skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Clothes Lines
On the way home from work today, I was listening to Marketplace on NPR and heard a story about line-drying clothes. I was rather horrified to hear someone from near Baltimore saying that she didn't like clothes lines because they look low class! I couldn't believe my ears. Doesn't she realize that about 90% of the world's population has never even seen a tumble drier? 
Neither of the houses where I lived in the UK had clothes driers, and it was hard for me to get used to air dried clothes, but eventually I did. The boarding school where I worked had large airing rooms for the students to dry their clothes. The castle up the road from school, where friends lived, had an area near the kitchen garden for the clothes line. 
Parisians send their heirloom linen table clothes and napkins to special fields to be air- and sun-dried. The chlorophyll imparts a special whiteness to the fabrics. When you air dry linens, they won't need to be starched, as the air drying will have done it.
As a child, I remember playing in the sheets hanging in the fresh air to dry and making tents with my sisters. At my old house in Baltimore, I had a great clothesline, and some of the neighbouring houses even had old pulley and post systems, so the women could stand at the back door and pull the line in and out. I wish I had a clothes line here, but there's no place to anchor it.
What do you think of this debate? Should neighbourhood associations be allowed to dictate whether people can line dry their clothes? Do you use a tumble drier or hang your clothes outside?
I just ordered a solar array for my cabin. I can run a vacume, washer, fridge, tv, computers...but they told me a clothes dryer was not an option - that's how much power they suck. As long as the clothes line is in the back yard it's crazy that there are neighborhoods that forbid them...the woman that doesn't like them probably drives a giant SUV, she's never going to "get it".
ReplyDeleteIts a dated classism. The old tenements had everything strung all over, and so people associated it with poverty/low class and rushed to buy dryers to prove they weren't. I've been planning on actually putting a clothes line in, because I love the way outside aired clothes smell. And its better for the environment, which means those neighborhood contract will need to be rewritten.
ReplyDeleteI remember the clothes line at my Grandmother's house and helping her hang sheets. I loved trying to get everything straight. Not easy for a 5 year old. I wish I could put one in but unfortunately in my township they are not allowed. Maybe with the green movement going on this will change. MB
ReplyDeleteI too remember the clothesline at my Grandmother's house. Whenever I stayed we did the laundry together. She taught me an appreciation for hanging clothes to dry. There is nothing better than crawling between sheets that have been dried by the sun. They have such a crisp feel and smell.
ReplyDeleteI hung a clothes line two years ago and I found that I am not disciplined enough to use one as I don't get the laundry out of the washer early enough to dry by evening but someday I'll try again. The children did love it for tents.
In this 'green time' it seems that an outdoor clothes line would be embraced. The towels in my dryer take just as long to dry there as they would on the line and it uses so much more energy. I'm all for clothes lines.
There is a clothes line in my back yard which was there when we bought the house. I use it for drying vintage linens, fabric yardage & hanging stuff to be aired out. I never had one before but now I'm glad I have one. I think it's old-school yet useful at the same time, two of my favorite qualities..I guess it could look "low class" if there are say, really cheap, tacky sheets hung on them.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel very bad if I have to resort to the clothes drier and feel duty bound to use the washing line as much as possible, even if it means (shock horror) leaving out the laundry overnight. Why waste valuable resources (sun and wind power, not to mention the electricity)? Sometimes I will just finish things off in the drier if the weather forecast is poor, but I hate doing so. I love the smell of line-dried clothes, too, and the sun provides chemical-free bleaching and stain removal in some cases. If I'm being low-class, I don't care. There's more important things in life....
ReplyDeleteMy grandmpother always hung her clothes out to dry. You just can't get that lovely smell from anything else. As soon as we bought our first house I got a clothes line set up and since moving, I've continued to hang my sheets and towels and anything else that needs drying out on the line. Both neighborhoods that we've lived in here in Delaware are older (built in the 50s-60s)so back yard plantings are mature and provide privacy, but I know that some of the newer developements going up (where every inch of everyone's yard is visable) have strict rules against clothes lines.
ReplyDeleteI think it's ridiculous that people are complaining about it looking low class when we're in the midst of an energy crisis. Insane.
