This morning on the way to church, I spotted some clothes blowing in the wind at a house we passed. And I thought, hmm, her dryer must be on the blink. Back in the day, I would have never thought that. I might have been surprised to see clothes on the line on a Sunday morning because back then folks didn’t do laundry on Sundays unless it was an unusual situation where “the ox was in the ditch” which could happen, especially when you had babies or someone was sick and needed clean linen.
I’ve hung out many lines of clothes in my life. There’s nothing quite as fragrant as sheets and towels off the line. Plus, there’s just something satisfying about seeing the clothes you’ve just washed on the line blowing in the wind.
When I was a very young mother with two babies, I washed a lot of diapers. No throwaway diapers in those days and even if there were, I couldn’t have managed the price. Rainwater and my labor was cheaper. Much cheaper. And the sun and wind dried them out on the line. I would spread a quilt or the playpen pad near the clothesline and take my babies out with me to hang up the clothes or even better to take the clothes off the line. I would often fold them into the basket outside which gave me more outside time when the weather was nice. The kids liked that sunshine time too. An extra bonus was how the sun bleached out the diapers to keep them whiter.
Of course it wasn’t so nice to hang out clothes when the day was rainy or very cold. In the winter, a person’s fingers could freeze hanging out those clothes. I can remember times when the diapers froze as soon as I pinned them on the line. At the end of the day, you often had to prise the corners off the line because they stayed frozen under the clothespins. But it is true that most of the clothes did freeze dry even on the coldest days, especially if a little wind was blowing. It’s also true that frisky pups sometimes tore up your favorite sheets or towels when they started flapping in the wind to make the best dog toys ever.
Below are some rules about hanging out clothes that I shared here a few years ago. But they might still bring a smile or some memories. Most women had a certain way to hang up clothes. Of course, we also had a certain way to wash our clothes back when we were using wringer washing machines and used the same water we may have carried in from the rain barrel or drawn out of the cistern for several loads. Whites first, those unmentionable, dresses & shirts next, towels then, and finally blue jeans and work clothes.
If you’ve ever hung out clothes or if you haven’t, these clothesline rules are fun to read.
THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES:
- You hang socks by the toes. NOT the top.
- You hang pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs… NOT the waistbands. (Oops. I broke this rule.)
- You have to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes. Walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines. (My mother taught me that.)
- You have to hang clothes in a certain order. Always hang “whites” with “whites,” and hang them first. (You just naturally did this because you washed them first.)
- You NEVER hang a shirt by the shoulders – always by the tail!
- Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, Or on Sunday, for Heaven’s sake! (See, I told you.)
- Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you can hide your “unmentionables” in the middle. (I didn’t have to worry about that. I never had near neighbors or live near the road.)
- It doesn’t matter if it’s sub-zero weather… clothes will “freeze-dry.”
- ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines are tacky! (In the picture, you might note the bottom of a clothespin holder that was draped on a hanger.)
- To be efficient, you line the clothes up so that each item doesn’t need two clothespins, but can share a clothespin with the next washed item. (Of course. You only had so many clothespins and line room.)
- Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed. (IRONED??!! Well, that’s a whole OTHER subject!)
- Long wooden pole (clothes pole) is used to push the clotheslines up so longer items (sheets/pants/etc.) don’t brush the ground and get dirty. (One of my aunts had that kind of clothesline, but mine were tall enough without the extra clothes pole.)
I did have certain things that I hung on certain lines. I sometimes had to distribute the weight so the lines wouldn’t sag in the middle.
Another thing about clotheslines is that if you were playing hide and seek in the dark when you were a kid, you had to remember where the clotheslines were. If you didn’t and were running through a yard in the dark, you might get clothes-lined and come to a sudden, painful stop.
Did you ever or do you now hang out clothes to dry in the sunshine?
I did until those years when I had to take my turn staying with Mom during her last illness. Then I had to wash clothes whenever I could. I got out of the habit of hanging out my sheets and towels and eventually we took the lines down. Still have the clothesline posts there. Those lines could go back up if my dryer went on the blink. 🙂
One more thing. I’m pretty sure you’ll see another washday post here this summer after my new book, A Chance for Kallie Mae, releases since the story has an old fashioned washday scene.
Comments 40
This takes me back to the years that we drove about ten miles to wash laundry, and then drove back home to hang it out on the line. (Long story)
Overall Mom and I followed the rules pretty well.
