Clothesline instructions

Today was an unseasonably warm day (low to mid 40's), so I took the opportunity to catch up on some laundry by hanging some on my outdoor clothesline. 

Here I am, in my postage-stamp of a backyard, hanging laundry in my slippers. You'll see that Joey is playing on Adam's skateboard, pulling himself along on his tummy. We take advantage of warm(ish) weather when it comes! My poor garden looks so barren. 

So here's a load of laundry on the line. In a future post, I promise to share my laundry routine. I rarely get truly behind on laundry. (This week being the exception: Christmas means that I've been away from the washing machine, and wet weather means things aren't drying as quickly as they usually do.) Anyway, I want to point out a couple of things in the above picture. The laundry is graduated in size, with clothes first, smallest to largest, and then linens, smallest to largest. I do this for two reasons: 1. It looks nice outside and 2. The dog's path is right in front of the garden, in the foreground of the picture. If I hang pants there, she walks under them and gets dog hair on my clean clothes. So I have to hang things in that spot that are small, so they don't drag on her back as she walks by. 
So let's get to the nitty-gritty of instruction, shall we? First things first: before you hang, give your clothes a good shake. Next, hang them on the line. I like to hang pants right-side up, with the clothespins holding the waistband on the line. I hang shirts upside-down to avoid pointy shoulders. When you hang shirts upside-down, don't stretch them! Hang them from the bottom, but bring the clothespins close enough together that the shirt sags in the middle. Otherwise you have bell-shaped shirts when they're dry! 

If you're like me and have to use every inch of clothesline space, get inventive! I hang baby socks in the "sag" of upside-down shirts. You'll notice that my socks are paired, and I hang them right-side up with one clothespin holding both on the line. On the basement line, I just pair any old socks together (doesn't matter if they match), and let Adam match & put them away after they're dry. 

And here's my handy clothespin bag. It hangs on the line, and I slide it along as I hang clothes, so my pins are always handy. Yes, I made it. No, I didn't have a pattern. It was a lot of guess work. But it turned out, so I can't complain!