GIVEAWAY: “All American Clothespins, Blue Moon”

Thank you for dropping by my Raising Jane Journal to participate in my giveaways! We’ve chosen a winner for this giveaway already (click here for details), but don’t be afraid to leave a comment anyway. I love reading them. And stay tuned for more great MaryJanesFarm giveaways.

For a chance to win 20 FREE beautiful, handmade clothespins from All American Clothespins, tell me your favorite memory about hanging laundry on the line in the comments below. I’ll toss your name into a hat and draw a lucky winner sometime mid-June.

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Albert Crooks and his 15-year-old son, Al, craft beautiful, sturdy clothespins from ash (the perfect hardwood for clothespins) and heavy-duty, stainless-steel springs manufactured in the U.S. “No more using four or five cheap clothespins to hang a wet towel to line dry. Our clothespins are tumble sanded and are finished with tung oil, which will not leach out and stain your laundry.” For beautiful clothespins that will last a lifetime, visit AllAmericanClothespins.com.

Stay tuned for more magazine-related giveaways. If you’re not yet a subscriber to my magazine, MaryJanesFarm, subscribe here for $19.95/year.

  1. MICHELLE KIRBY says:

    I’d help my mom pull the laundry off the line & it always smelled so fresh.

  2. Kathy McCourt Cox says:

    My Mom was a single busy person , raising two daughters, working two jobs , pinching pennies and going non stop. A early riser, she always hung a line of laundry out to dry and did cooked us breakfast every morning before her crazy day started. My job was to take it down and fold it when I got home from school. I had a lot of early conversations in our backyard early in the morning with her. Wish I could still do that . She passed on. But I can still remember the good sweet smell of my sheets on my bed, that had been sun kissed , and the great conversations innovative hard working Mom.

  3. Joan Hendrix says:

    My mother hanging our wet laundry until dad approved an electric dryer in 1972! We lived in Phoenix and his famous line was, “the sun shines almost every day, why spend money on electricity!”. She had a suntan right through her blouses. But oh, that dry laundry (collected as the new wet load was hung) smelled so good! I have plans for a clothesline here at our new old house in Virginia. Thank you!

  4. Cheryl Bell says:

    Mom would always hang our clothes out to dry so when we couldnt find mom in the house thats where she would be.we tried to help her by pulling the towels off the line my sister would try to stand on her little red trike to reach them.

    • Karen says:

      I grew up with a pulley clothesline…we could pin the clothes on the line while standing on our porch. When I got married, my husband put a pulley line up for me. The line went fromm our back porch, across our pool to high in a pine tree past the driveway.
      We hosted a swim at our place for two families and supplied the swimsuits for all 13 swimmers. I washed all those swimsuits plus towels and hung them on that line. It was a line full. Imagine my dismay when I looked out there later in the day to see my lovely clothesline along with some of those clean bathing suits and towels laying in my pool! Ah well, time to find a new location for the clothesline!

  5. Starletta Schipp says:

    One of my most favorite memories is hanging laundry on the line while my 2 toddler daughters were playing nearby. The cherry blossoms were at the peak of the season. A breeze blew by showering us with a flurry petals. It was a moment of perfect bliss for me.

  6. Susan says:

    Memory? I still have a clothesline and like to hang clothes out even though today it is a choice and not a necessity. Growing up I always like the challenge of getting the laundry to hang using as few clothespins as necessary. LOVE towels and sheets that are line dried. Thanks for the link to All American, had no clue such a company existed and I love things Made in America!

  7. Elaine Holmes says:

    After removing the wash from the wringer washing machine, I carried the wicker basket to the clothesline. I remember pinning my sister’s cloth diapers on the clothesline. Socks went up one by one. Pants were hung by the waist. White dress shirts that my dad wore were hung upside down by the side seams. A bag was hooked on the line that held the clothes pins. I remember the fresh linen smell as clothes were removed from from the line. Sheets hung from the line were wonderful to sleep on. You could feel the freshness. Time to carry that load to the house.

