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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My memories are quite current. The Kansas winds blew my clothes dry on the line today. The is nothing like the fresh smell of clothes off the clothesline!
I was raised in Colorado in the 1940’s and 50’s and we always hung clothes outside in favorable weather but in inclement weather we had to hang them down stairs by the washing machine – but I much preferred outside.
I love line drying my sheets , nothing smells better . BUT you just can not get good clothes pins any more , can’t wait to try these out !!!
I have always hung clothes on the line. Here in Florida, even with the humidity, I will hang a load and by the time I finish you can almost go to the first piece and it will be almost completely dry. Like some of the other comments, I am about the only one in the neighborhood that hangs clothes and I do think that people think I am “odd” to do so, but I enjoy it and it can be very therapeutic in its on way.
Nearly every day my mom would do laundry in our ringer washer. I could always find her by listening for her singing. Four laundry lines stretched from the house to a ‘T’ pole in the yard and clothes would hang on each line. On the bottom of mom’s shirt or apron would be a full row of wooden clothespins. She would reach down and grab a pin to hang the laundry. And she would re-clip the pin when the laundry came off the line. I STILL clip the clothes pins to the bottom of my shirt when I hang laundry. I love the smell of fresh, line dried laundry.
Hi Mary Jane
I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good memory but growing up on a farm in Ks. With no electric dryer our clothes were always hung on the line. The Kansas weather can change quickly and some winter days we would find our clothes frozen like boards! A little difficult to take down and put in s basket ! But as others have said nothing could beat clean sheets on the bed that had been dried in the sun.
My favorite part about hanging out my clothes is thr fresh smell i enjoy it, but people around me and using the guest bed are surprised and delighted too!
I have great memories of my grandmother and my mother hanging out clothes on a clothesline. There’s no comparison to the smell of freshness of clothes coming off a line, especially sheets! I had a temporary line up across our back porch when our dryer broke and I overheard a young neighbor ask another, “Why is she hanging her clothes out like that?” The other replied, “It’s the way poor people dry their clothes.” I had to laugh and tell her my real reasons, “Some people do it to save electricity and because they like the way the clothes smell. The sunshine also does a great job of removing stains!” I enjoyed drying our clothes so much on my temporary line that putting up a permanent, sturdy clothes line is first on my list of summer projects!
Hello Al,l I work with seniors and we share stories of our lives. Many of the people I listen to are in their 90’s. No electricity in their farm houses when growing up. Many of them speak with fondness about their Mothers hanging out the wash.When they could reach the lines they helped in hanging the clothes out in the sunshine. There was a wonderful smell that lingered in your sheets and and pillowcases when you rested between them at night. They would love to handle these handmade clothespins and add a tactile element to our conversations.
I still hang my laundry and my kids grew up with their friends mom giving them hugs and always telling them how great their clothes smelled. The moms would ask how I got them to smell so good and I would always tell them that I hung all the wash out. One time a neighbor called and asked if she could use some of my “pinchy” clothes pins for a project she was doing because I was the only person she knew that hung laundry. Of course my laundry hanging skills were passed down to me by Mom with all those good memories of the clothes and sheets blowing in the breeze.
Clothes hanging out to dry make great hiding places for kids. Remember weaving in and out of hanging laundry. (until you knock one off and run the other direction)
As I was reaching up to take a dried sheet off my clothes line, a hummingbird landed on my hand. I was mesmerized as it rested there for a good minute. I barely breathed as I stood perfectly still. Magical.
In the 1960’s, we hung almost everything out on the line. We are a family of nine. One neighbor family rescued a baby crow and nursed it to adulthood. Most of the children thought the crow was very cool. The beautiful, shiny, black crow loved hopping down clotheslines and snapping the clothespins off! Our sheets and towels and diapers lay in crumpled,damp,piles in the grass….thanks to ‘Crow-Crow’
I love my clothesline! My son built me a new clothesline that I use regularly. Just one example of my wonderful son!
