EnviroMom

Ban on banning clotheslines? It could happen!

Almost every time we write about clotheslines, someone comments something along the lines of: 'Oh, how wonderful. I used to always dry my clothes on a clothesline. Love that smell! But, now I live in a place where the homeowners association has prohibited the use of clotheslines. Sigh.'

But all that may change! Good news on the horizon in Oregon and other states. An Oregon bill is in the works to prohibit such condo and homeowners' associations from banning clotheslines in areas maintained by homeowners (i.e., their yards). Can I just say: It's about damn time? Don't get me wrong. I love the good ol' US of A. But sometimes it kills me that these kinds of things need to be legislated. Oregon is not alone. Hawaii and Connecticut are working on similar efforts, while Vermont and Florida have already passed such laws. Check out Project Laundry List for the great work they are doing, and the freaking fantastic photo they have of undies hanging on a line.

Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I've always loved the sight of laundry on a line. I remember taking pictures of jeans and shirts flapping in the breeze for a photojournalism class I took a million years ago. I think I even got high marks. It was quite beautiful. Black and white. In the age before digital, alas, so it would be a pain-in-the-bleep to track it down, scan and post it. Sorry. I also become bewitched looking out of windows when I travel abroad (again, a million years ago), at all the cool pulleys and lines and loads of laundry being hung outside these old, old buildings. Perhaps they have the same problems too? Gated communities in the 'burbs where the hanging of laundry is forbidden? I don't know. To me the laundry is just part of the charm in all those lovely foreign cities.

I'm going to stop now before I write an ode to laundry lines. But please, if you feel so inspired, add your poetry to the comments.

Eco-friendly fundraising: people-powered RAT race

In one of those wonderful spur-of-the-moment playdates that happen after preschool on sunny days, a couple of moms were talking about how we need to get more in touch with the power we use. Want local food? You grow it in your garden. Power? Not so easy. We flip a switch and it's usually just there. We have no connection to it. Wouldn't it be cool if we could power things ourselves? Lights and TVs and microwave ovens that are powered by stationary bikes or treadmills? I know I've read about similar experiments where video games are powered by exercise equipment to get sedentary kids moving. I think I even read about a fitness center in Portland that is 100% powered by the people working out in the gym. Probably would be fairly impossible to implement, but fun to surmise about... The only thing in our house that comes close is a flashlight we have to power by shaking. I would imagine if the flashlight is any indication, which gives off a pitiful little spotlight after vigorous shaking, we'd have to work pretty dang hard to have any real energy output.

Yippee! It's clothesline weather!

Sunny and mid-70's here in Portland, and some of my freshly-laundered piles will get the clothesline treatment today. I became a clothesline convert last summer, but there was a little bit of a learning curve so I'm digging up some of our past clothesline posts to help newbie air-dryers get motivated:

Of course you can buy a clothesline pole that you set up in your yard. But if you don't want a permanent structure taking up real estate, here are some alternative ideas:

Earth Hour: How did it go? What did you learn?

I had some moments of panic when I got an email two hours prior to Earth Hour from a local broadcast news reporter -- wanting to come over with a camera and do a story on a Portland family participating in Earth Hour. You know that feeling? Oh man. My house is a mess. Hair = bad hair day. What exactly are the kids wearing? Would they be an utter train-wreck if I pushed them to stay awake until 8:30pm and beyond? (In answer to those questions: crazy kid-selected ensembles and undoubtedly two big train-wrecks). I did call her back, and was grateful when it rolled to voicemail. She never called me back. Whew!

New roof = green roof and solar ready?

I've been in denial. When we moved into our house 9 years ago, we did the home inspection and were told we had a good, long life left in our roof. So in recent years when gutter cleaners and contractors have suggested we needed a new roof, I was all "La-la-la-la-la! I can't hear you!" Although, the wind storms that seem to vomit off roof shingles on a regular basis are messin' with my fantasy world. Unfortunately, our roof seems to have been roofed with inferior quality materials. It is time. The roof is on life support. This is the year of the new roof.

