a makeshift clothesline

Haha!  When I looked up the word "makeshift", mainly because I wasn't sure if it was hyphenated or not, it came with some good synonyms.  Some were: temporary, make-do, ad hoc, and improvised, but my favorite was "rough and ready"!  Haha and precisely my friends!  Rough and ready is exactly what kind of business I mean when I go to set up my clothesline at the day care.  I don't need a fancy one, or more than one strand across the yard.  Just a simple means to dry during hot months when I don't want to waste electricity by running the clothes dryer inside.

I simply take a clothesline string, purchased from Walmart for just a few dollars, make a loop knot at one end and pull the rest of the wrapped up clothesline through, then stretch it across the yard, kind of high, and attach it to a nail I hammered into the deck.  Simple... rough and ready!  I used to use the plastic, one dollar clotheslines from the dollar store but they only hold up for one season.  Especially if they are left outside.  The string I have now is more of a rope type and I take it down each time I use it, wind it up and store it in my clothespin bag that I made several years back.

So now... if you don't already have a clothesline then you have no excuse now that I've shown you the simplest way to dry things outside.  Just be careful if it's low to the ground at all.  I did forget about this one while running with kids one day and it just about laid me flat!

Clotheslines are cheap and sun and wind are free!

Beautiful picture... minus the bird poo on the rail!

Note: I've not had bird poo on my clothes being dried outside... ever... yet.

Why yes... I do have "bring your laundry to work" days.  Don't you??

I also have glittered clothespins! 

I will say that I just bought these three shirts at the Ladies of Charity thrift sale on Saturday and didn't want them to shrink in the dryer before I got to wear them!  Ah... Yet another reason to dry outside!

A Sunny Saturday in February

Last Saturday, apart from being slightly breezy, was a beautiful day.  The forecast was sixty degrees and sunny and that it was.  The perfect day to use the clothesline... for towels.  I don't like my bed sheets abused by strong breezes.  They run a greater risk of being blown off the line especially with as gusty at the wind turned out to be.  The towels didn't seem to mind and it really helped cut down on drying time!  

I have decided to start using cloth napkins.  Mainly because I am so spoiled to store bought throw-aways.  I feel attached to my ways in the napkin and paper towel department and find myself having to buy them too often.  I own perfectly good cloth napkins that do not get used and washed and just lie in a drawer ignored of their usefulness.  So I dug them out and washed them, hanging them on the line to dry. 

  

a clothesline's point of view

Summer Laundry

I am a summer girl.  I am also a laundry-on-the-clothesline kind of girl.  I was looking back on picture archives and thought I would share.

 

Feel the warmth of the summer sun on your shoulders and the coolness of a slight breeze in your hair.

 

Take a few deep breaths in through your nose for a count of five, hold it five, then out through your mouth for five.

I feel better already, don't you?