ReplyDeleteShelly... I have to admit, the second thing that came into my mind about that woman was that she probably drives some huge SUV to haul around her one child. It's a very nouveau riche area.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing was what an appalling thing to say about people who are trying to be energy and cost conscious.
It's interesting that people remember their grandmothers hanging laundry to dry, but by the next generation, we'd moved to tumble driers.
ReplyDeleteI recently put up a clothesline and am loving. I recently posted about it on my blog. It is the green thing to do and ever so satisfying. The clothes smell better, the sheets don't need ironing, items that need mending are more easily identified, and the line-dried towels feel like a loofa rubdown at the spa. I can't ever remember having an automatic dryer in my childhood home. I am now hunting everywhere for a vintage clothespin bag full of old pins. The new ones just aren't the same!
ReplyDeletehttp://contentinacottage.blogspot.com/
Well, what looks "low class" is the way some people have set up their clotheslines!
ReplyDeleteI too was brought up (in Portugal) on air dried laundry. Even all the years I lived in London, I dried my laundry on a rack either outside, or inside by a heater. Now that I live in the USA, and even though it is convenient in the winter or if you're in a rush - the truth is it is a waste of energy and electricity, not to mention that it's a slow killer of your clothing.
I actually quite enjoy putting my laundry out to dry on the line and smelling it whenever I go outside and near the line.
Like Rosemary, we too had to hunt for clothespins. Eventually we found them on Ebay, American made wood pins, as opposed to the Chinese made plastic pins (we refuse to buy anything made in China).
As for the way it looks, there are ways of having outdoors clotheslines without looking trashy! Here is some enlightenment:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/clotheslines_hu.php
I love clothes lines and clothes pins! Bring them back, please. The smell of freshly-laundered and aired linens will make one sleep like a baby, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy you posted on this important matter. One of my favourite architectural features ever is at a finely restored 17th-century house in Connecticut, owned by a friend. Not far from the house, just past the pool, she had built a beautifully fenced drying yard. A six-foot-tall wood wall of vertical tongue-and-groove planks (stained darkest brown) surround a large rectangle of grass, in which have been planted several pairs of beautifully crafted wood poles with decorative finials (again, all stained darkest brown). Between these hang the very taut clotheslines. One day I plan on copying this at my country house, where, alas, the clothesline is attached to a large tree at one end and a swingset at the other. (Oh, please, how trailer park is that?)
ReplyDeleteAL... with my 12x12 cee-ment back yard, I'd really look low class with a clothes-line strung across it! At least people are making the effort!
ReplyDeleteWhoever that was who said clothes lines look low class possibly has some issues with class insecurity.
ReplyDeletei love the idea, but the practicality of such a thing in los angeles kind of skeeves me out- the particulates of car exhaust and tire rubber that are deposited on my windowsills are gross enough, but to walk around all day in them or sleep in them, is somthing i just can't stomach.
ReplyDeleteoh, don't get me wrong- i'm aware that i'm basically doing it anyway (shudder to think of my lungs) but i guess it's my form of denial to not go that extra step with a clothesline...
M21... that is so funny! Of course, LA is nearly as smoggy as Beijing, isn't it? :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult here in the city as m21 points out. There is a fine layer over my front porch of black soot form the car exhaust.
ReplyDeleteBeau Brummel was said to have sent his linens to the country, at great expense, to be line dried in the fresh air.
I make do by hanging my bed linens from the balustrade and letting them drip dry onto the ground floor. Very crisp results.
But I miss that basket of wooden clothes pins.
Here in the DC metro area, there are many HOAs and neighborhoods that don't allow clotheslines due to concerns of lowered property values. We wouldn't want others to think that poor/working class people who can't afford automatic dryers live here. That sort of thing. I think it's silly especially in this day and age of energy conservation.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing better than the smell of laundry taken off the clothesline. I have heard of some places banning it. It is incredible! Line drying is a great way to save energy and cut down on the electric bill. When you go to Europe one of the most charming sights are all the clotheslines everywhere. I line dry my laundry all the time. Mmmmmmm it smells so nice...
