How to use a clothesline

There are many types of standard clotheslines. My grandmother had a compact round clothesline that she used for years. My mother used the kind that had lines strung between two poles. I also like that kind.

If you don't buy a clothesline but want to build one yourself, the main idea to keep in mind is the weight it will support when putting it up. Wet clothes are heavy! As you see in the picture above, my clothesline is made out of metal pipes fitted together into a tee with holes drilled into the crossbars to hold the actual lines. It is about two-inch diameter pipe, and the base is cemented into the ground about two feet deep. My lines are high enough that when I hang long items (like sheets and blankets), they don't touch the ground.

Stringing a line between two trees or posts can also work, too. Again, the caution about the weight of wet clothes.

There is standard clothesline string that you can buy at the hardware store, too. I like the plastic-coated line because it doesn't rot as fast and because clothes pins slide over the line easier. It's also easier to keep clean by wiping with a damp rag over the entire line.

There are a couple of types of clothespins. The top "squeeze" kind also come in plastic.

I prefer the squeeze kind as I find they secure my clothes better from the wind. I am thinking of switching to the slide-on kind, though, because during the winter months my hands are sometimes too cold to pinch the clothespin open. I want to try it anyway.

I also prefer wood pins. I have tried the brightly-colored plastic ones and they don't last very long. They get brittle and break or crumble in the weather and I'm not good at bringing in my clothespins off the line. I prefer to just leave them on the line all the time since I use my clothesline all the time. There are clothespin bags that you can hang on the line to keep the clothespins in and bring in.

There is an art to hanging clothes.

When hanging clothes, I group items together -- either by each person's clothes, or by like items.

For example, I hang all socks on one line all by themselves, and I hang them in matching pairs. Each sock gets one pin. But when I go to take the socks down, I can easily fold them as I go, thus eliminating the need to fold the socks later (a chore I dread!) because they are already paired right on the line!

I also hang all our jeans on one line alone, and it's usually the strongest line. Each pair of jeans gets two pins.

I will also group all linens together on one line -- sheets, towels, etc. I fold as I take clothes down, so this way my clothes basket is organized to easily put the clothes away when I take it inside.

Another trick is to "join" clothes together with one pin (see picture). Instead of two pins for each piece, I slightly overlap items and use one pin. It also aids in quickly taking clothes down by having less pins to deal with.

Another point to remember is the sun. Yes, the sun does wonders for keeping your whites white, and kills bacteria and germs, but there is also a down side.

Colored clothes fade in the sun!

To prevent fading, turn colored items inside out and hang that way (see photo). In this way, only the insides will fade over time. Colored socks will also fade.

The only material that I have found that doesn't fade in the sun is polyester. My son's soccer shorts are not phased at all by the sun (found this out by accident!).