Winter Hang-Ups

Even though the days are shorter, when the sun is out it’s a good day to hang laundry on the clothesline. Everything (especially sheets) smells so fresh when you bring them in after drying on the line. No laundry detergent, softener, or dryer sheet has been able to duplicate the freshness. If you shake out the blue jeans and hang them up carefully they’ll dry without wrinkles so you won’t have to press them. I also use the clothesline as an excuse to get my husband to throw away his holey underwear. I tell him it’s the trash can or let the whole neighborhood see them. (I hang my undies in my bathroom on the shower curtain rod far from public purview.) Not putting some items through dryer cycles increases their life span, especially any elasticized items. Of course anything that gets me outside and exposes me to some old fashioned vitamin D is a good thing and hanging laundry beats yard work most days. In the winter there are less mosquitoes and the temperatures are cooler. And on the chilliest days the sun feels even more welcome. When our dog Fred sees me with a laundry basket of wet clothes he races to the back door. He loves to tear out into the yard, ruffling a couple of chicken feathers and striking terror in the hearts of a few squirrels whenever I go out to hang the clothes. I have also upon occasion dropped a sock and watched a pair of chickens get into a tug of war with it. The entertainment is brief because they figure out quickly that the sock isn't filled with something edible like the usual plastic bag of vegetable scraps they love to snatch from my hands before I can scatter them. But probably the biggest advantage to line drying is the savings on my electric bill. And yes, my clothes dryer is broken but even after it’s fixed I’ll still stick with my winter (and any other season) hang-ups.