Clothes Washing and Drying

James M Sandbrook

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Clothesline Tips!

Some say that the clothesline should be wiped before you use it.

The knickers, underpants, underclothing, rags used for house cleaning etc, should all be hung in the center of the clothesline so that people cannot see them when they are visiting you and your family, and the neighbours can’t see the undergarments because the other clothes are hanging on the outside line surrounding the undergarments etc.

Shirts should be hung by the tail, not the shoulders. But T-Shirts could be hung by the shoulders due to hanging them by the waistline could cause them to bow, sag etc.

My mother always used the pegs so that they hung up two clothes as seen in Fig. 2 below and I prefer the other way seen in Fig. 1. The way my mother hung clothes on the clothesline meant that you used less pegs, but all I do was make sure that I always have plenty of pegs. If I get short on pegs I can just use the other method until I get some more pegs :-)

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Some say hang the socks by the toes.

Don’t throw out food for the birds (bread etc) close to the clothesline as they will prefer to perch on the line leaving droppings on your newly washed clothes. The clothesline shouldn't be close to a tree for the same reason.

If the clothesline is not getting the correct amount of wind move the clothesline. When we bought our house the clothesline was in a spot that sometimes got wind, but not a lot, so I moved it to the top of the yard where it got wind from two angles and was far more efficient. Please don’t take it for granted that the previous house owners got it right.

Turning darker clothes inside out and then hanging them on the clothesline can stop them fading in the sunlight.

Some people fold the clothes as they take them off the clothesline.

Sometimes a good shake of the clothes that are about to be hung helps remove wrinkles, give the clothes a quick sharp snap to do this.

I tend to hang the towels on the outside line as it hides all that is on the inside, looks tidier and because they are thicker that a lot of clothing the get the wind that they need to dry.
If I have only a few items to hang I put them on different lines haphazard so that the wind can travel through them all and get them dry faster. Good practice when there is not a lot of sun on gloomy days.

Hang shorts, skirts and pants from the waist band.

On very sunny days dark clothes could fade so they could be kept on the inside of the line shaded by the clothing on the outside of the clothesline. While lighter clothing could be bleached by the sun and this helps remove stains etc, so they say.

My daughter Rachel left for Australia to live and she left me some household items and one was a clothesline peg holder which is supposed to hang on the line. To make it more useful and always easily accessible I put a clamp on the middle pole of the clothes line and put it there so I can get to it regardless of where I am around the clothesline.

My experience is to not put bleach in the wash, use some sort of stain remover. It can be just too hard to judge the right amount and then accidentally bleach your clothes so much that they fade or end up with patches on them.

If you don’t want your jeans to fade, hang them on the clothesline inside out.

Some item can be folded over the line to dry and then pegged by one peg in the middle - this avoids peg marks.

Suits and that sort of clothing can be hung on a clothes hanger on the clothes line to allow them to keep their shape.

I often hang a blanket and mats after washing them, or even just to air them out with a natural washing just before it rains. This gives them a day or so of good solid rain washing and rinsing and then they dry in the sun and come back into the house smelling clean and looking good.

If you have a big rug/mat etc and it cannot be washed in the washing machine, you can soap it on the grass, scrub with a hard bristle brush or even a clean broom, then hang it on the line and give it a clean with a water blaster, rinse with the hose if you need to, then leave it where it is on the clothesline to dry.

In Fig. 3 below we see a spring-hinged clothespin, sometimes called a clothespin or simply a clothes peg.

You may notice that in the image the peg is being used upside down. I have only ever been able to use the wooden pegs for this, not the plastic pegs.

When hanging the clothes the “wooden spring-hinged clothespin” can be used upside down to hold one side on the clothesline while you peg the other end, and then you can turn it over as in Fig. 2 and use it to hold the clothes as the peg was intended to do. It is a useful feature of these simple pegs.

Some people don’t use wooden pegs due to staining, but that has never happened to me. It may be because their wooden pegs are not kept dry and are allowed to get mouldy.

I prefer to use wooden pegs because of the environment. I do still have some old plastic pegs, but I either make my own pegs or buy wooden pegs like the ones in Fig. 3 and 4.

James M Sandbrook

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Fig. 3

Fig. 4

On Windy Days!

On windy days when you are trying to hang out the washing and the clothesline keeps moving from the wind pushing it, you may find in the middle of your clothesline is a steel pin, see Fig. 5 below, that you can poke through a hole at the top of the clothesline that stops the clothesline from turning, see Fig. 6.

You can do this to hold the clothesline stationary while you put wet clothes on the clothesline and then remove the pin or keep it like that for the clothing to dry.

On very windy days add a peg or two in the center of the item to help keep the clothing on the line.

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

In my personal experience leaving the washing on the washing line overnight causes no problems.

If it is raining then the washing will get a natural rinsing, and there is no problem with that. Consider the rain and wind attacking the clothes and giving the washing a natural wash, rinse and dry.
If left on the line for days then mould etc could be a problem and maybe fading of colours.

I have heard of people using hand towels and cloth (bath towels) towels to roll wet washing in before putting them on the clothesline.

A tarpaulin or umbrella can be put on the top of the clothesline to keep rain off.

If you use a peg container outside you can drill holes in the bottom so that rain water always comes trough and does not rot the wooden pegs that you have.