Unhydrogenated corn oil is not carcinogenic, even in megadosed rats. In fact, it seems to have anti-carcinogenic properties.
I believe this is true for coconut oil as well, even though it has more saturated fats than the corn oil. - DR

Well, guess Im the only one here who HATES line drying.

No matter how hot it is outside - like in 2004, when European weather had gone absolutely nuts and temperatures we around 85 to 104° for weeks - I am using the electric dryer.

First of all, it takes ages to hang all that laundry on the line.

Usually, I manage to drop something  typically something white like a towel or underwear.

Over-sized items like sheets are a b**ch to handle. ItÂs either: I manage to hang one half of it on the line, while the other half is dragging across the lawn or, to prevent my freshly laundered stuff from wiping the ground, I have to sort of drape it around myself  which makes me look like a mummy tryin to do laundry.

While others do seem to like the smell of sun-dried laundry  I thinks it stinks. (No, weÂre not living in a downtown area  weÂre living in the country).

Worst of all  everything becomes so stiff & rough when line-dried. No matter how much pre- or re-fluffing in the tumble dryer IÂm doing, I can instantly tell whatÂs been out on the line and whatÂs been tumble-dried.

So, after several attempts to line-dry my stuff I much prefer just throwing everything in the dryer and have sensors, blowers and motors doing the job for me. After all, thatÂs what we bought it for.

Alex  who just loves tumble dryers ;-)

I don't know if I want to spend that much time (hanging) and that much money (the garments and linens) to provide my dogs with toys when what they really want is for me to pull on the other end . . .

Dross coconut oil is not healthy at all, it does not even contain lauric acid. Hawaians however were traditionally free from heart disease, obesity and cancer and had strong immune systems and skin. Why? This was due to the natural un-refined (not processed)coconut oil they ate and they consumed a lot of it, and used it to protect there skin from sun and sea. It's all they had. Those shiny african natives with healthy skin also used it as an anti-oxidant sunblock, but mostly africans use shea for the skin.
I'm not inclined to be a doctor at all, only interested in results, do your own research regarding the medical technicalities, I do'nt know maybe corn oil is not a carcinogen, for me it is in the trash forever, not going to re-research it, just a word I used meaning "undesirable, poisonous". Recall reading about the toxic sticky varnish it forms on the bottle, and it's being rancid, coconut oil is not and keeps for up to 7 years. Do not research coconut oil, research wet mill, or expeller pressed coconut oil and tell me what you find. My doctor laughed in my face when I told him about coconut oil being healthy.
As I'm an endurance athlete I notice it more then you would, but even when at rest, (I have registered as low as 38 BPM) I strongly notice that when I eat corn oil I am sleepy as my system tries to process it. The coconut oil does not make me tired but gives energy. If you strain your digestion you are shortening your lifespan, that tired feeling means strain. The wet mill coconut oil causes you to consume less calories, less strain on digestion. I would not put gummy sticky greasy corn oil on my skin, nor would I use poisonous refined coconut oil. Wet mill coconut oil however retains it's beneficial properties, taste, and scent.

The rancid corn oil has some sort of deoderizer added also. How does an oil get rancid? exposure to air or something, when derived from consumption of the corn kernal it is healthy. When you do your research you will be confronted with misinformation and the occasional flat out lie, in addition to personal belief or thought process dyslexia, it is not always easy to tap into the accurate knowledge. I was being pulled in every direction when I researched the Staber, I am now a completly confident that the Staber is superior, by a long shot, and in so many ways. Worlds most efficient existing washer, though I admit I could build a better one, and I have only been into washers for a year.

When you take the Stabers amount of energy manufacturing and maintenance put out into the atmosphere from day one to the landfill, using the Our detergent/bleach/softener in the one bottle....also laundry consists of weight and mass. Because the Staber tub can be crammed to the greatest degree compared to any other washer it is an efficientcy of space, exterior demensions and overall weight of the machine, meaning ofcourse less vibration on a wood floor. When your building thousands of one product worldwide these things add up and reduce expense. Deliberitly engineering problems into a machine on the other hand, is a felony.