Creative (and cheap) clothes line solutions

A few days ago Becky sent us some photos of a clothes line she rigged up using an old baby gate. She lives in a condo with her family, so she doesn't have a lot of space or a yard to work with. She wrote:

So I have been trying to figure out how I can rig some sort of clothes line for some time now. I also didn't want to spend anything and today I finally realized how I could manage this. A long time ago we hung some candle lanterns from a large support beam on our deck. Since they were already there, I used these loops to attach some bungee cords that I found in my garage, 2 in each loop, and the other ends I attached to my baby gate. We never use this gate and so I am glad to finally be getting its $20 worth out of it. I hung our clothes all around the edge and for the rest I draped over an expandable rack that we already had. Anyway...I know this was a random e-mail, I was just so excited to have finally found a solution and thought that you would understand my excitement.

Yes, Becky, these are the kind of emails that make Renee and I cluck like chickens. We totally understand your excitement, and you actually inspired ME to finally rig up my own clothes line. First, check out Becky's photos:

 

This is a thing of beauty. Free, functional and friendly to the environment. Love it!

Curious about clotheslines? Some power user tips

I've had a number of people ask about how I set up my clothesline, so I'll explain a bit, link to some older posts, and offer a few "solar dryer" power user tips...

Although there are many ways to hang clothes on a line (umbrella lines, retractable lines, and a simple, old-fashioned line strung up between two posts), I'll give you an idea of what we do. I pondered this for a long while, since I'm working with a small yard, the sun is on the mountain view side, and I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on it. It also helps that I can easily put the clothesline up and down based on when we need it.

For our back yard, I string two lengths of clothesline, with a loop knotted at each end. In each loop, I link a small bungee cord that then stretches to a sturdy branch in between our back and side hedge. I have a shepherd's hook (designed for holding hanging plant baskets) in the center of my line for support. The shepherd's hook cost $11, the cord $4, and the clothespins a few bucks -- all from my local Fred Meyer.

Here's my power user tips:

• Use the extra spin cycle/max extract on your washer so that the clothing starts out as dry as possible. That makes it much less likely to dry stiff as a board.
• Add some white vinegar to the wash load as a fabric softening measure.
• Wash all clothing in cold for extra money/energy savings.
• Turn dark clothing inside out so that it doesn't fade in the sun while drying.
• Enjoy the fact that whites will whiten even more while drying in the sun.
• Socks and undies take a long time to clip to the line, so I don't put them on the line. They dry very quickly in the regular dryer.
• If crunchy towels will bother you, claim a towel exclusion and use your regular dryer for things you want to be extra soft.
• Figure out what will work for your family. Don't feel like it has to be all or nothing. Use your regular dryer when you need it, and just feel good for every load of wash you dry via the solar dryer!

{Edited 6/26/2008:  Our family was featured on a local news station, KOIN, in their KOIN Savers feature yesterday for our laundry line use. You can view the segment via a youtube video:}

Summer Clothesline Challenge 2008: bring it on

Hot enough for ya? Nothing like a little 80-90+ degree weather to make you want to sit on the back porch and watch laundry dry in the sun.

Frankly, I'm glad to be here. It took me a while to get up the gumption to hang my clothing out to dry. Nothing against the ol' solar clothes dryer. I just felt inhibited. I mean, NONE of my neighbors hang their clothes out to dry. Then there was that big stink in Bend last year about the lady trying to do the green thing by hanging out her laundry and violating the CCRs of some hoity-toity affluent bedroom community. So while I agreed whole-heartedly about using clotheslines, doing it myself held some hangups I needed to get past. But the good news is the procrastination technique worked for me. It helped me to figure out how to set up a clothesline in our minimal yard with minimal expense, and only minimally impacting anyone's view. What also became clear after a bit of trial and error was that stringing it between two hedges required a little support, which was fixed by one of those metal shepherd's hooks.

