Musings from Marilyn

Posts Tagged ‘Laundry’

When you’re a 100% year-round air dryer/clothesline user like myself,  one must pay much more attention to the ever-changing weather conditions.   Good thing that I’m a bit of a weather geek;  I actually like tracking the weather!  This comes in handy for determining the ideal conditions and placement of drying the laundry outside, or whether to dry it inside.

Autumn weather gets tricky; the days are shorter,and it gets colder and rainier.  Even if it is sunny, it can lull me into a false sense of drying expectation when I hang the clothes on the line.  It just has that nip in the air, the sun is lower, and there is enough humidity (at least here in the Pacific Northwest) to delay the drying a great deal.  I can hang laundry on my backyard line early in the morning, and late in the afternoon it is still damp.  Thus begins the ol’ clothesline switcharoo.  I have to take down all the laundry from the clothesline and then put it on drying racks inside the house.  Which is kind of a hassle, I must admit.

Even though it is a bit more work, one advantage is that the laundry has spent the day soaking up all that deliciously heady autumn air smell outside.  When I place it on the racks inside to finish drying, the poignant smell fills the air.  There is just something so wonderful about the outside-dried smell.  It changes with the seasons too.  Autumn smells different than summer, which smells different than spring or winter.  No man-made chemical scent could ever top Mother Nature’s!

I’m still trying to hold onto outside drying as much as I can, even though the attempt is futile at times.  Soon I will be drying inside full-time for the winter;  drying racks will be filling my kitchen once more.  But that too, is kind of charming in it’s own way.  One must definitely be adaptable to be an air-dryer!

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot

~Marilyn

Take a look at the sky in this picture.  This was just taken today from my backyard and has become a constant sight around here day after day.  Gray, cloudy, rainy weather has gripped us all spring.  Cool temperatures too.  There have been a few days of sunshine, which have been glorious, but the dark clouds always seem to be lurking around the corner.

I really try not to be the complaining sort, especially about things that I have no control over – like the weather.  I do, after all, live in the Pacific Northwest, where moisture is king!  This is good for keeping the landscape nice and green, the air clean, and the skin dewy.  It gets a little trickier for line-drying enthusiasts like myself, when trying to schedule an outdoor drying session though.

After three solid weeks of rain, it was finally a sunny day yesterday.  I hurriedly washed several loads of laundry and loaded up my clothesline.  It was an absolutely ideal drying day; warm temperature and softly blowing breeze.  It was a joy to once again see my laundry waving, doing the clothesline dance in the sun!  Everything dried relatively quickly and since it stayed sunny all day, I could rest easy knowing that the sun could just do its work without interruption.

I am glad that I got the bulk of my laundry done yesterday, as today it is back to the gray clouds and rain.  And probably for the foreseeable future.  It’s looking like it will be a very cool summer around here.  This means that I will have to keep an even greater eye on the sky:  looking for those lurking rain clouds whenever there is a patch of sunlight to hang the laundry in.  I also have my indoor drying racks close at hand.  I use them all winter and was hoping to put them away for the summer.  But to be a successful air-drying enthusiast, the first rule is to be flexible…and patient…and diligent…well, you get the point.  Dry on!

~Marilyn

Today is National Hanging Out Day; a day that was created to show how it is possible to save money and energy by using a clothesline.  I’ve washed two loads of laundry already this morning, and they are hanging out on the clothesline.  Thankfully it’s a warm sunny day and the rain showers are not expected until late this afternoon.  Hopefully the laundry will be dry by then.  Always having one eye on the weather conditions is key when you use a clothesline!

Being a year-round clothesline/drying rack user this is nothing new to me, but I always like to encourage people to at least try air-drying once in awhile.  Even if it is only one day a year.  So today is ‘officially’ that day.  Why don’t you give it a try?  You might even find it refreshingly delightful, as I do.

~Marilyn

I’ve been doing a bit of tweaking to my laundry routine this spring;  trying to get it as simple as can be with the best possible results.  I now wash everything in cold water.  I had been hesitant to do this totally, especially with whites, towels, and sheets.  But after experimenting using hot, warm, and cold washes, I really find absolutely no difference in how clean they get.  In fact (I know this seems weird) the whites seem to be whiter when I wash them in cold!  90% of your washing machine energy goes to heating the water, so it makes good sense to get it to close to 0% using cold.