Author
Never liked having to take my clothes out to the laundry mat, Marti. Or anywhere. But sometimes I had to. I think I brought them home on these times too and hung them out. Interesting what can jolt our memories. Glad you shared some of your memories.
I love the smell of fresh clothes off the line. I quit hanging out as I can no longer carry te basket of wet clothes after my shoulder surgery last year. I’m like you I hung pants by the waist. Oops! I enjoyed reading this.
Author
Everybody can’t get all the rules right, Lucy, and who made up these rules anyhow? Right? Our pants got dry in the wind hung by the waist the same as those did hung by the legs. LOL. Hope your shoulder is getting better with each day, but sometimes we have to embrace the easier way to do something.
Yes I remember hanging up clothes on the clothesline as a kid. We had a wash machine and no dryer for a while when I was growing up and even when we got a washer mom still hung up some things on the line. I remember how tired my arms would get reaching up. I was short then—still am now.😊 The clothes smelled fresh and clean but I didn’t always like how rough and hard they could feel afterwards. I also remember having to race to take the laundry down too. I don’t hang my clothes up now except those items that can’t go in the dryer and I hang them inside not outside.
It was fun reading the rules of hanging clothes outside.
Author
Glad you enjoyed seeing the “rules” for hanging clothes on the line, Janet. Sounds as though a lot of us have had clothesline experiences. I liked the fresh smell of outside air dried clothes, but many of the clothes were sort of stiff and wrinkled after drying is a good wind wasn’t blowing.
I think I liked hanging out clothes in pretty weather because I got to be outside more. Missed that outdoor freedom once I had babies to take care of.
Hello Ann, Here in Australia it is common to hang ou wsahing on the clothesline, although I must admit I like to dry the towels in the dryer as they come out softer. I am so glad to have the convenience of modern clotheslines which can be wound up, folded down etc., instead of the old clothes prop lines.
We were amazed when visting Canada many years ago to see clotheslines in Winnipeg at the level of the level of the first floor [ what you would call the second floor]. We were told this was so they could hang out their washing in winter. We wondered how it ever dried.
Author
Fun to hear from Australia about your clothesline use, Helen. Dryers do fluff up those towels and soften blue jeans too. My clotheslines were always a permanent feature of the yard. I didn’t know they had lines that could be stored away between washdays. I have hung clothes up in the upstairs of the farmhouse where I started housekeeping. It took a little longer, but they did eventually get dry. Of course the upstairs wasn’t heated except for the heat from the woodstove rising up the staircase. My lines up there were just temporary lines I strung across the room.
We helped hang out clothes on the line when we were growing up. Mom had a wringer washer then. She used a hose to fill it up with warm water from the faucet on the sink to the washer on the screened in back porch. Then she would run cold rinse water in a large wash tub for rinsing. I used to like see the clothes getting flattened out as she fed them through the wringer to the rinse tub and then back through the other way after rinsing. Then we went outside hot or cold to hang them out, and back out in the afternoon to gather them in. Tuesday was ironing day. She would put starch in shirts and dresses because just about everything was made of cotton then and would have wrinkles. Later on she was able to get an automatic washer and dryer. It was also a treat when clothing that didn’t wrinkle came out. That almost retired all that ironing.
Author
Those perma-press clothes have made my iron not used anything like it used to be. If something needs ironing, and some of my husband’s shirts do, they sometimes have to wait a while to be worn again. lol. I’ve told my kids to stop giving him shirts that need ironing or they are going to have come and iron them.
I had to heat the water in my washer with a drop in water heater. You had to be sure not to put your hand in the water while it was heating to keep from getting electrocuted. I’m not sure it would do you in, but I never wanted to test it out. We didn’t have running water at the time. I grew up and lived country rough in my early married years.
Thank you for reminding me of my childhood days when Mama and Daddy hung clothes on the line to dry. I remember running under the items and trying to get them to dance in the wind. Precious memories.
Author
I liked running through the towels and sheets too, Melissa. And my kids did too. We knew how to make fun times out of ordinary things, I suppose.
Glad the post brought you some good memories.
I remember we had to hang clothes on the line the same way you described.
