It's a lost art, I think. I usually have my camera with me and will tip toe up as close as I dare to take a picture of someone's wash on a line. It's not out there much anymore. I don't know why, if you hang outside the breeze takes the wrinkles right out which eliminates ironing.
Which brings me to a clothes hanging lesson, which, if you do it you would already know so I guess I'm preaching to the choir. I can hear my mother saying, "how you hang them is how they're going to look when you take them down so do it right." And if you hang everything, even towels and inners, well, I wouldn't on a straight line like mine! Not a pretty sight!
Shirts go upside down, never from the cuffs. Pin them at the side seam not placket to placket.
Share. Hold hands. Buddy up, whatever you call it, shirts share a clothespin. I don't know why, don't ask me. I was told by my mother a million years ago to do it this way so I do. And I always do what my mommy said.
I smile when I see someone's wash hanging out. It's a good thing.
These are the books I read to the kids this week. The first three are just the things I would have chosen myself when I was a kid and I'm still doing it. History.
Queen Victoria was hot and wanted to go swimming but it wouldn't do for her subjects to see anything but her face and her hands. She couldn't get from the shore to the water! Her Albert invented a bathing machine. It looks like a chicken coop (in fact when she stopped using it, the little hut did become a chicken coop) with a door in the back and front. She would go in the back, take off her clothes, put on her bathing ensemble and walk out the front door right into the water where she could submerge! This one really took the kids by surprise. There are great author notes and a picture of the real thing at the end.
These next two were for the Kindergarteners
This was really fun! Sadie wants to mail an elephant to her Great-Aunt Josephine who "lives almost completely alone and could really use the company." You will discover the key word here is 'almost.'
She has the elephant on a leash and starts by trying to buy enough stamps to mail him. Then commandeers an biplane, then convinces a crocodile, then robber monkeys help. In the end she gets that elephant to Great-Aunt Josephine. There are hidden hamsters on each page and the last page of all was very funny. We all loved this one!
mine are on the clothes line or the drying rack all the time................in summer it is so warm they dry on the rack on the verendah over night.............do you mean they use dryers? all the time.............bugger that.......................
ReplyDeleteLol....you make me laugh, I too am a washing line police inspector! In that there is a RIGHT way to hang clothes out!! Australia is/was the great user of the hills hoist...( a particular brand of clothes line) but as we move to smaller gardens and apartment living perhaps not so much these days. In my Mother's Day we did indeed buddy up and used one peg to join shirts. But in this day of consumer excess and cheap clothes pegs I will use TWO pegs on each item...I know it's radical but what the hey, I am a rule breaker. Socks pegged individually , otherwise they don't dry. Husband used to just whack up the clothes any old how, he thought if he did a rubbish job he would get asked again, no, I took by the ear and told him to straighten those shirts or he would be ironing all the wrinkles out! The only time I don't peg out is on days where it is continually damp, no wind and cold. Then I do use a clothes horse inside and the dryer is for emergencies only. Glad we sorted that out. 😊
ReplyDeleteMe, too, me, too! My sheets are sometimes wonky on the line, but it doesn't bother me much. Otherwise, Mom's rules are pretty much mine, as well. Truth be told, I even love to hang towels. I tumble them for just a bit til they're slightly warm and then hang them--oh, the slightly rough dry-off with that sun-baked smell ... sends me to heaven!
ReplyDeleteYou can't better the smell of clothes that are line dried.....I'm lucky I've got a large verandah and it has a line under there, so rain, hail or shine the clothes are outside...if it's a good drying day, onto the clothes line down the back they go!
ReplyDeleteI've got a dryer and haven't used it in years...my Mum gave it to me when the girls were little, and it did get some use back then.
Its hard to imagine hanging clothes inside all the time. We have a hills hoist. I will post a photo for you one day. I only hang inside on a rare occasion except for something I don't want to fade with the hot sun. In summer I can my washing out at 6.00am and take it in before I go to work at 8.00am. In winter I like to get it in before 5.00 pm or else it gets damp. Never get it off in the middle of the day as its too hot. Don't like hanging it out then either, For me its always an early morning job. I hang my shirts like you, but T shirts go over just where the sleeve meet the body and jeans go pegged at the waist as the water runs down and they dry faster at the top. if I am late for work it sometimes gets a bit wonky and my mum says who hung the washing out today... I just laugh. But I think My grandmother taught me to hang out washing. Inners on the inside of the hills hoist so no one sees them then outers then towels....to hide all... funny isn't it.. Thanks for making me think of this mundane task Denice it brings back nice memories of my Nana.
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