  8. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I purchased some of these heavy duty American made clothespins and there is nothing that even compares to their function and durability. For one, they are larger, heavier and great for items like wet jeans or other heavy items. Second, the springs are strong and don’t snap or twist.I really l love the ones I have and would love some extras as I run out and have to use the cheaper ones to finish up.

    With all of our natural sunny weather, hanging clothes out on the line just makes sense and everything smells fresh and clean. Using the popular homemade detergent recipe that I learned at MJF and clothesline, laundry expenses are amazingly minimal.

    Thanks for offering this wonderful giveaway.

  9. amber says:

    My husband built me a HUGE clothes line a couple years back. We live in a rural area, but in town. I have to laugh because people think I’m weird that I hang my clothes out to dry. Even women who are middle age tell me “I remember my Grandmother doing that) and apparently its such a rarity because no one hardly does it anymore even though I live in the country. I just take pride in knowing I’m keeping something on the old fashioned side alive and going. Jokes on them though because I’m the one saving money on my electric pill from not running my dryer 😉

  10. Lee Ellen says:

    Growing up as a small child my mom did use a clothesline but as I got older she preferred the dryer. She is a city gal through and through, likes her conveniences. When I married I could hardly wait to get a clothesline. Everything country, old school, or simple life appeales to me. The smell of clothesline dried items is wonderful. It is hard for me imagine someone not wanting to use a clothesline!

  11. CJ Armstrong says:

    We hung clothes outside in all seasons when I was growing up on the farm. We had to go to town to wash them at the “laundromat”, which at that time were wringer washers and it took forever. My mom had us hang clothes outside even in the winter. They always froze and we had to bring them in and hang them around the house to thaw and dry. I never could figure out why we just didn’t hang them in the house to start with.

    After getting married I swore I’d always use a dryer which I did for many years, but after moving back to Colorado and having my own house here in the country on what was part of our farm, I decided to go back to hanging them outside. I LOVE THE SMELL of laundry dried in our fresh, Colorado air and sunshine!

  12. sharon s says:

    I am the oldest of nine children. I hung many clothes and diapers outside and in a damp basement with an electric fan to circulate air! I enjoy hanging out clothes now. But I don’t do underwear like the “old days”!

  13. CJ Armstrong says:

    P.S. There is nothing like good WOODEN clothespins! The plastic ones just don’t do the job very well!

  14. Molly Welsh says:

    With seven children my mum hanged a LOT of laundry. My sisters & I learned very early how to hang laundry. I stil to this day hang as much of my laundry as is possible. The smell is so much better and unlike many folks I DO LIKE the feel of line dried towels on my skin. Strange, but true. And like Kathy I would love to be able to hang laundry again with my mum.

  15. Beverly Potts says:

    My favorite memory. I used cloth diapers on my children and I can remember hanging them out with my first of three sons at my feet. He is 36 now.
    We are now in the process of purchasing a ” Farm House” in Powell Butte Oregon.
    And to my happy surprise it has an old time cloths line just like the one I had when my children were home.:)

  16. Krista says:

    Those are some nice large clothespins. They would be perfect for hanging up my heavy bath towels! My favorite memory of hanging was when we would hang sheets and blankets and walk through them like we were in a maze! I loved that as a kid.

  17. Susanne says:

    My grandma had a little “wash house” where she did her laundry for years. I remember watching with fascination as she would run the clothes through the wringer. Then I would “help” her put the clothes in a little laundry cart on wheels, we’d push it over to the clothes line and hang it all in the sun to dry. It’s one of my sweet memories of grandma.

    When we bought our first house, there was an area about 5 feet wide between a couple of the outside walls with a sidewalk to the shed. My creative, think-outside-the-box husband screwed in hooks on each wall and stretched clothes lines between those walls. I loved hanging the laundry out there! It was a nice little hidden spot. In May when the lilies of the valley were blooming on the edge of the sidewalk it smelled heavenly!

