With a lot of laundry to do (usually 2 or 3 loads every day except Sunday) I’m always looking for ways to save money. We’ve found that by hanging as much laundry as we can, the savings really add up! A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to hang ALL the laundry since our propane dryer was broken… Now that we fixed it – with a little online help – we use it to dry socks, underwear, washcloths and rags.
Yesterday I tried a new idea – why not save some time by hanging dresses on their plastic hangers BEFORE they are dry? Why can’t they dry on the hangers ON the line?
Below is the result – it was a VERY VERY windy day, and all the dresses literally flew across the line, squished together, and one ended up on the ground. I was frustrated. I was determined. I did NOT want to take them off the hangers and pin them up the “old-fashioned” way. I tried putting clothespins on either side of the hangers – no good. When I took a spare piece of laundry line and tried wrapping it around the hangers to secure them – that’s when the idea came to me.
I tied a bunch of loops (using overhand knots) in the line spaced about 6-8 inches apart. Then I hung the line between two trees.
I hung each hanger in a loop, and voila! Order out of chaos!
At least it looked pretty orderly, but that was only during a very brief lull in the wind. But you know what? The abnormally windy day actually was the ultimate test for my idea, and it worked splendidly. We, ahem, only had 5 dresses on the ground an hour later…
This is the current total laundry line setup. I’ve had many variations – even had a “real” laundry line that was weakened during hurricanes, and then broken by a tractor. This setup of the long lines between pine trees definitely Works For Me.
For a laugh – see what happened once when my boys hang laundry! It only happened once, because I made it a lesson in our homeschool the next day.
Participating in:
Works For Me Wednesday
My solar clothes dryer is the umbrella sort, so this won’t work there, but I need to go out in the yard and look around at the trees. I used to do the hanger method before I got the umbrella. I just hung stuff in doorways. Hmmm, always looking for ways to improve the system.
What a great idea! I have been hoping to get a clothes line set up outdoors. For the past several months I have used a metal hanging rack in between my washer and dryer. I hang the clothes on their hangers, then leave them on the rack until they are dry. The upside is that this space is over a heater vent, so the clothes dry quickly in the winter, the downside is that the rack is not very large, leaving me to only be able to hang two loads at a time, if that. When the rack gets too full, I just wait until just before bed to hang the rest on the shower curtain rod and leave the bathroom door open.
I like your idea! I currently use hangers inside the house, but it doesn’t work very well here– because our doorways don’t have the edge to hang them on. So the only place I can find, other than the closet, is the shower rod in the bathroom. This doesn’t give us enough space though. I’m going to have to look at my back yard and see which trees would be most cooperative.
I have a rotary drier so that won’t work. My fix doesn’t work for really windy days, but does help a bit. Rather than hook them over the line, I hook them onto the arms of the drier at the corners. I can usually get 8 to 12 items hung like that without them being too bunched up.
What a wonderful idea! I so miss our clothesline from the country, but I will have to keep this idea tucked away as something to try in the future! I always hated how the clothespins would leave marks on my dresses when I hung them out, but with your idea I won’t have that problem. Thanks!
We try to hang up as much as possible. Ten minutes or so in the dryer and then everything that I can hang up is put on plastic hangers. Big people clothes are hung in the door frames and little people clothes are hung around the ironing board that’s in the laundry room.
Hmmm, I like this idea and was just thinking that if I hung the clothes near my garden area it might help keep the chickens out!
This is such a great idea!