 I was reminded of my resolve to start drying some of my clothes outdoors when I read a blog post by  Susan Harris of Garden Rant, on community associations and how their rules preclude the use of the environmentally friendly outdoor clotheslines. Thank God I don’t live in one of these neighborhoods because my clotheslines are going up soon!
As a matter of fact, I just ordered a collapsible outdoor clothesline today that can be closed and put away after use like a patio umbrella. I should get it sometime next week. I can’t wait for it to arrive because I’ve been drying clothes on an indoor rack for years and I’m tired of the musty smell it brings to the room. Of course I’m looking forward to continued savings on my electric bill but I have to admit, I’m motivated by selfish reasons- I can’t afford to have my blouses shrink and have my buttons gap from the pull!
Questionable aethestics aside, outdoor clotheslines ceased to be a common urban residential feature  as electric clothes dryers became more affordable.  I was around 8 years old when my parents  bought our first dryer. It changed our lives! With six kids in the house, my mom tended to  tons of laundry and we all took turns helping to hang it outside. I tried to make my chore more fun by stuffing a towel “cape” into my shirtcollar and pretending I was “Batgirl. I guess it was just a foreshadow of things to come now that I’m a real life garden crusader on my television show , Garden Police!
 The amount of time and labor that the dryer saved us was unquestionable in a household as large as ours. The last thing on our minds was how our new appliance impacted the environment or sucked watt-loads of electricity. So, I guess you can say I’m going “retro” with my outdoor clothesline. It’s ironic when you think that the modern conveniences that have “gifted” our society with the time to multi-task and advance during the last 50 years are now the very things being indicted as environmental resource leaches. The dryer is just a small player in the “laundry list” of violators. Â
I’m salvaging this dead space near the trash cans to set up my clothes lines.
It’s not all bad though, I sense a new revolution on the horizon on par with the industrial revolution that deemed cottage industries obsolete , but this time it’s the reverse. Cottage industries are emerging once again with all kinds of “home-spun, from the ground” remedies to save the earth from runaway consumption. Nothing fancy, just stuff us gardening fanatics knew all along. The answer is outside. Go outside to hang the laundry, go outside and grow some food of your own, go outside and enjoy the sun and the wind as they kiss our faces and dry our clothes like in the old times.Â
*See more garden projects, “before and after†landscape photos and the latest in garden design with regular visits to Shirley Bovshow’s EdenMaker’s Blog!
I would like to tell of another outdoor clothesline I think is very good. The Sunshine Clothes Dryer folds up like an upside down umbrella and works GREAT! Is very durable and is made here in the USA.