Havplenty

my mother loved hanging her laundry outside. she had lines running through her lovingly landscaped yard. perhaps its the realist in me but with all of the pollution in our air and i can never be sure of what smells my laundry would have if i hung it outside. but with that said, i do hang some small things outside, things i dont put in the dryer such as my sheer blouses or light sweaters. my sheets, into the dryer they go with a spritz of lavendar linen spray on a hand towel to "freshen" them.

krystyna i am with you on using public laundromats but i ocassionly need to do so. when i wash my comforters or quilts, they are too big for my washer and dryer so to the commercial laundry they go but i take my lysol wipes with me. i know the folks in the laundry may think i am strange for wiping out everything before i use it.

Krystyna

I grew up hanging clothing outside in warm weather and on a line in the basement next to the oil burner in the winter. For a long time my mother had one of those wonderful old wringer washers. The clothing would come out of the washer, then get squeezed into a tub of clean water with a built in scrub board which you'd use to get the rest of the soap out. Then you'd swing it around to an adjacent tub for a final rinse and finally swing it over a laundry basket to take it out to dry. There is something so homey about laundry on the line. And you always remembered to hang your undies on the inside so no one would see!
I actually asked my husband for the clothes line tree we have as a birthday gift a couple of years ago. He thought I was nuts.
Living on a sandbar, we don't have a basement, so it's outdoors for me! I don't really mind too much since there is a constant wind coming off the ocean. The only thing I don't like is the lint. They dryer gets it right off. The Appliance Doctor had to order a part, so it's only until Tuesday or Wednesday that I have to wait.

Krystyna

Havplenty, have you ever tried hanging your quilts and comforters in the wind and every now and then giving them a little wham with a broom stick? Or just a good shake from time to time? I find the dry beautifully without the heat damage from a dryer ... but then again ... the wind never stops here. Maybe that's why I'm more than a little odd.

Havplenty

growing up at one time we had one of those manual wringing wash machines. wow that brings back memories.

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Havplenty

i live in suburbia with all two or three story homes that either have their garages in the back yards or "city" size yards. i think that is why the community i live in has so many parks because many of us have very little yard space. we even have a dog park. so a breeze would have to find its way through all of the tall buildings around the garages to my tiny tiny piece of space to dry my large quilts and comforters.

i have hanging hooks on my porch to hang my tops and sweaters and when i wash small pieces of quilt fabric i have a drying rack i put outside to let them dry. of course the wind comes by and sweeps these small pieces off the dry rack so i hav'ta go through the yard picking up pieces of fabric. i imagine one of these days i will need to fend off the birds from taking my fabric for their nests. we have red tail hawks who took up residence in the neighborhood last year.

Krystyna

Just went looking for a photo that looked like our set up and found it ... also a charming site about wash day http://duquesnehunky.com/2011/03/05/590/

Havplenty

i have a question, how many of you like & use the ponytail holders for your bobbins? i saw on a thread that some didnt like them because it prevented them from seeing the thread colors. i am not sure how that happens because the plastic bobbins are see through and the metal ones have holes in them so you can see the thread plus you can always just move the elastic down just a bit to see your thread.

i love them and it has made a world of difference in preventing me from having a bobbin thread tangle monster mess. they are very economical and so easy to use. in my mind, what's not to like but i know as many different quilters as there are, there is at least that many different opinions.

catpawski

Boy are you guys going back in time............I don't remember seeing a washing machine like that working...... but I have seen them...................ghee that makes me feel old

Ladybug 1938

Oh my goodness does that picture remind me of the washing machine we had in the basement when I was a kid... That was back in the early 40's, very early 40's... My son lives in the UP of Michigan and he still hangs clothes outside sumer and winter... he is 43 years old,, the baby of the family and the one that loves all my quilts... More so then his siblings, any time there is one without a name on it he claims it... LOL Good OLD Days....

brenda21

my granny and great granny had one of the machines like Krystyna's picture and they used that thing into the 80's!! If it was cold out or rainy the clothes got hung in the basement....seemed like they could run miles of line throughout that basement LOL....and K that is so true, that undies had to be hung on the inner lines with towels or sheets blocking them when outside in the air...granny didn't get a "modern" washer until after great gran passed away and never did get a dryer.