Yep, it was me. And I've continued to think about it.

Mine is in the back end of my yard, not close to the house, and runs east to west. That's were the trees were. That means when the wind blows it comes from the south and nearly rips my laundry off the clothesline. The sheets and shirts act just like sails and I fear they will end up on my neighbors roof or somewhere beyond to the north.

I'm going to screw a sturdy eyehook into the overhang of my roof outside my back door then string clothesline from one of the trees to the eyehook then back to the other tree. That way the line will run north to south and the south wind won't hit the laundry at such an extreme angle.

You mentioned the droopy line when loaded with clothes. I've been thinking about making wooden, what we always called, wash props, for sale through the coop. I'm needing a way to make some extra money since I'm on a fixed income which hasn't changed much in the last even years.

What do you all think about the wash prop idea? I've found them on the internet but made of aluminum and telescoping in design, not wood, and they cost a fortune due to the price of metals on the world market these days. Wash props seem to be much more popular in Europe than in the US.

Another thing I learned about hanging wash is just how weak my shoulder muscles are. I think that's why we used wash props. My mom is short as many women are. It's easier to put the clothes on the line when it's drooping then use the wash props to lift the clothes higher and keep them up and from dragging on the ground.

Hank

Your rope will stretch quite a bit and get pretty droopy. You could look at using a small turnbuckle on one end to keep it tight. But that would mean screwing it into something. The turnbuckle will take out an amazing amount of slack, or deflection as it's known in engineeringville.

Will it hurt the tree if I screw it into the tree?

I use a clothesline made of insulated copper wire (#12 solid is the size, with insulation it shouldn't heat up too much). If you wrap the wire around the trees, you can use pliers to tighten the wire around itself to make a strong, taut line. You could always loosen and adjust the wire if it began to cut into the tree bark. The only other potential hazards are decapitation from speedy riding lawnmowing or the rare act of God lightening strike. The wire can be purchased by the foot at most hardware stores.

As a side note and to delete this from the off topic category, Insulated wire is also a good application for climbing vines. This year, I've use it to support some carolina jasmine and need to use it on my morning glories (they are busting out in search of anything to climb). It is far more malleable than the traditional trellis or wire fencing. My plan for the morning glories is to radiate the wire from a trellis to some nearby overhanging limbs.

When i was little, my grandmother who was 5'tall had a clothesline prop that was a two by four with a long nail in one end and the nail was bent upward to prop up the middle of the line.
vickie

When I was a child, we had the kind of clothesline that had metal T-posts made of something like 3" steel pipes. The poles were probably 5 or 5&1/2 feet tall. It had two heavy wire clothes lines that were made of a really thick gauge of wire....similar to the really heavy wire clothes hangers you used to get from the dry cleaners in the 1960s, and not the lighter wire clothes hangers that are used today. I suppose it must have been galvanized wire or something because it didn't rust.

I love hanging clothes out to dry and don't have a clothesline here. I wish I did.

Dawn

Hey, what a concept. I'd love to hang out the wash to dry naturally. I recall the same thing, Dawn. Our clotheslines were all made of that same heavy duty wire as in the durable hangars, strung between the T-posts (larger than the 3", though) and cemented into the ground. I wouldn't want to go to all that trouble (since I'd be doing it myself).

I would be afraid of the same thing - choking myself as I got thru the yard and forgetting it was there.

I do have a portion of my deck that is covered, and I had thought about doing the screw-in hooks and stringing wire from north to south in several locations underneath it. It is constructed of pressure-treated lumbar (the deck posts and ceiling beams) with a typical metal carport-style roof. But, underneath that, the clothes would be more protected from the elements (like bird poop!). There are already some deck screws in place underneath and I hand my window blinds on them to dry.

Susan

If you've ever tried to remove one of those T-posts, they are usually really in the ground good. But they have an amazingly high amount of force on them, especially with the wet clothes.

That heavy wire is fence wire which you can still buy, usually on a 1/4 mile spool. Probably a tad more than what you would need unless you were making an exceptional clothes line! :)

We have a retractable clothes line that we use under our carport. It is screwed to a post, then the rope goes down to another post, or two or three. When company comes over we can retract it back. It works much better than I thought it would.

Skeeter,

Thanks for the info on the wire. Now, if only I can get a friend of ours who is a welder to make me those iron pipe T-posts for me, then I could have a clothesline like the one I remember from my youth.

I know that ours was in the ground really well, because when Daddy finally took it out of the ground, it was deeply anchored in huge chunks of concrete. I also remember that my two brothers and their friends used to climb up on the t-posts and sit on the crossbars.

Dawn

Thanks for the copper wire suggestion, snowbishop. That may be the best bet. The T-posts you guys are discussing are what I have always had before in the yards of various rent houses built in the 50s probably. Susan, I have been using rope strung across my deck, and you are right that it works well to keep the bird poop off and also allows hanging clothes even when it's raining, but I finally decided it was just too much clutter on my deck.