ReplyDeleteN one wants to see a big woman's big underwear. Sorry, Pig Town.
ReplyDeleteI just love my clothesline and posted about it on Earth Day - one of things I longed for when I lived in nyc was a clothes line - nothing better than the smell of fresh laundry dried in the open air - the french often put their linens on fields of lavender. Sun does a great job of whitening too
ReplyDeleteI love how sheets smell when they are line dried! When I had a (in Germany and in NC) I always hung my duvet, sheets and pillows to air on it. The lovely scent always made me sleep deeper.
ReplyDeleteCharming photos... almost makes me want to wash laundry and hang it on a line... let the laundry dry with the gentle fresh air breezes...LOL
ReplyDeleteI love that last picture. Did you notice the oriental figurines on the mantel? Myself, I don't have many wonderful memories of things drying in the open air. Now, if you want to talk about ironing. Then yes!!! I have great memories of my housekeeper letting me iron my father's hankerchiefs.
ReplyDeleteMeg -- what a though provoking, original post. You've given me something new to ponder.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by Aesthete's description!
The next time I am in Connecticut I shall snap a photograph. The drying yard really is quite beautiful and marvelously crafted.
ReplyDeleteAL - please do! I am having a hard time picturing this, and I know when I see it, I'll understand!
ReplyDeleteLove clotheslines - when we were kids we used to like to stand between the lines of sheets and let it all blow on us. Now, to be honest, we didn't like how stiff the towels were though...
ReplyDeleteI live in an apartment that doesn't really have a means to air-dry, so I do use a drier. Useful info - I didn't know about not needing starch. I was always afraid that air drying would yield wrinkles?
ReplyDeleteFrom Marketplace... The Province of Ontario is passing (passed) a law to override homeowner associations' bans on outdoor clothes drying. Very interesting. Let's hope that idea moves south of the border!
ReplyDeleteThere are few things as picturesque as clothes hung to dry on a line. It reminds me somehow, that we're all human, seeing those clothes without the bodies in them imparts a kind of vulnerability somehow. Maybe I'm crazy, but I have always loved clotheslines. Whether they are strung across narrow alleys in Rome, hung outside a double-wide in a trailer park or in Lancaster's Amish country (some of the longest and most spectacular I might add) I love 'em all. My only regret is that I'm afraid my clothes will end up too dirty hanging on my Bolton Hill balcony - the original hooks (which I finally figured out were for clotheslines) are still there from the 1860's but the porch gets so dirty from air pollution that I'm reluctant to hang my clothes. No matter: Long Love the Clothesline!!
ReplyDeleteYear ago I had a clothes line and loved it, but then returned to work full time and wasn't home to take the dried items down if a storm hit. When I lived in Hawaii (back in the early 70s), I would hang my baby's cloth diapers but with the daily rain, it could take days for them to dry. When the second child arrived, so did the electric dryer. Maybe now that I am facing retirement, I can install another clothes line. While traveling in Eastern Europe, I did a photo shoot of the various types and locations of clothes lines. Not everyone is as "advanced" as we in using the earth's resources.
ReplyDeleteI have no space in my wee garden for a clothes line but I have a drying rack in my laundry room. It lacks the charm of outdoor drying but it shares the energy-saving quality so I'm almost content.
ReplyDeleteI have been yearning for a clothesline for a few years. When we bought this house I insisted on buying in a neighborhood without "covenants". I know that his house had a clothesline originally and I even think I know where it was. But the previous owners put one of those folding/umbrella type things in the center of the backyard. I recycled it. Still wishing for my real clothesline - and got some great ideas from reading this post and the replies.
ReplyDeleteGreat essay. So smart of you to explain the effect of chlorophyll on white fabrics - brava! And for the ultimate treat, how about diving into a bed made with sheets that were dried in the sun and then ironed?
ReplyDeletei had no idea there were places where you could not have a clothes line, i just can not get my head around it. i line dry all our washing, we do have a dryer but it only gets used in an emergency so not very much at all.
ReplyDeletethere is nothing better than seeing a line full of clean washing flapping in the breeze.