a dryer.

I am drying most of my work shirts.  I never could get all the fine wrinkles out when "line" drying them and I not about to take up ironing!  I used to dry everything for 50 minutes, but am experimenting whether I can dry for less than that, get most if not all the wrinkles out and finish drying the shirts on hangers.  

Those little bumps from hanging clothes on the dyer rack or by hanger are quickly removed with a little tap water sprinkled on them. Just remember to do that before you leave for work! 

Lay your socks on the dryer rack rather than hanging them with clothes pins.  

Cotton clothing is more linty line dried, especially t-shirts.  I'm experimenting with turning cotton clothing inside out to see if that helps.

Items line dried will also have more cat hair, but that's because Lyncoln thinks its his personal fort and loves sitting and/or lying underneath the hung clothes.

Its a two day activity.  Wash and hang day one, fold and store day two.  This bothered me at first, but doesn't any longer.  One must plan laundry around company though as you don't want your undies on display when someone arrives!  If you come over and I don't let you in, theres a good chance my clothes are on the drying rack in the dining room!  

I actually enjoy this process, it doesn't really add much time if any to the chore and I'm going to continue hanging my clothes to dry. I wouldn't recommend it if you had children.  How would you ever keep up, though I guess plenty of mothers managed before we had dryers.  If though you don't have children, I would definitely give this a try.  If not for all your laundry, for a load or two per week. You might find that you like it. 

Doing Laundry

For the first since moving out of my parent’s house, I have a washer and dryer!  Even better they’re on the main floor, the same floor my bedroom is on.  No more lugging laundry up and down a flight of stairs to/from the laundry mat in all kinds of weather.  No more having to check the machines for disgusting stuff from the previous user, making certain you have enough money and remembered to bring the laundry detergent.  Having your own washer and dryer is a luxury that should be appreciated.  While I’m so very happy to have my own washer and dryer, its taking some time to get used to it.  Some examples;

 

Nearly every load I have to stop the dryer immediately after starting and remove the lint from the previous load.  You don’t deal with the lint traps at the laundry mat and I forget to remove the lint before or after nearly every load I’ve washed!  

 

There is no reason to wash 4-6 loads at once and it takes a lot longer to do multiple loads at home than it did at the laundry mat! One washer, one dryer, not 4 washers and 4 dryers!  A recent Saturday morning I was cleaning, cooking and doing laundry.  It was a lot to do and I realized I hadn’t need to.  I could have done a load or two every couple of days and not had a bunch of laundry to do all at once as I did when washing clothes at the laundry mat.  

 

My washer is a top loader.  I like to start the washer, add detergent, let it fill up some and then add my clothes.  The washers at the laundry mat were front loaders and that wasn’t an option.  The other evening I started a load, added detergent and walked away.  50 min later I returned to move the load to the dryer and there wasn’t a load!  Just a tub full of sudsy water!  Oops!  This has happened several times. Sigh. 

 

Who knew I’d have to learn how to do laundry all over again!