When did they ban hanging your clothes out there? I grew up in Toronto lived there until I was 30 and religiously hung my cloths out. I wouldn't have stopped for some stupid ban. I couldn't afford a drier!

GGG

All of the neighborhoods here that have covenants prohibit outdoor clothes lines. The HOAs everywhere here used to prohibit solar panels, but NC legislation changed that so that anyone can install them, regardless of neighborhood covenants. Hopefully, they'll intervene on this to allow clothes lines...and allow rainbarrels. Ours are hidden from view so that our neighbors can't see them.

I celebrated Earth Day by hanging out the wash, the sun co-operated and it was almost warm. There was a gently breeze and everything dried quickly. This was the first time this year I've been able to do this, it was so nice taking in all the fresh smelling laundry, there's nothing like it. Thank goodness we live in an area of the city where clotheslines are still allowed.

Annette

Ban clothes lines, that is REDICULOUS! We have a solar drier. I have only used an electric drier a few times our whole 39 years together, and that was because we found an apt. sized washer/dryer stacked combo. We did not like the way the electric meter was spinning around when the drier was on, quit using it. I love the way the laundry smells and enjoy hanging out the laundry and bringing it in. Ours is one of those twirl-around jobs on a pole.

FlowerLady

I do have an outside clothes line, and on rainy days or in winter I use a very large (ancient)clothes rack inside as well as lines in the basement.

My grandmother's laundry line was always hung out just so, with certain things hung on certain lines. (she did teach me the "order" of things, but sad to say I can't remember what it was). But I do always hang all the socks together!lol

I think a clean line of wash, dancing in the breeze can look quite charming.
Patti

Good on the Ontario goverment! I think it's a great step forward. What ever happened to live and let live anyway?

I thought it kind of funny that this discussion came up today. The Rancher and I are planning to build a set of clothesline poles this weekend. Now I need to make a clothespin bag ;) I've wanted them since I moved out here to the ranch. I can remember helping my grandmother wash clothes in a ringer washer that was kept in her kitchen. Then we carried out the laundry in actual wooden bushel baskets. Her clothesline had 8 wires on it instead of the usual four or five lines and it had to be every bit of 30 feet long. She did raise 10 kids so I suppose she need a mongo clothesline. She did her laundry once a week on a Monday...just like the dish towels told her do. Ha!

MeMo

Here is a link that might be useful: Quilted Hills Blog

Me, too, Memo, I used to hang out with my grandmother as she worked her wringer washer. The washer was in a corner of the sun porch. She had an enclosed garden in the back, which was lush with grass and blooming vines. She had to carry her laundry basket down a flight of steps to get to the outdoor clothesline. She hung the laundry on lines strung across the sun porch in winter. That was Salem, Massachusetts in the early 50s. Remember the metal frames people used to use for line drying jeans?

I bought a free-standing wringer a few years ago to wring out bulky hand-washed items. It takes serious muscle power to operate the wringer, and one has to feed the items through just so!

I'm not all that good about hanging my laundry in order. But I do take it down in order. I fold everything as I take it down. I can admire my trees, the flocks of birds which live on my property and the view of the mountains as I work.

There is a raven who visits with me whenever I am outdoors. He spends a lot of his time hanging out on a telephone pole near the entrance to my property. He makes his presence known, whenever he sees me. I always talk to him. He seems to enjoy the interaction. I definitely do.

I have a laundry tip. Commercial fabric softeners leave a residue which makes towels less absorbent. One can use white vinegar as a fabric softener, deodorizer, or degreaser. If one has hard water, the vinegar has the additional benefit of helping to keep hoses and pipes free of mineral deposits. I also use white vinegar to kill tough desert grass which pops up in an area of my gravel driveway. If purchased in gallon size containers, white vinegar is relatively inexpensive.

Lorna

MeMo - a 4 l. berry basket makes a great clothes pin holder. I just drilled holes into the bottom for the rain-water. My Mum had a great 4 line clothes dryer my Dad made for her. I just remember being too little to help, and going between the lines of sheets - magic. And this weekend I will take a picture of my clothes basket. 8D

Lorna - I also remember the wooden molds(?) for the wool socks!!! as well at the frames that my Dad's work pants went onto. My Mum had an old Bendix in the basement - the original front loader - I remember the great disasters when it quit, full of laundry and water! Fortunately, it was right next to the sump hole. She also had lines strung in the basement rafters. The ironing board was down there - who remembers ironing with a tailor's ham, and a old-time steam iron, that was only good for your wool skirts/pants??

Wow, what memories!!!

Thanks All, Nancy.

Nancy, I don't know what a tailor's ham is, but I remember using an iron which did not hold water (did not create steam). Mom used to dampen clothing to be ironed, and put it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until she was ready to get the ironing done. She also had a sprinkling bottle for dampening clothes as she ironed. There weren't any plastic spray bottles in those days. And, those old irons weighed heavy! We have seen a lot of changes in our lifetimes, haven't we?!

When we moved to Idaho in the late 50s, my mother got a front loading combo washer/dryer. She was in Seventh Heaven! Even when she had her new dryer, for many years she insisted upon hanging white sheets out overnight during a full moon. She claimed the moon brightened her sheets!!

Lorna

Lorna - I remember pop bottles, with those plastic snap lids that my Mum had poked holes into as her sprinkle bottle. I just remembered the plastic bag that the sprinkled items in to put in the fridge, if she was out of time.

Memo - you'll love this!!'
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When it was my Mum's, it was lined with pretty quilted plastic - I'm not that ambitious!!

We have one of those twirl around poles like Flower Lady's. It fits into a pipe in the ground.
We take it up when the clothes are dry and store it in the tool shed; it folds kind of like an umbrella.
I keep my clothes pins in a coffee can.

I'm afraid we would never 'fit in' where there was an HOA. We have ambitious projects sometimes.
Nell

I have two retractable clothes lines which are hooked to my pergola on either side of the gravel path which leads to the pool room. When I want to use them I pull out the line and hook the ends to top of the lattice walls of this pool room. I do have a pole which I can use to lift the line up in the middle when hanging either long of heavy items, when not in use they're retracted, in the winter they're taken down and stored inside....Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Retractable clothesline

Nell ~ We also have ambitious projects at times. Would not DO in an HOA environment that's for sure. It would be awful to be told what you can or can't do all the time, because some of their rules are just plain crazy! Ok I'll get off my little soap sud box. My clothespins are in basket with a handle I found curbside shopping a few years back. I used to have one of those bags that hang on the line but it was a pain to get the pins out of all the time and finally it fell apart.

FlowerLady

Oh my goodness, I remember those frames for drying pants!
I'm living in the house I grew up in and wouldn't be surprised if they are still in the basement someplace.

I would love to find my grandmother's laundry sprinkler. The red sprinkler top had a cork on the end that fit into a little glass bottle which was hand-painted black with a little Pennsylvania Dutch-type heart design on it. I need to ask Mumsie today if she still has it!

Thanks for the memories, everyone.