It was so great to hang clothes on the line the smell was breath taking, the freshness, clean smell it was fun to just be outside with my grandma helping out and feeling important
There is something so peaceful about clothes hanging on a clothesline, being stirred by a gentle breeze. It calms me. So each spring I uncover my yard swing and place it in a spot where i can see my clothesline while I enjoy the fresh air and sip iced green tea. That is my reward after a long day!
My favorite memory about laundry is all the years I got to hang laundry with my mother. Even later in her life she still hung up sheets. I’m now 66 and still like to hang up my sheets on the line. It gives me a chance to remember my mother and blow her a kiss 😘 !!!
Central Idaho gets cold even in late summer and my Mom laughs about me coming in one morning to tell her the clothes on the line “had turned to plastic!”
I also loved to watch my grandmother run clothes through the wringer on her washer before hanging them on the line in her backyard.
I remember helping Grandma hanging her clothes on the line out in the country and my mother would always hang hers out but we lived in town so every one could see your unmentionables so she would hang the sheets on the outside lines and all the underwear would be on the middle lines.
Hay there,
Please add me to the list of contestants. I love laundry on the line ….I am just about to hang my towels out!
I was about to order these pins a while back but they were all gone! Must be a great product.
Thanks for the contest giveaway!
Hugs and prayers,
Daizy #1093
My memory was hanging clothes with my Mom when I was a little girl. My job was to pick the clothes from the laundry basket and shake them out so she could hand them on the line. One day the wind was so strong the laundry was blowing in my face, Mom had to tap me so I would know where she was.
I was about 5 years old and my mom and I went out to gather the laundry off the clothes line, and to our surprise, we found that the goats got out of their pen and were eating our clothes! From that point on, their was a lot of ruckus with my mom the goats and I think a broom.
I remember running through the sheets hanging to dry when I was a little girl. My mom had two parallel laundry lines in our back yard. I used to dart in and out playing hide and seek. As I close my eyes now, I can smell the newly laundered sheets, feel the warm breeze and remember how much love I felt for my mother. Thanks for bringing back such a wonderful memory.
Hanging clothes on the line was a norm when I was growing up. Then I moved to the city and I missed the smell of line dried linens so I would pack up my laundry and go home to mom’s clothes line. The scent of fresh air and sunshine is way better than dryer sheets.
The best memory of hanging laundry was….watching my mom shake out and “snap” the laundry. We would climb the metal poles that held the clothes line. Racing to the top with my siblings….seeing who could get to the top and “perch” where the pole made a tee and held the lines. Four children and no broken bones!
My Grandma would hang up her linens in their tiny backyard in the city. I would sit in the grass and watch.
I remember how wonderful bed sheets would feel and smell when they had been dried outside! I say we need a fabric softener (organic , of course) that would make my bed sheets smell like the ones I remember as a child.
I let God dry the laundry!
I loved hanging clothes on the line with my mom and we had a method to our task.
The sheets and towels were always hung on the road side of the line with all the unmentionables on the inner lines. Mom had some special frames for my dad’s suit pants that made them look crisp. In the winter the clothes looked like they were dancing on the line as they froze and whipped in the wind. We children would make up scary stories about the grotesque shapes they became! My mom is gone now but my sisters and I each have a clothesline and use it to dry our clothes on. Wonderful memories!
Thanks for letting me share the joy:)
Running through the sheets as they were blowing in the wind with the sun shining. 🙂
I have to tell ya, there are lots of memories of hanging clothes on a clothesline, but my memory of a clothesline makes me die laughing!! My siblings and I were young adults, married with little ones and we were all at my dad and mom’s house. We always played tin can alley at night there. My brother-in-law being 6 foot tall decided to run thru the neighbors yard and clotheslined himself flat on his back!!! It knocked the wind right out of him! I am laughing so hard just writhing this!! My 19 year old son and his friends now come over on the weekends and play it here at our house! I just shared that story with them a couple weekends ago!! Life is good! 🙂
My mom always used her clothesline. She and our neighbor would often enjoy visiting while hanging clothes since their clotheslines were right across from each other. Mom taught me how to use fewer clothespins by overlapping corners of towels and washcloths and pinning with one pin. I still use my clothesline and love the fresh scent from drying outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. Hanging laundry is what I call “one of my favorite mental health breaks”. Hanging clean laundry is so relaxing to me; listening to the birds sing and smelling the fresh scent of outdoors. There is nothing like it!
