Laundry

My favorite part of homemaking is hanging my laundry on the clothesline. I’m thankful for the quiet moments it gives me to reflect on the beauty of God’s creation and all the little things I have to thank Him for.

I always find it amusing how very many different ways there are of sorting laundry and hanging clothes on the line. I hang shirts by the hems, my sister hangs them by the shoulders. My mother-in-law can use three clothespins to hang two dishtowels, overlapping the edges, but I quickly learned that on my windy hill that method of hanging out the wash would leave me lacking dishtowels. And the clothespins—I keep them in a basket where they stay clean and dry, while my mother-in-law leaves them on the line regardless of the weather.

My mom sorts clothes carefully according to the care directions on the tag (you know, like that picture going around on Pinterest). I throw them in baskets based upon colors and fabric weights, and use cold water for at least one load per washing day if necessary. (And don’t tell my mom, but if there’s just a bit of laundry—which is rare these days—and none of it is too dark or light, I throw it all in one warm-cold load!)

Clotheslines, sun-dried sheets—there’s something beautiful and even romantic about it all to me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with a clothesline. Maybe it’s because I love the peaceful, quiet moments hanging clothes out on the line.

I never tire of taking pictures of clothes on the line. But I had extra fun compiling laundry photos, stories, and quotables for “Laundry Week” on my blog in September 2012 (much like “Apron Week” I hosted the previous year). I asked some of my friends who love (and hate) clotheslines to guest post about their own laundry habits, methods, and delights.

Laundry Week

More Laundry

clothesline memories

I’m looking forward to pulling off my socks and hauling a heavy basket of wet clothes out in the warm sunshine, wrestling the sheets against the wind, shoving the pins down hard, and hoping things stay put ’till they dry. Few of my household tasks are as pleasant as hanging the washing out for the…

DIY Clothespin Bag

My last clothespin bag fell apart along with my clothesline a couple years ago so when I bought a new clothesline through Amazon earlier this year, I was in desperate need of something to put my clothespins in. The only problem was, I kept forgetting to look for a new bag whenever I went to…

clotheslines

I love hanging laundry up on a line to dry. For the extra time it might take, standing out there in the open air, feeling the breeze on your face and hearing the birds sing is definitely worth it in my book! Besides, can anything beat the fresh smell of line-dried laundry? –Chantel Brankshire in…

Laundry Day

Mondays are usually laundry day here on our corner of the farm. Unless we’ve used our day off from tending the store to go to town, I usually tackle sorting the loads of laundry as soon as Merritt’s off to do his day’s projects. It’s the kind of thing one wants first-of-the-week energy for. Especially…

Cloth Diaper Laundry

a guest post by Jessica White Laundry is definitely one of the things that I love to hate (or is it hate to love?). Having triplets meant jumping instantaneously from 3 to 6 people in our family, and did not really leave much of a learning curve when it comes to how to handle laundry…

On days like today…

On days like today, I decide to hang out the laundry even though there are grey clouds in the sky, knowing that laundry brings rain, knowing that we need rain for the fields and our newly-planted grass. On days like today, I pause to admire my laundry hampers—one, made in Africa of elephant grass and…

hanging up the washing

The young woman had apparently been in the middle of a washing day, for she wore an apron, her sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and there were soapsuds on her hands. If she had had time to put on her good clothes (her best hat had imitation cherries on it) she would have…

mommy’s helpers

It may be true that many hands make light work but little hands in the laundry make for dark socks in the light loads and clothespins scattered everywhere.

sun-bleached diapers

On sunny days, I try to hang the diapers outside to dry…they get sun-bleached and smell so good when they come off the line. -Jessica Telian in “The obligatory cloth diaper post”

My Clothesline

If you wash on Monday, you have all the week to dry… If you wash on Tuesday, you’re still not much awry… If you wash on Friday, you wash in real need… If you wash on Saturday, you are slovenly indeed. -an early 1900’s skip-rope rhyme quoted in The Clothesline by Irene Rawlings and Andrea VanSteenhouse…

Little Laundry

When they are tiny, the ride in the laundry basket is the highlight of the day. And the weight of them, the brush of their fingers? Memories to cherish. They will outgrow the basket and you will be left with a running wild-man that won’t hold still for a split-second kiss, let alone a ride…

this is the way we wash the clothes…

laundry tips from a fifty-something homeschooling mom This is the way we wash our clothes, Wash our clothes, This is the way we wash our clothes, So early Monday morning. –“Here We Go ’round the Mulberry Bush” a guest post by my mom, Sara Louise I don’t hang my clothes outside like my daughter Gretchen….

The Clothesline by Irene Rawlings

…is a book I would leave on my coffee table all the year round—if I didn’t have three little children who would remove the dustcover in a heartbeat. I love the quotes and sayings and stories it contains. It’s like Laundry Week, in a book. And I know that if you love doing laundry, you’ll love this book.