Again I have to stress that in researching oil or washers many corporations are crooks. Be prepared to here lies. Prevailing thought WILL (period) be going from bad to worse so no there is not going to be a revolution of anti carcinogeneic foods or superbly engineered easy to repair by home owner washing machines, I mean you figure the JHWH is just about to do his killin' thing in this time of armageddon and I mean think about it how would it look? What would people say throughout eternity if "The Holiest Papaya" slaughtered a bunch of efficient critters with there heads on straight? Just would'nt work. That is one reason why the languages were confused at the towers of Babel, to confuse engineering, keep minds blinded, also same reason Bab the great was built on a dry lake salt bed, some guy just made the wrong decision when his buddy pointed to that nice flat spot in the distance. The salt devoured the foundation. Thorns on the trail basically.

No, just because my head is on straight does'nt mean this or that. I am not interested the bible I read enough, it has helped in many ways, I do'nt lie to myself about the truth. Whether I research religion, oil, washers or whatever, I do'nt tend to give up till I get my head on strait, if I can. There is an old biblical saying that went something like, "they know things and research conclusions, but not according to accurate knowledge. Turns out the bible claims some 99 per cent of people have blinded confused thought process. therefore go argue with your buddy sweet Jesus in that case leave me out of it if you do'nt believe it. For instance many people try as they might, they can not get good gas mileage, and they wonder why. They are not making the correct decisions at the wheel due to a lack of accuracy in decision. You will find Kenny Roberts exacts as much energy in getting a peice of crap TZ 750 round the race track as you do or less and you are a lot slower. Why? He is a world champion one, he is just doing things correctly and at precisely the right time for it.

What I like about Staber is I am working with a maxed out design versus a TZ. In my Civic I averaged 49.56 MPG and that is a normal gas powered non hybrid, (averaged) in fact I was getting up to 55 MPG per tankfull.

The Staber company is going down the right road generally, still I could build a better machine then that if I had enough money. (or if I used even less rather hint) I would place a big emphasis on light weight for instance, aluminum frame, more plastic panels, more compact, and then ruthlessly improve on the details as they show themselves. No,I do'nt think the Staber is the holy grail nother words. The trick is not to overdue also, exageration is a big problem. My "staber" design would not have the electronics and complexity of bleach, softener detergent dispensing for instance, since I just pour the liguid detergent in manuelly. I would dumb it down quite a bit. Staber could offer a cheaper more basic machine, I think it is a nitch, exaggerated prevailing thought again will not buy that. Just does'nt look good on the box.

If you ever manufactured something from square one, start to finish, choosing each of the many materials and refined it and maxed out the design as I have (airplane including airfoil) you will find that early in the design phase exaggeration results in the biggest problems. From there it is accuracy in process elimination and or additions, balance.

I would love to be able to use a clothesline, but my HOA does not allow it. When I lived in places that placed no restrictions on drying laundry outdoors, I used the clothesline from April to October, but stopped when the cold weather came. If the clothes were too stiff, 5 minutes in the dryer when they came off the line softened them up nicely. As a bonus, nothing beats sunlight for removing tomato stains on clothing.

I saved electricity, the clothing lasted longer, and so did the dryer. My first dryer lasted 21 years.

warsher; I never thought of ground drying before and I will try this with my quilts. I usually drape them over the patio furniture to allow for air circulation and support. But the ground drying method sounds like a much better idea. Thanks.

I do use my asphalt driveway to dry rugs and this works great. We have very large room size rugs and I haul them outside onto the driveway and steam clean, wait an hour to dry and flip them over and steam clean the other side. I do this almost every year in July. The rugs are steamed cleaned and refreshed being in the open air and sun.

Yeah I was pretty shocked at just how fast things dried on the grass, the cement, even hot cement I guess absorbs moisture and lengthens drying time. The grass idea (burmuda grass) has been a real keeper, I flip the garment over once or twice. One hour in april for a sleeping bag is fast.

The old "not always what you think will work but what actually does." Jeans really strain a drier also, right now I dry 90 minutes (to full loads) every 2 weeks, when I build the line dry I will be at 45 minutes every 2 weeks, only about 25 times a year that I will need to use the drier.

warsher, go ahead and eat whatever you like, but please don't presume to know more than I do about either coconuts or Hawaiian traditions.
I was wondering whether you'd make it through a thread without bringing up your washing machine. Sometimes Staber seems more like a cult (maybe a branch of Scientology) than merely a fringe washing machine company. - DR

I line dry whenever it's dry out. This does tend to shift my laundry chores to mornings rathe than evenings, though. I do a 15 minute air fluff tumble with no heat for bath towels prior to line drying. They come off the line alost as soft as they would if they were mechanically dried, and they have that nice line-dried aroma.