  18. Mary Frances Rauch says:

    My unusual memory of clotheslines would be that Mother would dash out to hang clothes and often come running back into house bitterly complaining that my Dad had NOT disconnected the electric antennae for his old radio from her metal clothesline. He said it got perfect reception that way, but on the other hand, my Mother got electrical shocks when she touched the lines with wet clothing! We lived through it and now it’s a perfect source of long-ago memories and laughter.

  19. Elisabeth Perkins says:

    Our house is on a hill so we have nice breezes that blow through. Which makes for the perfect wrinkle free, sun-dried clothes!!

  20. Jodel Guerrero says:

    My mom had 5 kids Father left I was oldest girl one of my most enjoyable times was when I got to hang laundry being outside the sweet smell of clean sheets and clothes it was a glorious time out

  21. Bette Arado says:

    Hanging my doll cloths while my Mom hung ours Bette

  22. Lori Morton says:

    I still hang laundry outside!! Love seeing it blowing in the breeze, making everything fresh & smelling of sunshine! 🙂 We have 7 Kiddo’s, and I didn’t have a dryer til the last one was out of school & out on his own! But still LOVE hanging things on the clothesline! 🙂

    Thank you for chance to win your Give-a-way too! 😀

  23. Diana Shelton says:

    Hanging laundry on the line brings back wonderful playful memories of my childhood and not so long ago my own children running in and out and around the sheets blowing in the wind. Hanging laundry on the line was a time of spending time outside each doing their own duty of chores. An then running out to grab them in the midst of a rain storm; was a time of fun and laughter, it never failed to rain. lol Memories: [hearing my moms laughter], I dedicate this to her, she has terminal cancer and after fighting cancer for 3years she only has 6-9 mo. to live according to the professional doctors. May we never forget those little things in life that mean so much to us.

  24. LeAnne Burt says:

    They look sturdy!! I love that something to hold the wranglers!

  25. Faye brown says:

    Easy memory! Grandmas house in the country every summer where she had a bag (made to look like a small dress) hanging from the clothesline full of clothes pins just as you described. My sister and I would help to hang clothes in the warmth of the sunshine and were taught to stand back and look at the beauty of the clothes gently swaying to the warm whiffs of wind. Those clothes pins found there way dangling on our ears and towel diapers for our dolls! I still have the bag and a couple of the clothes pins which I proudly display in my laundry.

  26. Lorraine Hess says:

    I love the smell of clean laundry fresh from the line! What a joy to get in bed at night & smell the great outdoors. I can picture the chickens running around my feet as I’m at the wash line.

  27. Rebecca Darrington says:

    Clothespins! That one word evokes so many memories of old, as well as “now-a-days”.
    Clothes hanging on the line, then and now. Mom replacing the old wooden pins with the new plastic one, only to go back to the old wooden ones, which she kept, because the plastic ones broke so easily.
    We painted them and put them on our ears for earrings, we used them to keep our lunch bags closed, and in a pinch, when we pulled the string from our hooded sweatshirts used them to keep the hood in place.
    I use them now as before, plus so many other uses. I have a clothespin love, and the old clothespin bags that hung on the line to keep the pins-priceless, I still have Grandmas!!

  28. janamarieje says:

    I grew up watching and helping my mom and my grandparents using a clothes line and I love the way everything smells as you take the clothes off the line and folding them. I try to use the clothes line for all my drying needs every chance I can to relive those great memories of growing up.

  29. Hilve Firek says:

    I continue to make memories of hanging out laundry every week! My favorite chore!

  30. Sara Knight says:

    I grew up hanging clothes on the line but these days I use clothespins to hang three vintage aprons for my laundry room window valance. They also do ice storm duty by holding sheets in place over potted herbs on my deck. I would love to have handmade clothespins to use and put in my vintage clothespin bag.

  31. phyllis says:

    I would hand the clothespins to my mom as we moved down the line. The clothespins were the round-top kind. To this day, I love to hang out clothes, sheets and towels because everything smells so fresh.
    Thank you.
    Happy Spring!