Author
Fun memories, Elma. You had to do it right. 🙂
We used a clothesline for YEARS!! However, once we got rid of the lines, we also got rid of the poles! I do sometimes wish I could still hang clothes out, but you have to avoid the months where pollen turns everything outside (even your car!) a dull yellow. I do NOT miss running outside to get things off the line when it started raining, and I do NOT miss being out there when it’s cold and windy! lol!!
Author
I can remember those mad rushes out to gather in the clothes when a shower surprised me, Trudy. And I can remember having really cold hands hanging clothes out and gathering them in during the winter months. What fun these modern moms miss out on. LOL.
Where my daughter lives in SC they have the yellow pollen spring. I guess it would land on your wet clothes on the lines too.
I noticed you never mentioned a word about birds. 🙃 They were definitely rascals, especially when the wild cherries were ripe.
Author
Birds did sometimes make something need a new wash, Gin. My lines were never under a tree, but my mother’s were once. And one time she had to wear a rain scarf out while hanging out clothes because of a bee hive in a tree near the lines. They kept dive bombing her head. She thought something she used on her hair caused it.
Mom has a clothesline at her house, well usually does. I hung clothes there many times, but I don’t have one.
Author
Your mom says she going to have another one soon, April. By spring I think you’ll be able to share it again.
I remember hanging out clothes with my grandmother when I was about 4yrs. old. Many conversations were had during those times. After reading your list of rules, I recognized that she followed those pretty closely. Later on , when we were fortunate enough to have our own home , we hung clotheslines from tree to tree . My 3 yr old liked to sneakily try to escape out the opposite side of the house and go dance in the street . Thank God we live in a rural area which at that time didn’t have a lot of traffic. A beeping horn alerted me of his escape! I learned real fast to put extra locks out of his reach on the doors. My favorite memory while hanging clothes was that as I pulled on the lines and the pulleys whined the dog from next door would come and sit by me to keep me company . Malachi was a Malamute. He had one blue eye and one brown eye. At the first squeal of the pulleys, he would come running and plant himself across from me , often with a loving look, which I, of course, rewarded him with a nice rub around his ears. The neighbor would call and call for him ; but Malachi seemed to think his mission was to keep me company as I did my laundry. He disappeared suddenly one day and no one ever figured out what happened to him.
As years went on we learned that hanging clothes, although very nicely fresh scented, aggravated allergies so clothes drying became mandatorily delegated to the dryer! Fond memories, thank you for helping me remember them!
Author
Thanks for sharing your memories, Cindy. Love the one about your neighbor do keeping you company. I used to have a neighbor St. Bernard that would watch for me and go walking with me everyday. I even quit worrying about the slobber she loved to share on my blue jeans. She was a sweetheart.
Those kids will get away from you fast. I had one that liked to escape the yard. We finally got him fenced in and I kept my eyes on him better. I had a little baby at the time and it didn’t take much of a distraction for him to be off on a walk. We didn’t live near a road, but he could have gotten lost in the woods. He didn’t get away but twice, but that was two times too many. Kids!
My kids loved helping their grandmother hang out clothes. That was more fun than helping me. 🙂
I still hang clothes on the line but only in the warmer weather and usually stop around November and wait till more spring like temps come back. I didn’t have a dryer for several years and hung my clothes out or if it was a cold and/or rainy time would hang them on a line on our front porch or wash in the evenings and then hang them on an indoor line and hangers so that the heat would dry them as it ran at night. I do some of your rules but not all. I have wooden line holders that my husband put notches in to prop my lines up. I love the smell of freshly washed sheets and blankets too and would miss that if I stopped hanging them out to dry. My aunt got her arm caught in a wringer washer as a child and has marks where her arm is dented in from it. I have never used one and think I would be afraid to after what happened to her and am very thankful for my “modern” washer that does the hard work for me. I don’t hang clothes on Sundays (unless there in an emergency that requires something big being washed) but I do usually have full lines on Saturdays. There is a sense of accomplishment when I see the clothes blowing in the breeze and as we have a current temperature of 17 degrees and forecast for arctic air this week, I miss the warm weather a bit and those clothes blowing in the breeze. 🙂
Author
Those clothes would freeze pretty quickly in our cold air today too, Hope. I used a wringer washer for years and helped Mom put the clothes through it when I was a girl. I always thought it very neat. You did have to make sure you fed the clothes into the wringer in the proper way. But I never got my arm in it. I did once have a machine where the wringer apparatus got something wrong with it and the whole thing would spin around in a wild way. I think that was when I finally was able to get an automatic washer. Much much easier.