I don't find that putting clothes on and off the line takes much longer than mechanical drying. I set up a 40 foot line pulley system off my side porch, which is right next to the laundry area in my home. The only problem I have is when the line is full up and I have more wet laundry to dry. I am considering putting in a second line pulley system, to help deal with the extra drying needed.

Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the laundry forum ... not the vegetable oil conspiracy theory forum ... ?

Interesting results. Have to say that I fell asleep during some of warsher's ramblings about vegetable oil, but otherwise generally interesting responses.

Line drying is one of England's traditions - even in our climate a lot of people still don't have a tumble dryer & often most days in the summer, if you look outside our bedroom windows into other people's gardens you often see a nice patchwork of washing on lines in all the gardens - quite a nice sight I think, don't know why on earth HOA's ban it in the US. If you did that here there would be an uproar.

Would never dry laundry on the grass or draped over bushes though. Otherwise, sleeping bags and whatever will probably have nice presents planted on them by our labrador-collie. Plus, I would feel anyway, that laundry would air much better if hung on the line in the traditional way. Have to say that, since switching to standard clotheslines a month or so ago after our rotary airer (or umbrella clothesline, as known in the US), broke after 15 years of being outside in the open climate without being taken down or covered, that laundry seems to dry much more quicker on the more traditional lines than on the rotary airer and I'm quite reluctant now to switch back to the rotary airer, although the only benefit the rotary airer has is that you could just stand in one place to hang out 4 or 5 loads, plus you don't have to do the limbo 3 times when wlaking from the back door to the garden gate!

Must say I have never timed how long it takes for laundry to dry on the line - I always just put it out in the morning and collect it in at about 9 or 10pm. If I have hung out a load quite late, or at dusk, I'll leave the load out at night if it isn't dry then it'll get left out overnight until the next day. Even with the high speed 1400 and 1600rpm spins I have on my washers, mum often notices that the electricity bill goes down during periods when I don't use the tumble dryer.

Jon

I love seeing clothes hanging on the line! It always makes me smile for some reason. I too hang sometimes, just when I'm in the mood though. My family doesn't like the stiff clothes though and the smell we get isn't a wonderful fresh smell and kind of stinks too but that could be because we have cattle grazing all around us. :) BTW, one summer DH decided to see how much $ we cold save by not drying in our electric dryer. I hung clothes out for a solid 3 months. We saw NO noticable change in our utility bill...so dissapointing and hard to believe. We are a family of 6 and do tons of laundry and temps here are 100 degrees in summer so being an all electric house costs no matter what.

If anyone remembers the Doonesbury cartoon about clothesline prohibition, here's a bit of background:

It's still funny.

Quotes from the article:

""We choose to live in neighborhoods that don't hang these things out," Monson said.

A few weeks ago, Monson was quoted as saying that the sight of hanging laundry is "akin to
graffiti in your neighborhood.""

"Now, Monson chooses his words more carefully. "When we talk about areas of communities
that are less desirable, we often associate those with undesirable items that are in proximity to the buildings," he said.
He stands by his assertion that the sight of clothes flapping in the breeze could knock 15 percent off property values."

" "The housing office said clotheslines make the place look like a tenement," Hackett said."

My only answer to these phrases is complete snobbery. Whoever lives in this HOA's need to be shot, and get back to reality. The fact that laundry hanging in the breeze lowers house values by up to 15% , and makes neighbourhoods unattractive, is complete bull, if you pardon my French. My neighbourhood is hardly of low class - I live in a leafy suburb with 3, 4 and 5 bedroom family homes overlooking the countryside - and the sight of clothes on the line doesn't lower the class or property values at all!!!

Thanks krustytopp anyway for posting that article - the article just goes to show how stupid some people really can be all in the sake of snobbery!

Jon

MY HOA bans it too. I didn't care 6 years ago when we moved in since my laundry room is upstairs I doubted I'd want to use a clothesline but with our electric bill hike going up $50 a month I'm wishing I had the option. I have a question. I've always read about the cost of dryers but what of washers? My Oasis dryer drys quickly but wonder how much more electric the washer uses w/longer cycles.
Nancy

Most of the cost of running a load of laundry is not in spinning the tub (which takes very little power except possibly during the high-speed spins between cycles) but in heating the water. If the washer has no onboard heater then length of cycle will have essentially zero effect on energy use. If there is an onboard heater that is used to maintain temp during a cycle, then long cycles will use a very tiny bit more energy (though it won't offset the energy saved by heating in situ).

