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

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…

something about hanging out the laundry…

There’s something about hanging out the laundry that makes it all right in my world once again. Maybe it’s the wind in my hair. Or the sheets flapping in the breeze. Maybe it’s the sense of accomplishment, four baskets of clothes hung neatly on the line. And the even greater satisfaction of a job well…

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.

washing my day

It seems like laundry day always falls on a day full of so many other to-do’s. And the toys are a mess and the dishes need doing but if the laundry doesn’t get hung out in the morning it won’t be dry by dark on these short autumn days.

But isn’t it when we’re dirtiest that we’re most in need of washing?

The Washing Machine

I knew it was coming. After seven years of marriage, it was bound to happen. It was only a question of which one would go first. But when I heard the strange banging, I knew. I grabbed my cell phone and pressed speed dial 2, turning it on speaker phone while it was still ringing….

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…

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…

Hanging Out the Washing

Ah, springtime… Geese flying, calling across the morning sky; brighter sunshine; longer days; balmy winds; mud underfoot; little rivers running down, down, down, carrying winter away with them. Two days ago, I was walking across the pasture bareheaded, my two small boys tagging along and my baby on my back, watching the creek run. That…

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…

hanging out the laundry

A neighbor happened to call the other afternoon. “How do you find the time to hang out all that laundry?” she asked. “It gets the girls outside,” was my reply of the moment. But as I thought about her question later, I realized that I look forward to that time hanging out the laundry. Yes,…

new country, same laundry

a guest post by Jennifer (Pinkerton) van Leeuwen Monday came fast. We’d arrived to the new “home” on a Friday after two weeks trekking across the country and into Canada on a honeymoon road trip. The occasional hotel laundry room had provided unique bonding experiences along the way (“John! Why did you put my white…

Laundry Confessions of an Ex-Homesteader

In the first few weeks we did laundry by hand, but this was such an arduous and overwhelming chore, requiring so much water to haul and so much time to line dry the sopping clothes, we soon resorted to the laundromat. Laundry was done once a week, hauled in old recycling tubs to town, washed,…

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.