Thanks for sharing your washday memories and thoughts.
When our first son was born in 1969, cloth diapers were the only option. I did not have a dryer so I hung them out on the clothes line. There was a certain pride in seeing those white diapers blowing in the sunshine. We were actually being kind to the earth by using those cloth diapers.
Author
I agree, Bonnie. I can’t imagine how many diapers end up in the garbage every year. But baby’s bottoms probably do stay dryer just like they advertise on television. There’s good and bad with most everything.
I love clotheslines! There’s just something about seeing the clothes hanging that gives me a sense of accomplishment. I mostly use my dryer nowadays, but on nice Spring or Fall days, I still hang out my sheets. They always smell so clean and fresh. I’d never seen the clothesline “rules”, but had to chuckle at the rule about hiding your “unmentionables”. I kinda wish those days were still here, if you know what I mean. Sigh……
Author
I know what you mean, Judi. Seeing those clothes blowing in the wind just gives you a good feeling. Before I got out of the habit while spending so many days caring for my mother when she was ill, I did hang out my sheets and towels. They do smell so air freshened when you put them on the bed.
Sometimes you didn’t want anyone who happened by to see those unmentionables. Back in the day, we were much more shy about such things. No bra straps were ever supposed to show and heavens, when they started advertising a woman’s personal products on television. When I was a girl, you were embarrassed to even have those things checked out by men cashiers. LOL. Times have changed.
I loved all the information on hanging clothes. We hung clothes when I was young and times when we did not have a working dryer. I still hang a few things in my garage that I don’t want to put in the dryer.
Author
I enjoyed keeping my lines outside for a while even after I didn’t use them as often, Sharon. They were handy for wet towels when the grandkids were here and we pulled out the wading pool. But then I just got used to throwing everything in the dryer. My husband started having allergies which gave me an excuse to be lazy, I suppose.
Your post took me back to the clothesline in our yard when I was a kid. I had forgotten all about taking an old wet rag and walking the lines to clean them (once I was tall enough to reach them, that is). And our posts were shaped like a capital T, were hollow across the top, and always held a bird’s nest. I loved watching for the baby birds that came each summer.
Author
I used to wipe off the lines too when I was a kid, Carol June. Our clothesline posts were T shaped too, but they were wood. No baby birds in them. Not sure that would be good to have the nests close to the clothesline. Might have some bird poop problems. 🙂
I love the fragrance of sunshine-dried linens and clothes. When I was a kid, the ladies in the neighborhood were always envious of the one who got her laundry out on the line the earliest. My mother had to wipe down her lines because of soot from coal fires and from the steel mills. She sometimes took them down after the clothes were dry and put them away until next time. I never had to wipe mine because we lived in states with cleaner air. We always hung pants by the waist. My mother had metal pants stretchers that went in the pant legs before hanging. Kept the wrinkles at bay. It used to amuse me that my grandma hid her underwear between lines of sheets and towels. When my girls were teens, they hated to have their undies hanging on the line. Didn’t want to be embarrassed if their boyfriends came around. Towels can get stiff from drying outdoors but when we lived in Indiana, there was always a wind so strong that they were beaten soft. Around here in Ohio, the Amish have a pulley system where their clothesline go from the house to high on the barn. I guess they just reel the lines up and down to hang and take down the clothes. Well, sorry for the disjointed ramblings. You brought back so many memories. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Author
Love reading those clothesline memories, Lee. Neat to think about the Amish lines up so high.
I never lived in a neighborhood where you even knew when others were hanging out their clothes, but it’s fun that the women wanted to show they were the first to get their washing done. I feel for your mother having to fight the coal soot. That had to be a problem with the clothes outside at times. My mom always washed her lines. I didn’t always. Don’t remember it being a problem.
A good wind always did fluff up the towels. I used to hang out the blue jeans but then put them in the dryer for a few minutes after I brought them in off the line. That softened them up.
Thanks for sharing your memories. I enjoyed reading them.
I do remember those pants stretcher. They weren’t that easy to use. And my mother had curtain stretchers too, I think.
Hi Ann. A few years ago I wrote you a snail mail letter that you kindly answered with some of your book suggestions. Thank you. I love your stories.
