My friend Kathy has mentioned laundry, specifically hanging clothes out to dry, in several of her recent posts, and it's gotten me to thinking about the whole drying process.
Growing up, we always had a clothes line and Mom used it. Everyone had a clothes line in those days, and it was common to see clothes flapping in back yards all over town. We didn't have a dryer when I was small, but I remember when we got our first one. It wasn't new, and as a matter of fact, I think we got it from Kathy's aunt and uncle. It was handy to have, but Mom still dried most of our clothes outside when the weather was good.
When Dan and I were first married, we lived in that little tiny trailer, so of course our clothes were washed and dried at the local laundromat. When we moved into a duplex a year and a half later, our first purchases were a washer and a dryer. Oh yeah!!! There was an umbrella type clothes line in the back yard, and I hauled baskets of wet clothes out and reveled in hanging them up. The smell of clothes dried outside cannot be rivaled. The dryer, however, was used for towels and knits. I am not a fan of stiff towels or t-shirts.
When we moved to our first stick-built home, mortage and all, it had a clothes line in the back yard, too, as did our next two houses. I continued to dry clothes outside in good weather and thankfully used the dryer in bad. This house also had a clothes line, but trees had somewhat overgrown it, and my clothes often needed to be rewashed when I went to take them down. Hmmmm... plus I was teaching full time. The dryer got used more and more. Then I remembered a cool inside drying rack my sister-in-law had and went in search of one. Karen had gotten hers years before from Lillian Vernon, but I found mine online at JCPenney. I love it! It takes up very little room and folds to almost nothing depth-wise. I use clothes pins, but items could easily be draped over the lines.
There can be three layers of lines on each side, or you can drop the lower ones down the middle and hang jeans, or in this case nightgowns, without having to thread the gaps. The configurations are many. While I don't get that outside smell, I am able to dry clothes efficiently and easily. A similar one can be found here.
Hanging clothes up to dry is a relaxing project (unless, like Kathy, you are racing to take the clothes you've hung down before the rain comes). You can't get in a hurry about it; you can only hang one thing at a time as the washer is emptied. In Rosamund Pilcher's books she always refers to it as "pegging the wash" in what, I guess, is British wording. I kind of like it.
Meanwhile, all my laundry has been washed, pegged, taken down and folded for the week. Oh, there is one shirt that does need to be ironed. Sometime. But that might be a post for another day.
That's a slick contraption! I have a collapsible drying rack with 3 levels, but I only use it for a select few things. Although it s relatively small, I don't like giving up the space.
ReplyDeleteAs you can imagine, drying clothes outside is not popular here.
Hi Hallie! Yes, it is a pretty slick contraption! It could actually slide behind a sofa with no problem, or under a bed. I'm blessed with a large laundry room though, so it's always up at my house. I've toyed with rolling it outside, but then I say, "Eh, they'll dry just fine in here," and save myself the steps. :-)
DeleteWe were on Orcas Island a couple of years ago and tried using a drying rack in the house we were renting, but after finding things still damp a day later, we resorted to the dryer. I'm so thankful for Idaho's climate!!
My mother didn't have a dryer until 1961, I think. The washer was in the kitchen. On inclement days she hung the laundry in the basement. (I shudder to think of that.)
DeleteMy racks are standard Walmart wooden ones. As we moved out of our Lewiston house and before the Clarkston house was delivered, we both forgot about the need to do laundry. Mike bought a used washer (I'm still using it) and I got the rack. Mike was amazed that we were able to dry the laundry before the fireplace. I pointed out that women had a long history of drying clothes that way.
I especially love to dry sheets outside, but some items, such as socks, are really best from the dryer. When son Milo was in high school, the rough line-dried socks actually irritated his feet.
Nice rack -- pretty gowns.
I can remember you hanging clothes out on the line when we played in the yard when we were kids. Our dryer was out of commission last year and I dried some clothes outside on a rack and it was fun, but I'm glad I don't have to do it all the time!
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful that we *do* have the choice these days! We can have the best of both worlds--outside in good weather if we want and the dryer for bad weather or quick drys. I'm sure our great-grandmothers would approve! :-)
DeleteMy mother could remember when doing the laundry was an all-day Monday chore involving the carrying of water. Your mother, the next generation, may remember some kind of primitive washing machine -- probably a wringer washer. And even I remember the mountain of ironing that followed the washing. It was a lot of work. I'm grateful for automation, too.
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