That was my job as a child to hang the clothes on the line. We would love to run through the hanging clothes.
Growing up we used clothespins to hang clothes in the yard during the summer, and in our basement during the winter months. On my Aunt’s farm, during the winter months, the clothes were hung in the living room. Today on my own farm, I use clothespins still to hang clothes outside during the spring, summer and fall. There is no artificial liquid that can replace the smell of fresh clean sheets clothes hung outside to dry.
Hanging clothes when it was super cold and rushing to get them off the line before the rain started. Nothing like the fresh smell of bedding hung outside.
My brother, Ray, had Cerebral Palsy and was wheelchair bound. He could not talk so he could only let you know what he wanted by getting real excited or laughing or crying. Every time I had to hang clothes on the line, he would get so excited because he wanted to go outside with me to watch me hang clothes. Ray passed away in 1989 but I will always remember all the good times we had, like hanging the clothes on the line.
I remember hanging pants on a pants stretcher after starching them. Those were the days!
My favorite memory is of my Nana pulling freshly washed clothes out of her big straw wash basket and hanging them on the close line. The sun would be shining on her as she went about her work with grace and beauty. I can see it like it was yesterday .
I loved watching the laundry blowing in the wind!! I loved to help my Mom or Grandma take the fresh smelling clothes off the line, and put the pins in the cute dress shaped clothes pin “catcher”! To this day, when ever I see clothes on the clothes line, I usually ask to pull over, so I can take a picture!! Not to many folks hang their clothes out anymore!
I remember having to hang out clothes on our front porch in the winter because our dryer broke down. It looked like a laundromat on our front porch. You had to duck under laundry to get into the house.
While using cloth diapers and living in Southwest Oklahoma, I hung my diapers out on a line (I had three).
On a hot, windy day, I could start hanging at one end, then when I was finished, immediately start taking down the dry ones that were wet minutes before.
I remember as a child hanging laundry on the clothesline. Right now I do not have one. What a great inspiration to get one. I miss hanging my sheets on the line.
I loved the way clothes smelled when hung out on the line growing up. I still hang clothes on the line and they still smell incredible!
Hanging clothes on the line back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I loved the smell and sleeping on the fresh sheets. You don’t see people doing this any more because of Homeowners Associations.
I grew up hanging clothes on the line! My favorite items to hang were sheets. I loved the smell after hanging in the sun all day. Throughout my life I have had a clothesline and used it frequently. I still hang some things outside when time and weather permits.
My favorite memory is hanging sheets on the line with my Mother and Grandmother and sleeping on the fresh smelling clean sheets that night.
As the oldest of 4, i was required to hang out, bring in, and fold laundry almost daily as a child. i enjoyed it in spring when the mock orange bush near the clothesline was in bloom. it had sweet smelling, beautiful white blossoms. If it was raining, i hung laundry on a large wooden clothes drying rack my mom had. i think today’s kids need to do more chores such as this. it develops character!
I loved to hang out my daughters diapers she would play under the line as I pinned them up. They also came out white and very warm (minis the pee ) I still hang up every thing 47 years later , just no diapers
I live in the country and hang out my clothes almost every day!!! No dryer for me EVER! I let the Lord dry my clothes!
I can still hear my mom yelling, “Hurry, it’s raining and there are sheets on the line!”
My Mom was quite tall for her time, so Dad strung the clothesline high for her. When I got sent to the line to get sheets, it was quite a feat for a 7 year old to wrestle sheets on tip-toe!