So, let me just say that I was ready when I saw Gift of Green's Clothesline Challenge. I signed up at the Advanced level (thankyouverymuch). And we've been rocking it so far. Here's the process:

1. Read the weather forecast.
2. Rant and rave when those bleeping bleeps lie to us and tell us it's going to be hot and dry, and then it just rains, and rains, and rains.
3. Gather dirty clothing when the rain ceases.
4. Wash on cold. (I don't know why I'm still sorting. Old habits die hard.)
   
5. Hang to dry early in the morning.
6. Late in the day, pop open a beer, admire the view of Mount St. Helens, watch the laundry dry, and try to remember to fold it before putting the kids to bed.

Granted, it's only May, but we've solar dried about 6 loads of laundry so far. Did my whites yesterday. Need to go hang up the darks today.

The fine print: I am claiming the socks and underwear exemption. I shall not, will not, hang out my undies for neighbors to see. And the socks simply take too much dang time to hang up.

Do you have one of the hot-selling latest new-fangled high-tech solar clothes dryers in your back yard?

New perspective on the ol' clothesline challenge

Have you heard this old joke? Question: What's the difference between a brown-noser and a butt-kisser? Answer: depth perception. So a different perspective, if you will. I'm happy to say I found a different perspective the other day on my clothesline dilemma -- one that has given me an exciting solution to a challenge I've been ruminating on for at least half a year. And rest assured, there will be no more potty talk or bad jokes going forward in this post (whew!).

We were hanging out a temporary clothesline in our backyard the other day after re-tie-dyeing our lunchbox napkins. Perhaps I need some remedial tie-dye training, but the colors have really faded since September: Is this normal? Too much washing? Water not hot enough when we dyed? Didn't leave them in the dye bath long enough? No bother, the good news is that they seem to be infinitely re-dyeable and it was just as fun the second time around to refresh the color.

In any case, I didn't want the dye-drippy napkins dripping in my basement laundry room, which is where we usually hang things out to dry when we have just a few things. I also didn't want the dye soaking into our wood drying rack for fear I'd next hang out some whites and accidentally dye those some rather vibrant colors.

When my daughter and I were trying to figure out where to hang our clothes line, we got down on her eye-level, and the solution just jumped at us. Using a bungee-cord, looped to some clothesline, looped to another bungee cord between the base of our neighbor's hedge and the top of our back hedge, we had the most perfect spot to hang up a clothes line. We have a very weird but lovely lot, with houses at different elevations on either side, and a protected greenspace in the back, bordered by a hedge, and complemented by a million dollar view of Mt. St. Helens. Therein was the clothesline dilemma. How to be a good, true-to-my-brand EnviroMom and hang out our clothes to dry without flashing and flapping our undies around for all the neighbors to see, and not tarnishing anyone's mountain view.

I think what we did the other day can be expanded upon, could accommodate a whole load of laundry, could be put up and taken down without too much effort, and also puts the whole shebang at kid-level so that they can actually help hang the laundry (but will they? that's the million dollar question....). There's a part of me that wishes I wouldn't procrastinate on these things so much. But I'm glad that I did in this case. In addition to getting a new perspective on this after ruminating for half a year, I'm avoiding all the environmental costs of what I figured we'd have to do: get a big, tall, ugly metal umbrella-style clothesline that our neighbors may have hated us for. I think I can do this with materials on hand. And at least for our sunny season, we can meet a new goal of hanging the clothes out to dry. Yippee!!!

Turning sun into light (in a cute little jar)

What do you get when you put a solar cell, a rechargeable battery and LED lights into a Mason jar? Why, a Sun Jar, of course. You set the jar in a sunny window and when night falls, the jar automatically lights up. While it doesn't appear bright enough to read by, it makes a nice nightlight or alternate candlelight. And if you don't want to spend $40 for it, you can make one yourself. Not Martha made one for a little more than $13. Afternoon project? Very cool gift? I'll take one!