Skeeter, I have seen those retractable lines and wondered if they worked. That's another possibility. I could even do that on the deck keep it put away when I'm not using it to eliminate clutter.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

Dawn, there is someone who makes those T posts to order via the food coop although it is a bit expensive. See http://www.oklahomafood.coop/shop/prdcr_categories.php?producer_id=TABTO
It's the gals husband who makes them. She is a board member of the coop and is sort of in your neck of the woods, south of OKC and a real life homesteader, as much as one can be these days. I'm sure you two would really hit it off.

I tend to do laundry towards evening so often I hang mine to dry in my garage. Works for me though not as fast drying as outside.

What's this I see today, clouds?

Hank

Must be your imagination, Hank. LOL!

OKPrairie - I'm lucky because I have a four-level deck and only one level is covered. So, I could use that and still have plenty of deck space. We never use the covered part anyway. Deck, who has time to sit on the deck? Whenever I go outside, I tell myself I'm just going to sit and enjoy the yard. Ha! I sit for a couple seconds and see something I need to tend to.

Susan

Four levels. Wow. That must be a huge deck. I do enjoy mine. I sit out there every morning and drink my coffee - watch the hummingbirds and the birds visiting the bird feeder out in the yard or the fish in my little pond, which is adjacent to the deck. Sometimes I see the raccoons meandering in. I hate those raccoons, but they are so beautiful. Then I remember I have to go to work. On the weekends it's harder to sit still because I do think of all the things I need to do out there.

This weekend I moved the clothesline so that one end is tied to one of the hackberries and the other to the corner of the deck. Still droopy, but more in the sun and out from under the birds. I only use if for a few things that I don't like to put in the dryer, but if I could figure out how to keep it taut I might hang more things out there.

I live in a neighborhood association in Tulsa, and we have a no clothes line policy. :(

As soon as my privacy fence went up I strung a clothes line. :)

Mine is tied between two trees, and I put some of that foam pipe insulation between the tree and the line. I used vinyl covered wire, bought at the hardware store.

I managed to tie mine off tight enough to keep it from sagging.

Most of my laundry never sees the inside of a dryer... solar drying is just so much cheaper... and greener, and the clothes smell good on top of all that.

Moni

great suggestion, Moni. I love the way they smell, too. I used to always hang my sheets, at least, because of the way it makes them smell. How did you get it tight enough? I am completely ignorant about such things, so don't assume I know anything.

Moni,

You ever consider asking the homeowners association to set up a committee to work on going 'green'?

If your neighborhood supported 'green' you could even have a big vegetable garden instead of a front lawn. LOL

Really though, forbidding clotheslines!?! Do they allow antenaes or satelite dishes?

Hank

I've been busy. This is the BEST cycling weather right now, and I am an avid bicyclist first, master gardener second, cook third, knitter fourth and then I do all kinds of other things on the side.

I just pulled my wire as tight as possible while tying it, and so far so good. Hank, I do grow veggies, lots of them some years (not this one I must confess). Mine get a place of honor in the flower beds. Just imagine the beautiful yellow flowers of okra mixed in a flower border, or tomato and pepper plants between some cannas!

I also have compost piles and bird houses and humming bird feeders in my yard. The critters I don't like here are the bunnies. Plenty of them eat off my beans and bean related plants every year, and this year I didn't get any caster bean plants cause of them.

I have laundry hanging out there right now. :)

Moni

I really lucked out -- twice! I bought a good set of clothesline poles at a garage sale years and years ago when dh and I were young. DH dug a hole for each one with a post-hole digger, poured concrete in and voila! I had a wonderful 4-line clothesline. And yes, we bought that heavy galvanized clothesline wire. I think you can still buy it at Atwood's.

Then we moved. Oh, how I MISSED my clothesline! As it happened, we ran into one of our old neighbors who happened to mention all the changes the people who bought our house were making, and one of them was that they dug up my clothesline poles (and SOB! cut down my wonderful apple tree!) He went back home, asked his new neighbor for the poles, threw them in back of his truck, and brought them over!

In the UK most people have rotary clothes lines. I have had one all my married life (32 years)including a time with 2 babies both in diapers. You make a hole in the lawn or preferably patio/decking (clothes dry quicker than on the grass way because of heat reflection)- which is obviously less straightford but worth it, insert the tube included with the dryer & pop end of dryer in. Dryer is then removable if you have visitors & want to look posh. I have a neat cover for mine which pops over the top when it's folded & keeps it dry & safe from children.

I am not very tall - 5'3" & whole system could not be simpler.

The dryer spins round when windy getting clothes nice & dry & you can dry a heck of a lot at anyone time. Last weekend I dried 2 washing loads at once, although it was 40 degrees F but windy so laundry, including towels got nearly dry & I now have quite a small version of the dryer.Just popped some laundry in the dryer to finish off. The shirts soon dryed indoors on hangers & did not need ironing.

PS I use plastic pegs which do not mark. I have a lot of birds in my back yard & encourage them with a bird feeder but any bird droppings on laundry vvvv rare as they do not seem to like perching on the rotary dryer.