This might sound strange or funny, but I'm looking for advice on hanging a clothesline for the first time! All my life I've lived places where an electric dryer was the only option, with the exception of living out in the woods, where I just rigged something up for the moment. In this house, there is a metal clothesline (the T-stand thingies) in the backyard - and it's a yard I've worked hard to make habitable, so now that the sun's coming out for the year I'm confident that I can make it work without it being too "icky". I bought a clothesline to stretch across there, but I'm not sure what the best way would be to knot it. It's twisted nylon rope or something along those lines, so it's pretty slippery. I can knot it to itself normally, but I don't think that would stand the weight of clothes. I also got springy pins, and I'll sew up a quickie bag for them. I'll rig it up somehow so I can easily attatch it to the line and scoot it along. If anyone has experience or advice you can share with me, I'd appreciate it! Even when it comes to the actual hanging of clothes - I'm sure I'll get the hang of it through trial and error, but I don't know the "proper" method of hanging anything! :&
Not quite sure how to answer this. I've always dried laundry outdoors...weather permitting and mine is a nylon line, been there for years. Drivers knots were used to secure it, you know the ones that's used to secure tarpaulins on trailers. Not quite sure how they're done as someone did it for me. Only thing is, whichever way you tie it, make sure there isn't too much 'give' when you hang the washing out. Oh! and I use a clothes prop, helps the wind give a better blow.
Yes, sorry,the hanging of clothes. I always peg everything facing whichever way the wind blows so shirts etc. look like they're billowing. I'm so crap at explaining this. lol. Good luck!
^ Thanks, wond'ring! I hurt my back this morning and can't do much @ the moment, but when I can I'll o out there and mess around some more and see if I can get it set up... I'm just not really a knot expert, and I want to be sure I can get it tight without having the knots slip! And I can't put it up between two trees because 1) my yard doesn't have a lot of trees, and it just wouldn't work and 2) I already have the clothesline stands, and it would be silly to put a line elsewhere!
never thought id be giving advice on hanging laundry, lol, but here goes! are there a number of loops of sort on each t,post? if so tye one end to one loop run it to the corresponding loop on the outher post do not tye it run it through then to the loop next to it then to coresponding loop on the outher post repeat until no more loops, hooks or whatrvr is there when you hang your clothes try and distribute the whieght on each line witch will keep from streching one run to much double halfhiches work good! happy hanging!!
you could also buy a clothesline that has those wheels at the end, I think they are called pulleys, or you can buy these metal circle things at the store that will clamp down on two pieces of rope and you close them around the overlap and it holds it all together. knots work well to but make sure they are tight or you may have to wash the clothes all over again. oh and someone suggested using fencing wire. I think that's a bad idea since you should not use bare metal. it will either rust and stain the clothes or the anti rust chemicals applied to the metal will rub off on the clothes... metal coated in plastic however does work well. hope some of this made sense
At least one end should be tied in a tautline hitch: http://www.bsa-gnyc.org/tautline.htm This is a knot commonly used on ropes going to the stakes on tents, so you can tighten or loosen the ropes without retying the knots. Try it without weight on it so you see how it slides, it can be very hard to slide with weight of clothes on it. For a rope, I'd get a piece of 3/8" woven (not twisted) line, cotton holds knots easier than nylon/polyester but either will work with that knot. Stick it in a lingerie bag and wash it now and then, and you won't get gray lines on your white clothes.
Thanks everyone! Your knot suggestions are very useful! (Esp. Gaston - I was hoping to find something good and sturdy that I could tighten w/o totally re-doing it. I just wish I could move two inches without my back seizing up now...