Long drying times eat BTUs because the high-wattage element is on the whole time the dryer is running. - DR

Thanks Dross for explaining how the washer doesn't use much electric. I was hoping to see a drop in our electric w/ the Oasis with the 14+ loads I do but with the new electric increase I'm just hoping it helps the increase not to be as high.
Nancy

I read that the Queen has drying yards at Windsor and Balmoral. If it's good enough for HM, then line drying is good enough for me!

I think the messy look can come from haphazardly strung lines. A well set up yard with taut lines and plumb vertical posts with well-trimmed bases can be quite innocuous, if not attractive. At least I think mine looks tidy and workmanlike, at the very least. But then I have the space to have the area set discreetly behind a building and not mounted caterwhampus from my porch. I do sacrifice some convenience to have it this way; I don't keep my other service areas (garage, waste cans, woodricks, etc.,) out front, either. If modesty is an issue you can always hang your unmentionables between the sheets. There are also retractable lines that can be concealed when not in use.

I think the HOA thing is the result of one new association just blindly following another's agreement, with rethinking it from scratch. People often have fenced-in swimming pools, and those huge, street-facing triple garages out front in places with HOA in force. Frankly, those are uglier to me than a washing line blowing in the breeze.

Molly~

When I went house hunting, I told the real estate agent I didn't even want to see a house with a covenant against clotheslines.

Or rather, I call my clothesline a passive solar clothes dryer.

I have two unobtrusive poles sunk into my back yard. My clothesline is on a reel that I attach when I do laundry and bring in when the clothes are dry.

I have pollen allergies, so I've had to give up marvelous-smelling dried-in-the-breeze sheets. Bed linens and towels (I just don't care for air-dried towels) go into the dryer. Everything else will go onto the line, including underwear (let the UV do its thing).

I can't abide cheap clothespins and jealously guard the made-in-USA wooden pins I last bought about a decade ago. I have scored some other, older, good-quality pins at yard and estate sales. And I use plastic pins for synthetics and lingerie.

As far as I know, I'm the only one in my neighborhood of the DC suburbs who has a clothesline. Sometimes I wonder if the children walking by my house with their parents on route to the local park ask what I'm doing out there with my clothes pins and laundry basket.

Last week, it was sunny and dry. I had three loads in succession on that single line. Each dried within an hour. Ummm, do they smell great.

dross said: Long drying times eat BTUs because the high-wattage element is on the whole time the dryer is running.
That isn't correct. The heating element does not run 100% of the cycle time. Thermostats control the heating element to hit a specific target temperature, otherwise it would keep getting hotter and hotter, like an oven out of control. True, the heat source (electric element or gas burner) may run almost constantly at the start of a load when evaporating moisture keeps the temperature down. As the load dries, the target temperature is reached with less heating 'effort' and the element or burner cycles off for increasingly longer periods. That's how thermostatic or non-moisture sensing auto-dry cycles work. The timer runs during the intervals when the heat source is off. When the load is very wet/damp at the start, the timer remains pretty much stationary. As the load dries and the heating runs less, the timer runs more until it reaches Off.

I'm the only one in my neighborhood of the DC suburbs who has a clothesline.

What a shame, considering the virtually limitless supply of hot air you have nearby.

We did a lot of line drying when I was growing up but I always hated it because I could smell the the scent-du-jour in the clothing, sometimes it was the smell of gardenias (good smell!) sometimes it was the smell of moldy leaves blowing from the nearby woods (bad bad smell) but most of the time it was a decidedly *bad* smell and all of our clothes, linens etc felt very rough. Not only are clothes lines not allowed in our neighborhood I wouldn't care to use one anyway.

The heating element does not run 100% of the cycle time.

Well, yes, it goes on and off to maintain a temperature, but the point is that it does this throughout the cycle. Meanwhile, the moist air is vented out, carrying heat with it that needs to be constantly replenished by the element (whereas washers are generally designed retain the heat, or at least not intentionally expel it). - DR

dross said: Well, yes, it goes on and off to maintain a temperature, but the point is that it does this throughout the cycle.But that's not what you originally said. You first said Long drying times eat BTUs because the high-wattage element is on the whole time the dryer is running which is incorrect.

