Say hello...

To my little friend! This praying mantis has been hanging out on my clothesline for about 3 days. Hubby got a picture of him, perched on a clothespin. (The mantis was perched. Not Hubby.)

I have put him down in the garden several times - mantises (mantii?) are supposed to be helpful insects, eating the "bad" garden bugs. But my little friend won't stay put. He likes the clothesline. Who am I to argue? Maybe some nasty little bugs are trying to make off with my capri pants...

Repurposing a milk jug

There are a million ways to repurpose a milk jug. If you are so inclined, you can peruse the two-page spread in The Tightwad Gazette that outlines a couple dozen of those ways. But here is my favorite:

I cut part of the handle off, and slice diagonally across the top. 

And then I fill it with clothespins. I can use the modified handle to slip the jug over my clothesline, or I can put the handle in my pocket (very handy!) so that I don't have to chase my clothespin container as it slides down the clothesline. 

Now I still use my pretty clothespin holder that you can see in this post, but I think my milk-jug holder is more practical. I really like that I can hook it on my pocket or the clothesline. I can make more holders easily, and best of all, I'm reusing something I already have. I've always used several milk jug holders downstairs on my basement lines, but now that I have multiple lines outside, my little hillbilly -er, ah... thrifty secret is out for everyone to see.

Summer=clothesline

It's summer, and I don't have my garden in, yet. But I have been hitting the clothesline pretty hard. See? 

I've been trying to keep from turning on the a/c, and I'm winning the battle so far. For someone who hates, hates to be hot, I have managed to keep the a/c off, even though my indoor temps have topped 85 degrees. For me, that's HUGE. Part of my a/c battle involves keeping the oven and clothes dryer off. 

I forgot, over the long winter, how quickly clothes dry on an outdoor line. I am loving that I can dry several loads in a few hours (as opposed to 24-plus on my indoor winter lines), and I love the new umbrella clothesline that my mom got me! 

I can hang two-and-a-half loads on my umbrella line! I can put a load on my regular line, start it drying, put a load or two on my umbrella line, and by the time I'm on load 3, my first load is dry. This is GREAT! 

See how much room I've got on my umbrella line? I am in looooove. I think I'm going to need more clothespins. Still cheaper than the dryer, right? 

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! 

My clothesline

And now for my long-awaited clothesline post! 

Here it is, in all its glory, my beloved clothesline. This summer, I have managed to discipline myself enough to use my clothesline full time. I only use my dryer to dry diaper inserts and to fluff my towels before taking them to the line. My electric bill is $30 lower this month than the same month last year, so I think my diligence is paying off. 

I love hanging clothes out on the line. I love the way they smell, I love being out in the fresh air, I love saving money! I wish I had more outside clothesline space, but I have a postage-stamp for a backyard, so this little line will have to do. Why don't you have a clothesline? Let me guess... you don't like that it makes your clothes "crunchy," you do too much laundry, you have no space outside, and you don't have the time, right? Ha! Wrong! Read on, spendthrift!

The clothesline makes my clothes too crunchy and stiff

There a few ways around this. Shake your clothes *vigorously* before you put them on the line, and hang on a windy day. Take them down as soon as they're dry, if it's not a humid day. Honestly, the stiffness is something you don't even notice after about a week. The one exception is towels - for towels, I fluff them in the dryer for 10 minutes, then they go on the line to finish. They come out just fine. You may have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. I actually prefer line-dried jeans. 

I do too much laundry to line-dry

Puh-leez! I have four children. Four, SMALL, children. (read: I wash lots of clothes.)  I can dry four loads a day on my little line. And if I run out of space, then I just use hangers and hang clothes from the tree! 

I have no space outside

Then put a line or two inside. You don't hang out in every room of your house all day, right? How often do you hang out in your bedroom during the day? Put a retractible line in there! I have three lines in my basement for rainy days and winter. (Having a winter line helps humidify the dry indoor air, too. Bonus!) 

I don't have time to hang up laundry

Did I mention I have four small children? Having a line means that I don't have to be a slave to the dryer. You know how it goes: you're knee-deep in some task that can't be interrupted when the darn dryer buzzer goes off. You know that if you don't get to that laundry soon, it's going to be a wrinkled mess. No such problems with the clothesline. It can hang there, dry, all day. Who cares? I'm not listening for the dryer all day. Freeeeeeedooooommmm!!! 

There are, of course, other benefits to having a clothesline. A lower electric bill, from not running the dryer. (Not to mention the dryer isn't generating heat, counteracting the a/c.) It's easier on your clothes, since the heat of the dryer destroys fibers. Less garbage - I don't have to empty the lint trap on my clothesline! And my favorite - it's so much better for the environment! I really, truly like hanging clothes out on the line. It gives me time to think, to pray. It gets me outside, which makes me slow down, and it reminds me to get the boys outside to play. Hanging the clothes creates order. And it looks pretty. It's one of my very favorite things.