First Time Line Drying

I had to do my clothes laundry today.  We each do our own clothes pretty much whenever the basket is overflowing.  For my daughter it’s generally when I happen to walk into her room and see piles of dirty clothes on the floor.  At least she keeps them in one place more or less.  But it’s at that time that I can see her closet is just about bare.  She doesn’t like doing laundry because it takes so long to fold…especially when she’s folding about 3 full loads worth all in one day!!

Anyways, I decided that now was as good as any to line dry my clothes inside.  Since I’m planning on doing it eventually anyways, and since I’m planning on buying the items I want for hand washing our clothes, now’s a pretty good time to take the first step..line dry.

There’s not a whole lot of room in the area that I set up the clothes line inside.  Particularly since this is about two weeks worth of clothes or so.  I started out by laying everything out, shirts bottom end up and inside out.  But that was taking up way too much room, and I was having to put another line that would be low enough for the cats to brush up against.  This was going to be my underclothes line, but I didn’t like the idea of loose fur and kicked up dust finding themselves into my underclothes.  So I wound up putting my shirts onto hangers.  The underclothes are pinned inbetween the hangers, the clips keeping the hangers from all sliding to the middle into one big lump of hung clothes.

I like this, because then it allows the air to actually pass through and get both the front and back sides of the clothes, instead of just the side facing the window.  The underclothes are also sorta hidden as well.

I keep looking at the clothes, hanging there, and knowing that I’ve got more than twice those hanging in my closet.  It’s way too much to handwash in one day, imo.  So I’m thinking that realistically, I only need about 8 shirts and 3-4 pants.  I don’t work so I don’t have to worry about special clothes for a job.  I just have to make sure that I have layering abilities.  I’m thinking that if I hand wash every four days, I’ll be able to let the clothes hang to dry long enough while I’m using the other four shirts, and just keep switching them off like that.  I mean, like we only need two sets of bedsheets, one for being on the bed while the other is being washed and dried.

I also noticed while hanging my clothes that some are more flexible than others, some will dry easier than others, and some will wash easier than others.  I also became aware of ones that are stretched funkily, and various holes or almost holes in shirts, pants, and underclothes.  Yeah, I’m thinking it’s about time for some new underclothes!!

I’d also like to get some of those swiveling hangers for shirts and pants.  I think that would work better than the plastic hangers I’ve got.

I also think that if I wash clothes every 4th day, mine and richard’s, then mine will take up half of one line, and his will take up the other half (if everything is hung on a hanger).  This way I only need two lines, the highest for the hanged clothes, and one two slots below that for underclothes (his and mine), as well as towels.

As of yet I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of hanging the clothes outside.  I might very well do that.  But there’s so many spiders and such out there, as well as pollen and other flying debris, and my allergies???  I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not.  Also with the rains and such.  Though, I think that it’d be easier to dry bedsheets outside than inside.  Although the sun might fade the sheets out..that would be sad.

The 3rd is coming up, payday.  I think with my spending money this month I’ll be getting the hand washing items, some swivel hangers for pants, and some underclothes.  The plastic hangers can work for now.

So, I guess all that’s left to decide right now is which clothes stay and which go bye-bye.  If I figure it out…I’ll post it.