Heres a good knot, that you can thighten up to remove any slack out of the line. I learned to tye it a little differn't, but it's close.. http://www.troop9.org/?s=knots/trucker/index Another thing you can do is get a old limb about 5 foot long and notch the end. Stand it up in the middle of the line to keep it from getting to close to the ground.. Good luck.......Dennis
Thanks again for all the great advise everyone! I've just brought in my first-ever load of line-dried clothes! (Well, first ever in Babylon at least, not counting all the river-washed clothing in the woods...) Turns out the line I bought is really crappy... besides being nylon and twisted, it was really short. The metal stands have three sets of rings, and I couldn't even stretch the line over two! So I just stretched it out once for now, tied it as tight as I could, and found that the one was *exactly* long enough (with a little bit of scrunching) to dry one washer load. The one good thing about the line I bought, besides doing the job this time, is that it came with a little hook thing strung on it. I left it on, out of curiosity, when I strung it up, and found that it was the perfect thing to hang the pin-bag I made on! As soon as I can though, I plan on buying something longer for a line. And if I can find it, preferably something woven and cotton. I'll also get a bigger basket, since the only one I have is small. It did the job for just moving a load quickly from point A to point B, but it's not quite big enough to fold everything up nicely and fit it inside. I could see what you meant Dennis, about the line sagging. I'll have to fashion a better stick for it tomorrow, but for today's purposes I stuck my rake on end in the middle of the line, and that worked. A couple more questions, though.... (maybe I should ask this in another thread, but I'll try here first...) When I brought everything in it was decidedly stiffer than it is from the dryer. Understandable, of course... in the case of most things, clothing, etc. it's actually nice. But my towels seemed so stiff they were kind of crunchy and scratchy... they'll probably be a little uncomfortable to use the first time we use 'em after a shower. Is there anything I can do to make this better? I was thinking of switching detergent (right now we use arm&hammer liquid), is there anything that works better for line drying? I've heard of using vinegar somehow, how is that done? Now I've come this far, I'm also toying with the idea of getting a manual washer of some sort. Does anyone have any recommendations on something like that, that I could afford on a very serious budget? I'm sure I could do it with just a couple of buckets, a washboard, and my hands (and maybe a ringer) but anything that could speed up the process would be great... I'm thinking if I got the hang of it I could do a week's worth of laundry all together like that....
If you want a brand new (but old-fashioned or manual style) washer, check out www.lehmans.com . They cater to "plain living" folks like the Mennonites and Amish. Their catalog is my "wish book", and although they're not cheap in price, the few items I've bought from them are top quality and last. I don't know where you are in TN, but in Elizabethton there's an antique/junque store that often has things like a manual wringer. If it isn't particularly collectible to the Tri-Cities yuppy crowd, their prices are surprisingly reasonable. If I could only have one gadget for laundry, it would be a wringer, that's the hardest part of hand laundry for me.
To get past the stiffness of line dried clothes, I always put them in the dryer for just a few minutes after I bring them in. Just 5 or 10 minutes will do the trick. It will also knock off any bugs that have found their way into your pants! We learned to do that when we lived in buggy Florida. Nobody wants bugs in their clothes! I do agree with Gaston, Lehman's is great. Really good quality stuff, but a bit pricey. Doing laundry by hand is pain. A pain in the back, mostly.
Yeah, but the extra exercise will be good for me! I'm gonna take it slow, still. We had a cold snap this last week, but it should warm back up in the next couple of days. I'm still using the washer for the time being... and the biggest obstacle I'll have with doing it by hand is Ian's work clothes. We need to buy more for him so he'll have at least 5 sets. I figure that way I can make it a habit once I get into the swing of things, and just do all the laundry by hand on a particular day every week. I won't be able to afford anything pricey, though. I'll just put the word out to people I know around here that I need tubs and a wringer. And a washboard if at all possible.
Hello Hummblebee, good for you on the line drying. We have one in the upstairs portion of our loft, works great in the winter and when its raining outside. Also have one in the back yard. Also working on some solar power for the house, gonna be grid tied but big bad elec co. has to buy my excess energy now! Peaceful thoughts your way.... Farmout
Just wanted to post here again - I LOVE LINE DRYING! I've been doing it as much as possible, every clear day (we've had a lot of rain this last week though). I got a new line, that's woven cottom with a poly core. It stretches slightly, and I've just made a habit of pulling it tight every day I'm hanging stuff out there, which only takes and extra couple minutes. It stretches acroos three times, and I can fit 3-4 good size wash loads on it if I have to. To help the stiffness, I've been washing with half the recommended amount of detergent, and adding a little ACV to the rinse cycle. It works great!
