This $3 Tool Will Save ALL THE SPACE on Your Outdoor Clothesline!

One of my favourite things about spring is the return to drying clothes outside in the clothesline. So much of the Stay-at-Home-Mom job consists of inside chores – dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, tidying, making breakfast/lunch/supper, doing the wash – that when those warm-ish sunny days finally come knocking at the door, I can’t wait to fling it open and join it!  I grew up with an “Umbrella” clothesline and went on to (have my husband) install one in our own back yard at our first place. When you have a yard with full sun and reasonable wind, it’s an excellent choice. I could fit 3-4 loads, easily, onto the clothesline.  Last summer, we moved into our current rental that didn’t have a clothesline at all – which we fixed within a week. Besides the fact that we didn’t want to dig up the back yard to plant an umbrella clothesline, the only part of the yard with full sun was at the back of the yard – and when I’m already carrying the laundry from the deep, dark basement up to hang, I don’t feel like walking an extra 50′ to hang up and take down. Hence the installation of a pulley clothesline right outside our back door. Because the clothes are hanging single file instead of one in front of the other, they dry much more quickly in our half-sun-deprived back yard.  However, despite the looong length of our pulley line, I can usually only hang 2 loads of laundry at a time – which means that my clothesline space is at a premium. You know what takes up a LOT of room on a clothesline? Socks. My daughter feels the need to change her socks three times a day some days, and 3 year old socks take up just as much room on a clothesline as a 37 year old’s socks. I know that some people put all socks through the dryer instead of wasting space on the line, but I hate turning on my dryer in the summer. But I hate wasting space on my clothesline. 

That’s why I picked up this fancy dancy simple little laundry tool at Dollarama a few weeks ago. And then I picked up another last week, because WOW we have so many socks in our house! I have no idea what to call it – I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t know it! 

As I hang out my laundry, I set the socks on the rail of the deck and sort as I find them. When all the other laundry has been dealt with, hang the laundry rack from the line, I pair up two socks, and clip them up. If they aren’t completely dry at the end of the day – no worries – just move the hanger inside and put them away in the morning! Not only does this save a crazy amount of space on the clothesline, but there’s no sorting the socks at the end of the laundry process – and I think you’ll agree with me that it’s the end of the laundry that goes on for DAYS. (Why does it take so much effort to put laundry away on the same day that it has been washed and dried?)

Have any laundry tips to share? Please do! I’m always looking for a way to make my jobs easier! 

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Jenn vanOosten

I live in Hamilton, Ontario, and love my city. I'm a Netflixer, choral music geek, bookworm, inventor of recipes (I take Artistic Licence on EVERYTHING that I make), wife of one, mother of two, and owner of a neurotic Schnauzer. I respect people who respect others. I love good food that's well done, but my favourite lunch is KD & hotdogs. With ketchup. I'm addicted to Clearance Shopping. I will ALWAYS get the product that I want at the price that I want, eventually.

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