Washing lines

Hanging out washing is environmentally essential. I once moved into a house where the woman next door lit a bonfire if I hung washing out on Sundays. I asked why she did this and she said because she would rather I did not hang out on Sundays. I said OK and on Sundays hung out my washing on a concertina airer in the garage. Then this woman next door told me I must get my 6 year old son a hard-hat. I thought she was threatening to hit him. Then she took him horse riding. He spent many happy Sunday mornings with her hacking group on Frensham common. That woman really was a stuck up cow, she was a deputy bank manager. We had to move after only one year and when she saw us going she came round to our garden to say how much she would miss us. She might have been a stuck up old cow but I finished up missing her!

I love hanging out washing but am puzzled by DIL who hangs things on a rack indoors even with two small children. Her father apparently thinks it’s common to hang things out but he lives 200 miles away. ?

GreenGran78,your friend sounds like she has O.C.D. maybe? I do hang the thicker ones in more sun though,like you, and i remember my late mum always saying to 'hang things upside down' so the heaviest parts (like waist bands etc. are flapping in the wind) I cant always hang stuff out these days as ive bad arthritis, and i cant ask my son as he hangs them all wrong, just throws them over at middles etc like blankets..im wondering if he does that so i wont ask him

Yes I am obviously common, I love to see the wind blowing through my drawers

Elizabeth1,i dont think its a superstition, not to hang out laundry on sundays- my late mum was the most superstitious woman i ever knew, but she never said that one- in fact, I've never heard it said before today, on here! Unless its as it was always considered a 'day of rest' and could be religion related maybe? As shops always used to be closed too?Its certainly not an old wives tale or superstition i dont think, or my mum or gran would have been forever quoting it at me

I like your fathers term Witzend

I now have a garden mooring so I am going to get a rotary line. At the moment I dry on an old fashioned airer fixed to ceiling of boat. I do have a dryer but rarely use it. Have to say this is the first time I have heard hanging your washing out as common. You can't beat the smell of sheets dried in the fresh air. Not sure I will let my knickers blow in the wind for other boaters to see....

I always hang out my washing when the weather's good enough, as it gets it out of the way. I'm a bit odd in that I don't actually like the smell of washing dried outside, but the benefits outweigh that.
I don't understand how it can be common to hang your washing out. The only things that don't go out are my underwear and that's because I share the courtyard with 11 other people and I'd rather keep my smalls (or my larges?!!) to myself.
Make use of the good weather; saves on using tumble dryers.

Great comment jennyvg

Every time I spot this thread title in 'Trending' it brings back memories of teaching small children to ride.

Whenever they allowed the reins to slip through their fingers you'd shout, 'WASHING LINES!' This taught them to gather up the slack whilst on the move.

People have been putting their washing out for ever - Charles Dickens gives a lovely description of clothes on a line, dancing and whispering in the breeze, in Barnaby Rudge. I'm all for it myself.

Nothing better than line dried washing

I have hung washing out all my life and never been told it was common.

Certainly, in Scotland in my childhood, no-one hung washing out on a Sunday! And all washing was in before dark, whether it was dry or not.

My paternal grandmother objected to my mother hanging her own underwear on the same line as my father's in 1947.
My maternal grandmother hung her bras under a towel or inside a pillow-slip.

Dryers are convenient but bad for the environment and not terribly good for the clothes either.

The only thing that annoys me about washing lines is when people leave all the pegs out on them

Juicylucy- ive not heard that-my youngest(17) loves the smell of the sheets off the line-and the cat when he when hes been outside- in fact he said other night "you can actually 'smell' the outside air you know"-(this coming from a child who generally speaking doesnt like to go out.!) I agreed as i can smell the colder fresher air when i let the cat in/out. All my AC have always liked the smell of fresh washing as i used to hang everything out to dry in good weather when they were growing up.It depends what youre used to i guess.

I hang out washing, unless weather doesn't permit. I never put a load straight from machine into the tumble dryer. If I have to, I hang it in the garage, then, finally, to finish it I might bring it into the house overnight. The underfloor heating tends to be on during the night if the temp drops below 22. I do iron certain things, and it does soften the towels to some extent. It's economical, and ecological.

Not hanging washing out on a Sunday does have a religious connotation, as many Presbyterian Scots formerly held Sunday as strictly as a day of rest as observant Jews hold the Sabbath.

The ten commandments state that no work is to be done on the Sabbath, which was of course Saturday, when Exodus was written.

In Scotland the Sabbath just moved to The Lord's Day - there was nothing more dreary than a Scottish Sunday in my childhood. My grannie only served cold food, cooked on Saturday, no reading except the Bible or a religious book, two church services, no music, radio, tv , so obviously no-one did a washing on a Sunday.

GabriellaG54, just to clarify,OP meant "is it common"? As in, "is it beneath one to do it"- (like a snob)
Not, 'is it common?' - as in 'do we see it done often or not done"

A lady in my neighbourhood puts out a line of washing & then can just leave them there,for days,in all weathers sometimes.

See,i knew the sunday thing was religious -based..my mum never said,even though we're a catholic family, but she didn't go to church every single week as she got older as she should either

I try to get washing in before dark as it makes them damp again when it gets dark.

I love hanging out washing. I remember hanging out a long line of pure white terry nappies for both my children, those were the days.

I now use a rotary line and my washing is still pristine. Neither of my neighbours hang washing out.

Mine is now outside on the clotheshorse in the sun.

I love to see a line full of washing drying in the sun. It comes in smelling fresh & saves money spent on tumble dryer.
When my DH's sister - who lives in Canada-was staying with us she complained that I hung my towels out as they were 'harder than if I had tumbled them. I must confess I don't really notice the difference.
Am I alone in matching peg colour to clothes colour when hanging things up?

Good lord, do we still think in those terms? How about thinking about it along the lines of being eco friendly and not giving a monkey about what other people think? I just hate the way society makes up these petty rules.