Like Kim Kardashian, I enjoy a good selfie. You know . . . full makeup, arm raised high, lips formed into a duck face and my arms squeezed together for optimum cleavage. No, wait a minute . . . that’s not it at all! I like a good clothesline selfie, which is an entirely different beast!
Just me standing in front of my family’s laundry, which hangs from my humble yet functional clothesline. Allowing evaporation to take the place of a energy draining appliance.
I like to think of it as elevating the mundane into something fun, something to feel proud of!
Let me show you a few of my Instagram #ClotheslineSelfies. Here I am in front of some towels! Yes, they get stiff, but I like to think of it as a big loofa. A fancy spa treatment.
Please enjoy the underwear hanging on the line. No shame in it. We all wear underwear, well . . . except for Lenny Kravitz. But my thrifted leather pants may split at any moment, so I try to remember my underwear.
I set up my Ikea drying rack for cloth napkins here, which I say calls for a Barbara Walters-esque filter.
My clothesline is no stranger to soccer jerseys, even those of entire teams!
I wash our duvet cover pretty frequently, as it’s the favorite shedding spot for our two black cats.
Here’s a free duvet cover which I snagged (and then sold) from a garage sale leftovers pile.
I absolutely adore the smell and crispness of clothesline dried sheets. The laundry industry has tried to duplicate the scent in their laboratories, but you and I both know that they’ll never succeed.
You may notice that my towels are all the same color. Yup, we only own six good towels, which should last forever as long as I dry them in the sun.
We don’t own a lot of sheets either.
I’m not sure how I got my son to agree to pose clipped to the clothesline. But I’m really happy that I had the sense to photograph this moment in time.
Here’s what I want from you. I want your clothesline selfies for a future blog post. You can either e-mail them to me at nonconsumer@comcast.net or tag me on Instagram as @nonconsumer. Or you could even share them on The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group. However you do it, I want to see your clothesline selfies!
Cleavage optional.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats to your son on doing his own laundry! That is one big chore I handed over to all my kids when they were old enough to use the washer and dryer. Made them accountable for their own laundry and no more “Mom, where’s my ….?”
The Lenny Kravitz reference!
Loved it, too!
You’re welcome. I try to stay on top of important current events. 😉
I will have to remember to take a picture today. I call my clothesline my solar dryer. By the way, I have towels that are 25 years old that are still great because I line-dry!
Sadly, due to back issues, I seldom use my solar dryer unless the item is too big or fragile for the dryer. However, since my cell phone is older than dirt and dumber than a sack of rocks, I can’t do selfies anyway! 🙂
Growing up in Poland (and before I came to the US 12 years ago) I did not even know that there is another way THAN drying your clothes on a clothesline. Ha.
It was a problem in winter, we were drying the clothing in the attic and depending on temperature sometime they would freeze for days at a time. But in summer, they would dry in just a few hours and smell so amazing when ready.
Here.. the drying had destroyed half of my clothing 🙁 While I would have a sweater for 5-6 back in Poland, when I dry it here in the dryer it lasts me for a couple of seasons.
Living in NYC it is rather challenging to be using a clothes line but I am trying to hand wash at least the things I like most to prolong their life.
I feel sad and a little guilty about not hanging out clothes in sunny NM this year.
We got an ornery little pup in Nov. He thinks all towels belong to him. We can’t even dry pool towels within any kind of range of his. He’s a jumper and can reach anything hanging and I don’t have the time or patience to watch him constantly. I know, some would say obedience training. He’s been through two classes and is somewhat trained on some things. But he’s a stubborn terror (terrier) and I’m picking my battles here!
So no clothesline selfie from me. I could hang him on the line, but he’s so black he’s not as photogenic as your son!
Judy, I feel your pain. Many years ago I had a pup that did the same thing. I remember him getting a favorite dress of mine and half dragging it under the house. I was in tears.
I always think it’s funny that in the US it’s such a big deal.
Here in Australia most people still dry their clothes
outside in good weather and on a rack by a heater in bad.
I’ve never owned a dryer.
99% of people dry washing outside here in NewZealand (or by the heater/fire if the weather’s bad). The traditional ‘rotary’ clothesline is part of our culture;) Rotary beat straight lines hands down in my experience. We use our drier only when we are desperate as they are electricity sponges!
Can you line dry clothes inside? What about in a basement? Or do they just get musty that way?
I do line dry inside, but less so. And no mustiness issues.
I mostly put my stuff in the dryer, but I have a number of items that I like to line-dry (to keep them from shrinking or fading, for example), and I just hang those up in my laundry room.
That probably wouldn’t work fabulously for jeans, but for lighter items, I’ve had no mustiness issues.
I dry laundry inside on one store-bought clothing rack and an assortment of antiques, salvaged from DH from rental property basements back in the day. (My “selfie” photo will have to be one taken of DH of me with one of the antique racks.) I quit trying to dry outside after the feral cats a neighbor was feeding kept peeing on my sheets and towels. The neighbor and the cats are long gone, but I decided it was still easier to dry inside year-round. Can’t do sheets on the racks, but I now have two sets of Polartec sheets that get dry in the dryer in 20 minutes flat.
Salvaged *by* DH. Argh!
I, too, love the smell of fresh sun dried laundry. I snap my towels a couple of times before hanging to dry and they seem to come out much softer and less wrinkles. Was wondering if you had tried?
I love my clothesline! I live in the Phoenix area, so at this time of year the clothes tend to dry faster on the line than in the dryer, sometimes even before the next load is out of the washer! I think it is great for towels…they are a bit stiff but they are more absorbent and smell so good.
I used to live in Albuquerque and the drying time was similarly impressive!
I don’t line dry for various reasons, but I only have one or two loads a week. Trade-off, maybe.
I envy those with clothesline success. My clothes rarely completely dry while the sun is up. So they sit on the line all day. And get pooped on by birds. And then I bring them in before dark, still damp. So unless it is an exceptionally sunny day I use the dryer.
Off-subject, but I love seeing your iPod cords in nearly every selfie! I listen to books from the library on my iPod when I’m doing chores. It’s such a treat!
Lately it’s podcasts that keep me company while I do chores.
Drying outside is a challenge due to all the semis up and down our dirt road. So DH built me a drying rack. He put together aluminum conduit like a short fat ladder, then used ropes and a boat winch to put it next to the ceiling. I use the winch to lower it, then raise it almost to the vaulted ceiling in our mudroom. Little items (socks, underwear, wash cloths) get dried on a folding rack I got at a thrift store.
Melody, we’ve been thinking about doing something similar here, maybe by repurposing an old crib side to hang items from in the winter in the room where the wood stove is. That would help boost the humidity in our living space, too. “Cabin Quaint” we’ll call it when visitors glance askance. 😉