In response to your hanging clothes on a line which brought back many memories growing up and after I married.
First I live in the country and my lines are still attached to the clothes poles. I’m 88 years old and had 5 children in 4&1/2 years and no multiples. My youngest just turned 60 yesterday.
Believe me I had my share of hanging clothes inside and outside.! I even had a clothes dryer but I remember only using it on rainy days. My favorites to hang out were diapers and sheets!!! Loved them blowing in the wind and the fresh smell!!! After baby 3
I got diaper service which definitely helped me out!!! But I still continued to hang out sheets until I read that if you had allergies you shouldn’t hang out. And since I ended up with severe allergies, line hanging ended except for occasional items.
I’m awaiting your ironing stories as I sure remember ironing forever!!!
But I will interject here for what it is worth. I would dampen the clothes and then put them in the freezer so they wouldn’t mildew!!! I wonder how many people did that!! I also remember my mother being so elated when seersucker material came out!!!!!! No ironing !!
My dad was a pharmacist and I ironed tons of white shirts!!!!!
Thank you for your often more than once a week articles!!!! Love them. This one I just had to respond to!! Keep writing!!!
Author
Wow, Ethel. You had those babies close together. I’m sure you were very, very busy with them, but looking back, isn’t it fun to remember those sweet days with the babies?
When I go a clothes dryer, I only used it when it rained or snowed. I still hung out clothes even in the frigid weather. Saving on our electricity bill. We pretty much needed to save every way we could. I did do a lot of ironing too. I liked to do the ironing for mom when I was a kid. Started out with pillowcases as best I remember. After I married, I didn’t enjoy ironing so much since I had more shirts and pants for my husband than easy dresses to iron. I did occasionally put the sprinkled clothes in the freezer if I couldn’t keep to them in a timely way. I had forgotten about that. And I was really happy when perma-press became a thing. Maybe I will do an ironing post sometime.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my writing and for reading my books. And for that snail mail whenever. I always loved getting notes from readers in the mail. Now it’s mostly digital if I hear from people.
I love hanging clothes on the line, my clothesline is down right now because we had a tree to fall on our house back in May, so we had to take one post and the line down so the tree people could get their truck in to get the tree off of the house.It hasn’t gotten put back up yet, but I am determined that it will go back up this Spring.
I break a couple of the “rules” but I do adhere to most of them.
I’m looking forward to your new book!
Author
I saw the picture on FB of your downed tree last year, Lisa. Maybe you’ll get your lines back up for summer.
I think it’s okay to break clothesline rules. LOL.
I’ll be in touch about my new book soon. Got to get my early reader list together.
Hi Ann, I love your walks down memory lane and I’m always amazed how much your previous experiences mirror mine. Guess it’s because we are fairly close in age and I was a farm wife during the early years of our marriage. We were married almost ten years before i had an automatic washer or dryer, so many clothes were hung on an outside clothesline. The only disposable diapers I ever used on our daughter were from the one package I was given when she was born. Many cloth diapers froze on the line but boy, they were soft on her little bottom!
Thanks for sharing the Clothesline Rules! I followed most of them, and I guess it didn’t matter about the others! I often think about those washdays and remember telling my husband that we’d always associate them with baked potatoes. After milking was finished, I’d fill up the wringer washer for the first of several loads. About 10:30, I’d put potatoes in the oven so that by dinner (our noon meal), there would be hot potatoes to put on the table. That’s another change in our lives. Now, baked potatoes are usually prepared in our microwave!
Thanks for reminding me how far I’ve come and how blessed I am, both then and now! By the way, I’m looking forward to meeting Kallie!
Author
Things do change as the years pass, Connie. I’m glad to have more conveniences now than when I was a young wife and mother. We had wood heat and just keeping the fire going was a busy job. But they were good times too when the kids were babies. I loved being a mother. And I loved living on a farm. Still do.
And while I cook potatoes in the microwave, I still think they taste better baked in the over. A lot of times I made soup on washday. I love having soup ready for a meal. I think I must have inherited that from my grandmother. Mom said her mom liked keeping a pot of soup going when she was a kid. Thank goodness my husband likes soups and chili.
Thanks for sharing your similar memories. That free package I got at the hospital when one of my kids was born were the only ones I ever used. Very few moms these days think they can do without disposable diapers. They were handy when I kept my grandbabies.