Do you use one of those fancy solar dryers?

[PrettySquareGal]

You know, a rope going across your lawn?

My electrified dryer had died and while I was between dryers I took to old-fashioned line drying. I noticed that my clothes dried quite rigid, and my towels were rough. Although I have a new dryer now I may want to still do some line drying. Any tips for getting clothes soft?

Another issue is that some housing subdivisions do not allow line drying because it is perceived as unsightly and even trashy. What a change from the Golden Era when it was the norm!

So, do you line dry?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Never had anything but a clothesline -- the one I have now runs from the side of the house to the board fence closing my backyard off from the junkyard, and overlooks my neighbor's compost pile. Under those circs, no one could ever call it "trashy." In fact, most people in my neighborhood line dry, so it's still an everyday thing in some places.

I love the smell of fresh-dried sheets. The dryer crowd doesn't know what they're missing.

 

[panamag8or]

Been there, done that, with the clothesline. Even if I wanted to return to it, and I don't, there are too many trees in the yard now, and no sunny spot.

PSG, try the detergent/fabric softener combo if you are going to line dry.

 

[GwenLake]

We actually dry our clothes on a rack, in the guest room. We only use the dryer for emergencies.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

My laundry is in the washer right now, but I won't use the line because there are too many trees and it's so humid, today, that I doubt my clothes would ever dry.


Lee

 

[olive bleu]

I could honestly never live in a house where I wasn't able to have a clothesline.I grew up in the sticks where my mother had a full line of clothes out every Monday,all year 'round. I have memories of my Mother putting my Father's long johns on the line in the middle of the winter and they would be stiff by the time she was ready to bring them in.Sometimes Dad would then do a little jig in the kitchen with them and then stand them up by the wall.(we were simple folk )

I have a dryer but i don't use it that often. My Mother used a wringer washer for many years and I remember my Grandmother using a washboard so a few stiff fingers, hardly seems like a terrible hardship.And I am hooked on that freshair smell!

In the small community where I grew up and, I have been told.in many others, there is a real art to hanging clothes as in what goes out on the line first,and the order and colour for hanging them out.To this day, I am very particular about the way the clothes are hung on the line and i can't allow anyone to do it! My friends laugh because I am so laid back by nature and it is nothing to see me with my head in a book,or working on a sewing project while the dustbunnies pile up.But don't mess with me when it comes to my clothesline!
Also, I recall my Mother being in a panic to get her clothes out before the neighbours.It was seen as an absolute disgrace if you were late getting your clothes out.lol

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

Oh yes...the clothesline. I own 4 vintage metal Cord-0-Matics with retractable lines that I don't know what I would do without! I love them and always buy them when I can. The new ones fall apart. I am also very picky about how I hang the clothes up-nobody does it right so I am stuck with the job. I only use the dryer for towels and bedspreads and things that I like to have be soft. This time of year, clothes dry faster outside on the line than in the dryer.

Here is a neat book, all about laundry and things related:

http://www.amazon.com/Clothesline-A...4233635?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187555936&sr=1-1

It's one of my favorite books!

 

[Lady Day]

You know, a rope going across your lawn?

Any tips for getting clothes soft?

Yeah, you shake them out before you fold them

Thats one of the traits of clothes line drying. I dont mind it, cause you get that fresh air scent wafting through the clothes mmmm...

LD

 

[olive bleu]

You know, a rope going across your lawn?
Any tips for getting clothes soft?

If you must have soft, a liquid fabric softener is the way to go.I don't care too much, but the kids complain about the stiff socks

 

[pretty faythe]

When my dryer was out of service, and I didn't want to spend the furtune at the laundrymat for the dryers, I made sure to use liquid fabric softener. It became such a habit, I still do. But, after the first load of jeans being dried outside and coming inside stiff and gritty (to me anyway, even after an extra rinse cycle) the jeans were the exception to the rule, they went to the laundry mat dryers.

 

[Matt Noir]

I guess I am an odd puppy - I love the stiff, scratchy feeling of line dried clothing.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I guess I am an odd puppy - I love the stiff, scratchy feeling of line dried clothing.

I have noticed that my washcloths are now good for exfoliating!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Regarding fabric softeners, I'm allergic to most detergents, etc so I will look and see if there is one that is fragrance-free sensitive skin types.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Too much air pollution nowadays

I like the stiff feeling of jeans, sheets, and towels BUT for some strange reason the laundry reeks when I bring it in. No fresh air smell but an unpleasant odor that I can't describe, unclean air I guess. No, I don't live near a garbage dump, compost heap, ritual sacrifice site, and the pugs use a litter box; it's not a dirty or dead smell but a sour smell anyway. Ugh. I never noticed it until this year. I have a dryer for Dryel-ing dry clean only clothing and also use it in emergencies, but I hang laundry indoors to dry on the wooden rack that is always up in the kitchen.

 

[ITG]

To Those of you who live up north like Lizzie:
How do you handle line drying in the winter. Do you do it indoors instead? Seems like it'd be hard to line dry clothes when it's cold outside or do you just do it and have to wait longer for it to get dried?

 

[olive bleu]

i live in nova scotia where the winters are pretty cold.I still line dry in the winter as long as there isn't a blizzard or something.with kids, sometimes the laundry just needs to be done! I can't honestly say it's that pleasant,and it does feel like your fingers will snap off somedays, but if it is sunny i do put the clothes out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, my mother always hangs hers outside year round, no matter what -- one of my vivid childhood memories is of towels hanging on the line frozen rock solid. Given enough sun and wind anything will eventually dry, but it takes a long long time.

Me, I'm judicious. In the winter I hold off doing washing until I know we'll have a good drying day, and then I do everything at once. And if it's really cold and is going to stay that way for a while, I have an enclosed porch where I can dry things -- it takes longer, and doesnt smell as nice, but it works.

 

[Paisley]

Regarding fabric softeners, I'm allergic to most detergents, etc so I will look and see if there is one that is fragrance-free sensitive skin types.

Try one without sodium laurel sulfate.

 

[Paisley]

I find that my line-dried clothes are stiff for only about 10 minutes after I put them on.

 

[Kishtu]

We have a clothes line outside and a good old-fashioned rack that hangs over the stove.

(It's a Rayburn/Aga type thing, so runs all day every day providing heat and hot water.... when we light it... which is not often!)

When I lived up north things would stay on the line stiff for days if they froze.... but fortunately we don't get that kind of cold in Cornwall!