Household Tips10 Tips For Drying Clothes Outdoors On A Clothes Line

10 Tips For Drying Clothes Outdoors On A Clothes Line

If you have never dried your clothing on a clothes line before but would like to start, check out these 10 tips for drying clothes outdoors on a clothes line. I know when you say dry clothes on a clothes line most folks would think, what tips? Put them on the line and let them dry. While that would get them dry, there are ways to make them less wrinkled and an order to washing the clothes to allow longer drying time to heavier items.

10 Tips For Drying Clothes Outdoors On A Clothes Line

I am going to share a few that help when I hang clothes to dry. First off I use heavy duty wood spring pins.  I think these are the easiest to use. The spring in them allow the pin to open nice and wide and give a decent grip on the clothing. They make a clothes peg which some people use which is like a peg of wood with a slit cut into it and you kind of jam the clothes into the slit to keep them on the line. I don’t them because they never held my clothes that well and the jamming caused wrinkles. Another tip is to always take a damp rag or cloth and run it over all the clothes lines you will be using that day. Unfortunately birds do their business where ever they happen to be when nature calls.

Another tip I learned from hanging clothes is to hang all shirts and tops from the bottom. This puts the heavier sleeves and collar at the bottom so the water can drip out of the material faster and also prevents the wrinkles from the clips from being on the shoulders of your shirts. With pants, skirt and shorts you will want to hang all of them from the waist band because then the clothing pin marks are not visible like they would be if you pinned them at the bottom of the legs. When you are pinning clothes, to make use of all available space and conserve on clothes pins, as you hang a garment put your pin on a corner of that garment and the next garment.

This way you hang two pieces of clothing with only 3 pins and there is no waste of line space. On the day that you will be doing laundry, start by washing the heavier items like jeans so they will have the most hours to hang and dry. If you have towels that have that funky odor that doesn’t seem to wash out, line drying gets rid of it because the sun kills bacteria and its bacteria that causes that smell.

Don’t hesitate to hang clothes out when it is freezing cold and windy because the wind will knock all the wrinkles out and while the clothing may freeze at first the wind will keep it moving and they will dry almost completely. If they are a tad damp at the end of the day and some times they will be because the sun goes down pretty early in winter. you can either hang them on hangers in the house or use the dryer for about 5 minutes to finish drying them. One great thing about drying your clothes on a clothe line, especially if you have allergies to dust mites is that the sun actually kills dust mites.

So save some money, kill some dust mites and hang some clothes out on a clothes line. I think you will love the way they smell and how much brighter and whiter they will be, (because the sun is a natural bleacher). If you use cloth diapers, laying the freshly washed diapers out on the grass in the sun will help bleach out any stains, the sun bleaches and I am not exactly sure how the grass helps but diapers are much whiter when dried this way.

Paige Raymond
Paige Raymond
Raised in rural Montana and educated in Mechanical Engineering and Sustainable Development, Paige Raymond combines a practical mindset with a passion for self-reliance and sustainability. With expertise ranging from mechanical solutions and food preservation to emergency preparedness and renewable energy, Paige is a proud author with more than 5000 published articles.

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