  32. Joy Giles says:

    Watching my sister wrap herself in a sheet and proceeding dancing about the yard while I finished getting in the rest of the wash.

  33. Grace says:

    I loved the sheets flapping in the breeze!

  34. Keri Carwile says:

    I’ve got two loads drying on the line now. Watching it blowing in the wind makes me smile!

  35. Teresa yoho says:

    As one of 12 children washing tennis shoes was a big job! The shoes took up the entire clothes line! Imagine! All those shoes in different sizes on that line! 🙂

  36. Teri Schneider says:

    My mom and I always hung clothes on the line when I was a child. There were 8 of us in the family and if the clothes stood a chance in getting ALL washed and dried in the same day, the clothesline was the only way! I now hang my clothes on the line too and have taught that fun pastime to my newly married daughter.

  37. Joyce Hein says:

    My favourite memory of hanging clothes is doing the sheets…and then crawling into those fresh line-dried sheets in the evening. It seems I always sleep better the day the sheets are washed 🙂

  38. Jen says:

    I don’t have a favorite memory with my momma, she had a dryer. I love hanging them with my kids now. They love playing in the “fort” between the sheets. They always smell wonderful and feel so crisp.

  39. Ellen Gerzina says:

    I have always hung out clothes even if the wind is 100mph in Oklahoma!

  40. Brianne says:

    I remember helping my grandmother with the laundry in the summers when I visited. I’d help her put the wash up to dry on the line in the backyard. And she’d send me back out to collect it when it was dry. I don’t think I ever complained! Line dried laundry is one of my favorite things and favorite smells as an adult. I’m glad to live somewhere where we can have a line. In the winter I even have an in-house drying rack my husband built hanging from the ceiling next to the wood stove!

  41. Rebecca M. says:

    Monday was always wash day when I was growing up. I’ve always enjoyed hanging clothes on a clothesline. I’d always try to line everything up perfectly; towels, washcloths, sheets, pillow cases. Then I’d do the same thing with the clothes; all the pants had to be in a line, then all the shirts. It was fun for me most days. In the winter, though, the clothes would sometimes freeze on the line before they’d dry. My mother used to always tell us that it was okay. It would soften the material. I don’t know if that was the case or not, but my mother said it so I believed it. Nothing better than good clothespins.

  42. Chrissy says:

    As oldest of six children, one of the best “alone times,” was removing the sun-dried clothes, sitting near the cellar hill under the peach tree and folding them. I remember there being a LOT of diapers.

  43. Brenda Langford says:

    I love to hang laundry. My favorite was when my children were babies and seeing all their tiny clothes hanging on the line.

  44. Elizabeth Otto says:

    I love to hang clothes outside for it gives them a wonderful smell.

  45. Kate Craig says:

    I loved hanging the laundry and wish I still had a clothesline. And taking fresh smelling sheets off the line was pure bliss.

  46. Joyce Huber says:

    When the weather warms up I like to hang up my clothes outside. Saves on electricity and I enjoy the fresh smell. I even bought these clothespin and they are the best.

  47. Lorrie Gray says:

    Clothes pin memories – helping my grandmother take the laundry off the clothesline, I could only help since the Oklahoma wind could get strong, and I was too short to help hang clothes on the line. We used a wooden fruit basket to drop the clothes pin in for the next laundry day. Grandma Mac always made a game of it. I can still smell the fresh scent of clean clothes, feel the warmth of the sun on them, and the wind blowing my hair. Good memories.

  48. Karen Hennip says:

    Hanging beach towels on the line after a trip to Lake Michigan.

  49. Sandy T. says:

    I have a lot of memories of helping my mom haul the laundry out to the clothesline, hanging it up, and sometimes racing raindrops to get it off the line. I can’t wait for my husband to get my clothesline back up! I love the smell of line dried clothes!

  50. Carol Vagher says:

    Remember my mom and all my aunts in the neighborhood hanging all their clothes out on the clotheslines and all of us kids running through the clothes!

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