This is the way we wash our clothes...
For now, anyway. Our clothes dryer died this week. It needs to be replaced, and that's going to have to wait just a bit. I made a trip to the laundromat midweek, with several days' worth of our laundry, and I'm sure the other customers assumed I had come into town off the compound where my polygamous family live. I was contemplating another trip there this morning, when I remembered the old clothes carousel in our backyard. Though makes it sound as if I grew up in the 1870s instead of the 1970s, when I was a little girl, my mother washed our clothes in a round washing machine with a wringer attachment, and hung them out to dry on a clothesline.
I'd forgotten how gorgeous white linens against a blue sky are. And tonight, I'm sleeping between sheets that smell like this morning's sun.
Everything old is new. Happy Easter.
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—Kyran, 8:37 PM
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10 Comments:
it is fun for a bit- but that was our life for a few months. It got old. I buckled and bought a dryer. I make my own laundry detergent- but I need my electric dryer. Enjoy the bliss now. Smell deeper. I do love it too.
We air dried our clothes when I was a child (1970s), and starting when I was about 12, hanging them out was my chore. I enjoyed the smell, and the order after I was done pinning everything up. I even felt a little pride, it was so neat. We had a big family too: my parents and their 5 kids.
It's 10:30p here and we're tackling the weekend laundry. I suppose that's one part about air-drying that's hard: the timing. If we couldn't machine dry, we'd all be wearing damp (or dirty) clothes for the holiday tomorrow. You must have planned your holiday laundry ahead!
Here in New Zealand it's still the norm to hang clothes out to dry. I feel guilty about wasting electricity when I have to use the dryer, which is, naturally, only rarely. It seems odd to think that for so many people it's unusual to dry the washing for free and end up with that unbeatable fresh air and sunshine smell.
Lovely photo. And definitely the way to look at things...the scent of air dried linens as opposed to static cling...
Moving to Cornwall England for love last year, I made quite a few major changes. One change becomes less important to me everyday. I live without a dryer here. Most people in our tiny village of 500 do as well.
We dry things the old fashioned way, outside on the clothes line which sometimes it takes a bit of creativity with an eye always to the weather living as we do in a place know for it's rainy days.
My husband has never owned a dryer...ever!
I am more aware here of many things..and the dryer or lack of is part of the process in my changing view.
Our house is empty from 8:00 till 3:00 most days. Unless you're here doing your laundry, that is.
I love the smell of clothing dried outdoors too! I also actually love the process of it, just enjoying the sun and the breeze, and the nice dry clothing. I am not at home enough to do it on a regular basis, and I hate hauling the wet laundry out of the basement. If things were a bit different, I would do it more often. (Sadly, it is that way with a lot of things in life.)
I love the "thought" of clothes hung out to dry. I wish I had the discipline to do it.
My Nannies in Newfoundland still hang clothes out - and there's nothing like a green meadow underneath with a blue ocean backdrop to make you feel the clothes is fresher than anything else could make it. Oddly enough, most people in Tokyo also hung out their clothes to dry while I lived there, and there was certainly no green underfoot and no blue behind. Just gray, and more gray.
You might just decide to stop using the dryer all together. Or at least until next winter.
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