Let It ALL Hang Out

Every Saturday morning, up at 7:00 (I seriously felt this was child labor but could find no adult who would support my view) and the search began. We had to go through the house to pickup all clothes, bedding, kitchen towels, bathroom stuff, etc. and put them in a huge (there were 5 of us) pile in the kitchen.  Then, the sorting began:  this was not an exact science and became more casual as the day wore on and on and on. The next decision was to bleach or not to bleach.  This may seem obvious, but, not so in my childhood home.  That major separation complete, we went into the act of getting the stuff wet.  This was a timed operation because there was no pre-determined cycle....it washed until mother determined it had been long enough.  The next step was wringing from wash to rinse.  This part was actually fun unless you were sleepy and let a finger get into the wringer.....that really woke a person quickly! The wringer was electric, but had to be fed each item by hand.  Here is yet another decision:  some items went into the rinse tub containing blueing while the others went into clear water (the blueing was a gentler form of bleach).  The clothes were manually "agitated" until soap was removed and then fed into the wringer again.  Are you exhausted yet?

The next step is what started me on this laundry tirade in the first place:  hanging it on the clothesline.
We took the wet laundry up an incline to a plateau just the right size to direct all attention to our clothesline.
I need to mention here that I was living in a very small town and our house was on the only road to school.
My technique was to hang the underwear on the back line which offered the smallest viewing area.  My mother; however, always hung it on the front line because "it dried faster there."  Sure.....

I will spare you the rest of the story because the "new" thing I have learned regarding laundry is that it is now considered a green option to hang laundry instead of using the dryer.  It probably does save a little tiny bit of electricity so here are the instructions I was given for creating a line-drying laundry operation:

     2 Heavy posts, preferably steel, pounded 3' into the earth with concrete poured around bases
               Place posts 30' apart
     2 Cross-pieces screwed in place horizontally on the posts
              Drill 4 evenly spaced holes in cross pieces to accommodate the knots in the clothesline
     4 30' long lines of cotton-covered nylon clothesline
      Additional equipment needed is a clothespin bag and spring-loaded clothespins.

There is obviously an art to hanging items on the line which must take into consideration the wind, the specific piece of laundry, the temperament of your dog and the purpose of the item in relation to your skin.
I felt that classes were needed to hone my simple abilities into such an intricate skill.  However, I did not completely lose interest until the instructor admitted that she used an electric dryer to dry her socks.

She really lost me then and I have not called Home Depot for those heavy posts or clothespins.