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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 with @GretLouise

Laundry Week

More Laundry

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • laundry around the globe

    I asked a few friends from around the globe to give us a glimpse of what laundry looks like in their corner of the world… Washboard in Belize “This is one of my favorite pictures from our travels. We were visiting our godchildren in Belize, and Phoebe wanted to help with the laundry. Prior to…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

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.