There's also typically a 5- to 10-minute cooldown at the end of the cycle during which the heat source doesn't run at all. Admittedly that's a small percentage of the total cycle time. dross said: Meanwhile, the moist air is vented out, carrying heat with it that needs to be constantly replenished by the element (whereas washers are generally designed retain the heat, or at least not intentionally expel it).Yup, that's how vented dryers work. Condenser/non-vented dryers are a little different.

Oh good grief. I was trying to address the question of whether running a washer with long cycles would eat lots of electricity, like a dryer, not give a precise technical lesson on dryer operation. When you tell people about having seen a movie, do you mention that the image actually blinked off 24 times per second?-)
With condenser dryers heat is actively still removed - either by air moving across a heat exchanger and then venting outside the machine, or by liquid being heated and pumped out through the drain. There is little practical qualitative difference in the effect on the energy draw on the machine, except that such dryers are usually less efficient at drying the clothing.
I apologize for anything I said or did that provoked this unexpected attack of pedanticism! - DR

Experiment successful! Thanks for playing. :-)

(In regards to movies, yes, occasionally I do mention the 24-frames-per-second process ... being as I've worked at movie theaters for 27 years. Gotcha on that one!)

Oh, and by the way. It's actually 48 images flashed on the screen per second. Each frame is shown twice (the projector has a two-bladed shutter).

Sheesh, you could have gone after me some time that I wasn't busy fending off personal attacks from that 'ego' troll!
My grandfather worked as a projectionist in Brooklyn during the depression - it was a great job in those days. (I guess the same could have been said for any job.) - DR

perhaps I was busy fending off unneeded accusations and attacks from you

General point is, guys, that a clothes dryer will always use more energy than even a washer set on a 95*C cycle - so cutting out the tumble dryer should be a fair portion of energy bills chopped off, if the washing line is used exclusively.

Even if my towels are slightly more stiff off the line, I certainly prefer to save my parents pockets, and the planet, by line drying as much as I can :-).

Jon

I think I've posted this before, but heres why I will NEVER line dry my clothes...
When I was little my Mom would wash a load in the morning before she left for work, hang it out on the line in the backyard and during the day my babysitter would take it down and fold it for her. So one day we're sitting there pulling things out of the basket and folding them when we started seeing these HUGE bugs crawling all in the laundry, TONS of them. I don't know what they were, maybe earwigs or something...
We jumped up and she's frantically trying to round them all up and they just keep pouring out of the basket...finally she thinks to get the vacuum and starts sucking them all up...I was horrified!
I could never understand how the bugs could be in the clothes and the babysitter not see them as she was pulling them off the line, only now does it occur to me that maybe she left the basket sitting and the bugs swarmed the unattended basket...I don't know.
And I've always wondered, doesn't anyone ever find bird poop on their clothes? Maybe it's just my luck, but I'm positive I would go out to collect my clothes and there would be white bird drips all over everything...
Anyway, I like the IDEA of line drying, I think clothes hanging in a neat row drying in the sun evokes a very warm and homey feeling...I will just have to admire my neighbors! :)

Jonsgirl,

Well, one does get an occasional bird poop, especially if you leave the clothes out overnight, which I often do. (I hang out late at night, and retrieve the next day.) When the elderberries are ripe, I try to avoid having stuff out for long periods. I also have a whirligig bird scarer that I attach to the poles while the laundry is out during the couple of weeks when the birds are gorging themselves and pooping purple!

I agree with your later analysis about where the earwigs came from, proabably from the time the things were in the basket. Earwigs congregate in dark places under things, and conceivably, within the folds of laundry in a basket. It's hard to imagine them hiking up the laundry posts, out along the lines and then down into the laundry.

Since line-drying appeals to you, why not try a small experiment on a fine day? The smell and texture of sun-dried wash is wonderful. You may get hooked!

Molly~

Oh yes, I use the clothesline all the time, unless it is bitter cold. Im on the 4th floor and it goes from my kitchen window to ladder like pole in the courtyard, with pulleys.
All the tennants have them. There is about 12 clotheslines in all. It is located in the rear courtyard and not visable from the front of the building.