Another thing is using less detergent.  WAY less!  The one thing that drives me crazy is the measuring caps on liquid detergent.  I can never see the marks, and they never seem to explain it on the label.  So once I figured out where the obscure measuring marks were, I started using half that amount.  Sometimes I just use the merest dollop when I’m washing sweaters.  Too much detergent use is really bad for your clothes and your washing machine, as it can cause residue.  Too much soap scum lets bacteria breed.  And if you are using fabric softener (sheets or liquid), that also adds to the residue buildup on your laundry and washing machine.  I personally do not use any type of fabric softener, much preferring the natural stiffness of line-dried laundry.

Once in awhile I add 1/2 cup white vinegar to the rinse water of whites or towels.  This seems to cut through any excess detergent residue, and also adds a bit of softening.  And no, the vinegar smell doesn’t last!  It will evaporate upon drying.

Since I only use my washing machine (my dryer is now retired) I’ve become more focused on it.  One thing I do after every wash is clean the lint filter.  Yes, your washing machine has a lint filter.   It’s amazing how much stuff gets caught in it, so it’s good to keep it clean.

I always used to keep the lid of my washer closed.  Then I started noticing a funny smell coming from it.  After doing some research I found that it was all the moisture being trapped in there that caused it.  Now I keep the lid open all the time when not in use; it needs to be aired out so all the excess moisture can dissipate.  The odor problem is now solved.

By keeping it simple, using the barest essentials to clean your laundry, and air-drying you’ll see a big difference in how clean your laundry is!

~Marilyn

I delight in the serendipity of thrift store shopping.  Those times when I run across something so wonderfully unique, that I take pause to wonder if it was placed there fully intended to be found by me!  My latest occurrence was yesterday, while I was looking through the miles and miles of designer fake vinyl purses that tend to populate the thrifts.  Anything made of real leather jumps out at me, and I spied a large, thick leather hippie type of purse that I remembered from the 70s.  They look like they were handmade by some sort of folksy artisan.

As I was marveling at the heft and substance of the purse, I noticed an amazing etched drawing on the front flap.  It was of two little laundresses with washboard and tub, and hanging laundry on a clothesline!  Of course, it had my name written all over it; being an avid laundress/clothesline user AND adoring and collecting vintage purses.  I need another purse like I need a hole in my head, but I could not leave without it!  No one else would ever appreciate the unique whimsicality of it like I would.

I like its large size and durability.  It’s been heavily used but there is hardly any wear to the thick leather.  It’s just so delightfully funky; the juxtaposition of the sweet, quaint laundry scene with the rugged hippie element is hilarious!  I’m sure that there is no other like it in the world.

My son, who is quite used to my unique findings but isn’t into vintage, wasn’t so amused.  “You’re not actually going to wear that are you?” he said, rolling his eyes.  He should know me by now, and should know the answer.  Yes!  As a matter of fact, I will.

~Marilyn

I love finding wacky ads in vintage women’s magazines, especially the laundry soap ads.  Take for example, this fabulous DUZ ad from the November 1949 Woman’s Day magazine.  It has all the attributes that I love in an ad; colorful drawing, bold lettering, exclamation points, and a wildly happy housewife, ecstatic over her DUZ detergent!  And being a clothesline enthusiast, I love the fact that not only does the housewife have her laundry on a clothesline, there is also clothesline pictured on the DUZ box.  Double the fun!  I almost reach this state of elation when I hang out my clothes… almost.  I cede to artistic license on the part of the copywriters, but I do have fun!

I really love clotheslines.  They genuinely make me happy.  There is nothing more gratifying than seeing my laundry out on the line, soaking up the sunshine and swaying in the breeze.  It must be something primal, since all of our ancestors from the dawn of time air-dried their laundry.  I actually look forward to those laundry days when the weather is nice enough to hang outside, and Mother Nature can do her business of  drying the clothes.  During inclement weather I dry inside on drying racks.  It’s sufficient and does the job, but it just doesn’t quite have the joie de vivre of using an outdoor clothesline.

The poignant scent of line-dried laundry.  There is nothing like it.  It changes with the seasons, picking up the nuances in the air.  The cold, ozone-y smell in the winter, the fresh cool scent of spring, the sunshiny scent of summer, and the brisk aroma of fall.  All subtly different, but with that unmistakable underlying familiarity, no matter the season.  That alone is reason enough to keep me air-drying.

This is my clothesline in my backyard, taken in the midst of a heatwave last summer.  Summer is so phenomenal for drying.   I like to time how long it takes to dry in the heat.  I think the record for my laundry drying was just one hour, in over 100 degree heat.  But mostly I just like to look at the clothes hanging.  It is like hanging art; installation art, if you will.  In any event, it makes me happy.  And if I get whipped up into a frenzy like the DUZ housewife, so be it!

Happy drying!

Marilyn