Towels never get stiff, only cheap towels will, use fabric softner.
The only problem I had with the line was on a very windy day the clothes would get all twisted and wrap around the lines, makeing it very difficult to pull in.
A friend suggested tieing a bleech bottle or any plastic bottle with a handle, fill it with water, so it weights the line down, therefore not allowing the clothes to wrap around the lines. It actually works, and on regular days I just take it off.
My clothes always smell great, especially in the fall and winter when the air is cold and crisp.

i use a line to dry too dh thinks its dumb but i dont care..last summer my highest gas bill was 12$ line dryes everything but undies. went away for about 4 weeks in jan/feb and my dh did laundry while i was gone and my daughter said that her dad shurnk her shirts i always line dry them...and they had to go out to buy new undies cuz he did not wash for over 2 weeks. my daughter said oh im glad your home i dont like the way dad dose laundry! sheets blankets shirts shorts,sometimes towles my and my dd pants on line hubby dont care...sometimes my 2ds dont care but they all love the smell

Nightcrawler, that must be a sight to see! As I mentioned above, I love the look of clothes on the line. I once lived in a second story appartment that had a clothesline from the back door to the tree in the backyard. I made the mistake of leaving the clothes out all night, it got really windy during the night and the next morning I was picking up clothes stuck on my little roof below, the neighbour's yard, and the backyard. I guess my clothespins weren't that hardy. Boy was I embarrassed!

Jules, I'm surprised your husband doesn't kiss your feet for saving him so much money by line drying (and not having to buy new underwear LOL).

A hint for line drying......I put my clothes in the dryer for 15 minutes...5 minutes of heat and 10 minutes of cool down(the end of the timed cycle on my Maytag Neptune)....Fluffs up towels before line drying and makes less wrinkles on shirts and pants...and does not shrink anything because I only use 5 minutes of heat

I line dry certain things summer and winter. In the summer I use my umbrella clothes line in the backyard. In the winter I dry things on a line strung from the joists in the basement. I line dry all my pants and shirts as I find it is much easier on my clothes. In the summer I dry most things except socks and underwear because I just find them to fiddly to hang up. If it is a nice breezy day, towels don't get stiff. I actually enjoy standing outside hanging laundry, and it dries so quickly on a warm day.

My brother gave his wife a clothesline for Mother's Day (how romantic). They had moved out to the country last year and she had been looking forward to getting a clothesline--something they didn't have when they lived in the city.

I am trying to find a pole from which to hang washing line. We have one which is a 'T' shape with 4 small holes in the top bar. Am having trouble finding a match for the other end.
Does anyone know a supplier?

I enjoyed hanging up laundry when I was a kid, but my Mom stopped sometime around 1970. I don't remember hanging things out in the winter, but Mom once told me how she loved the smell of line dried towels in the winter from her childhood. They were brought in and draped on the chairs to thaw out and finish drying.

I've never hung laundry on a line as an adult. Even line-dry items get hung in the house. With my allergies I don't need that "fresh air smell" though I remember it fondly.

I miss hanging clothes to dry! Growing up I used to help my mom do this in the PA countryside. When I moved to Western WA there wasn't a line so I had to use the dryer. Then I moved to Eastern WA & there was a line & I used it spring through fall. I then moved to AR & there was a line at that house too & I used it spring through fall as well. Now I'm in Utah & there's no line & I have to use the dryer. I've wanted hubby to buy & install one, but no such luck. =( I hope wherever we move to next has a clothesline!

Reading through this thread brought back memories of helping my mom and grandma hang out clothes -- northern Indiana -- in all but the worst of wet or cold weather. I remember the great fragrance of sun-dried clothes . . . but everything had to be ironed! Even after she had a dryer, my mother would hang sheets out . . . just for the fragrance. I love the softness and fluffiness of dryer-dried clothes -- but if someone could get that sun-fragrance in a fabric softener, I'd like them even better!

I don't have a clothesline at this house, because there isn't a good place for one. (Lots of big trees and birds in the backyard where we COULD put one.)

BUT-- I line dry many of our clothes, using movable racks that I put out in the front yard when the weather is fine and the pollen not too bad. (Lots of allergies in our house.) Can't do sheets this way (and I do miss our line-dried sheets--SO SMOOTH)but it'll handle all the clothing. And most of the towels. I also line dry stuff INSIDE when the weather is less than hospitable--using the same drying racks.

When my boys move out of the dorms and into their first apartments they will both be receiving drying racks.

melanie

ugh... I personally don't like the "feel" of line dried clothes, they feel rough to me.

That said, I also distinctly remember one of my brothers crawling into a bed that had been made with line dried sheets and he had a wasp in the bed with him... actually, THAT was quite funny looking back on it...

I do have a relative who has about 10 lines strung from the ceiling/floor joists about 6-8 inches apart in her basement laundry room that she uses when the weather is not ok for hanging out.... I'm not sure she even owns a dryer truth be told....

Here in the country we let it all hang out. Great way to air blankets, draperies etc. I really enjoy seeing my family flapping away on the line!
We bought sheep from a family and the lady told me she always hung items in order, in groups, in colours!! A little obsessive compulsive? but it gave her great pleasure to see everything organized and under control!
I'm wanting ideas for ceiling lines in my new laundry room. Currently use wooden folding racks indoors in the long Canadian winter.

We air dry most everything on racks in our basement, where the laundry "room" is. Or at least I do. My husband frequently tosses his socks in the dryer, which makes for an interesting comparison, since we both purchased a huge batch of socks on the same day two years ago (they were the same brand and style). Mine look almost brand new. His look ready for the rag bag!

I would love to line dry some of my items, (sheets especially) but I live in Houston now (grew up in KS where we line dried all the time)--it's too hot, too humid and too much dust and pollen. :( If I move back up north, you can bet I'll have a clothesline again.

I use an umbrella clothes line, which just off a concrete patio. We designed a "laundry" courtyard into the landscape at our new home just to accomodate the clothes line. Because the clothes line is installed just off the patio, the lines are over the concrete (or river rock on the landscaped side), no wet feet from dew in the grass.... I can also take the clothes line out and put a real umbrella in the hole - double your pleasure.

I also have an assortment of drying racks that I use when I can't hang outdoors.

-Grainlady

Dear Blogg,

On the topical subject of washing lines, I put a brand new one up 30 metres (although I only used about 10 metres) and pegs for about two pounds English moneyquite cheap too!... about three weeks ago

anyway since the day I put it up the weather has been atrocious. Up to then it had been sunny for a few weeks and having got the electricity bill..ouch! ...so cut down on the drier we all decided .like teenagers ingest vast amounts of electricity?

.to return the issue.since that notable day the washing line has only worked periodically I would say 3 times out of ten at the most... weve even taken it down and changed the polarity!!...with little differenceits colour is by purple the way!!!....

.I AM SERIOUSLY THINKING OF TAKING IT BACK AS BEING FAULTY!...

.Furthermore nowhere to be seen on the outer wrapping was any mention or warning of its dislike of unfavourable weather!!!...This could be a case for the Trades and Description Act! the line could be sulking perhaps missing home as its likely to be made in china!

.an alternative theory is: Ive had a digital satellite dish put on the wall near to on end of the line and this could be draining energyweve definitely got excellent picture quality on the TV!!

oh by the way...day job is being boss of my establishment and hence I am last port of all in the line management structure!!!...I thought I had some management skills but alas this has tested my limitations!!!

.would love to hear from anyone who may able to shed further light on the matter or think of any other possible causes or simply have a view on the subject???

who was the first linesman/woman??????

I have developed the perfect system. Here is what I do:

I stand next to the dryer and wait for it to complete the cool down cycle.

Next I open the door and gently pluck a dress or t-shirt from the dryer. I do this with a steady non jerky motion so that I don't look like a clumsy clutz if my neighbors see me.

Next I retrieve a hanger from the carefully organized group of hangers. I keep them well organized so my neighbors can see how orderly I am.

Next I place the shirt on a hanger and then hang it on the
cast iron gas supply line that runs across my ceiling in my laundry to my dryer. I keep everything organized by color and fabric type so that it looks nice.

Once there I adjust the shirt so that the wrinkles will fall out. If the shirt is damp I will let it hang over night.

I return to perfectly dried and fresh smelling laundry because I have rinsed them in fabric softener usually vernel or UK comfort.

AND just today in the newspaper I see that P&G is willing to give me 20 cents off of their price so that I can have the extraordinary new scent experience from Downy---Tahitian Waterfall...I can just hardly wait.