Washing Line protocol

I am constantly amazed by threads on GN discussing shiboleths, like all these rules many people were expected to abide by for hanging out washing, or the other thread running about prams in houses before a baby is born. I can remember nothing like these, or the many others that raise their head on GN, in my childhood. If they existed in our household, they were very well hidden or I completely failed to notice any of them. DH has a very different background to me and his DM took no more notice of these practices than my DM.

I got married in 1968 and I can remember DH and I looking at some houses on a new estate in Kent that we quite liked, but backing off when being told that among the rules on the estate was no hanging out washing on Sundays. We bought a house on a new estate in Berkshire, where I and others hung our washing out when it was convenient for us, including on Sundays. If you both work full time, what else can you do?

Heaven forbid you hung washing out on a Sunday even here in the south of England when I was first married in the late 1960s. Washday was Monday, working or not. I have a lot of souvenir teatowels and no matter how I fight it, I have to hang them the right way up for the picture!

7 pages on how to hang washing. I must be the most laid back person alive as I just hang it out and it dries and I fetch it in again. Job done.

When I was a child, a new family moved in next door and the new arrivals were being "discussed". They obviously passed muster as my Granny declared "she hangs out a lovely washing" !

Might explain why I'm very pernickety about my washing line!

still people on the islands who believe Sunday is for worship not work,we have a young friend who was told off for washing his car and mowing his lawn.Gave him the excuse he was looking for when his wife asked why they weren't done

My first washing after coming back from honeymoon I pegged the shirts on the line the way my mother always did by the bottoms. My now ex husband told me that wasn't the way his mother did it and changed them all to hang by the shoulders. You can see now why he's my ex!

Your MiL would have hated me then. I don't use a washing line at all, just put almost everything in the tumble dryer these days. Anything else goes on a coat hanger on the rack in the bathroom. Yes I know it smells fresher when it's been in the open air and is probably better for the environment than using a dryer but honestly, life's too short to worry about these things. I don't buy anything that needs ironing and can't stand linen - it always looks like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards even when it's new and unworn. As for ironing sheets - surely that went out with the ark!
My Mum used to iron everything including my dad's underpants and socks so I think I have an anti-reaction to that.
Do what suits you and relish making MiL turn in her grave!

Our old neighbour used to hang her husband's large white Y-fronts side by side on her washing line in a very pictorial manner. One day I was chatting to her through the garden fence and she remarked "It's very difficult to buy D*** trousers because he is so long in the drop" but we already knew that!

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have a lot of knickers and do a monthly hot wash. They all go on an airer in the spare bedroom, but I do hang my bras out sometimes.

When I lived in Zambia, I had a maid who washed everything by hand - I could not bring myself to let her do my undies so I washed them by hand myself and dried them inside as otherwise I would have had to iron them, because there was an insect that laid its eggs on damp clothes and when they hatched out they burrowed under the skin!

I always put underwear/socks/knee highs on the inside of my rotary to hide them, then as the line gets higher the longer items go making sheets/duvet covers and long towels on the outside with them folded over the line roughly half and half (not ironed afterwards either). Trousers/skirts/blouses/t-shirts pegged on waistbands, dresses normally shoulders inside out but sometimes on hangers.

I remember once many many years ago helping a friend peg out her washing and being gob-smacked at how much space she took up by spreading cardigans and shirts out opened up, showed her how my mum had taught me (as if items buttoned up to wear) taking up far less space so more can go on at a time - guess how she has done since

Funny how you do things without really thinking about it. But I realise I hang my underwear in the centre of the rotary drier so they can't be seen by the teenage boys next door. I also have a memory of being told that our neighbours when I was a teenager used to comment that the 'hankies' were on the line when drying our tiny gaily coloured 1960's pants.

I suddenly realised a few years ago that putting undies and socks on the lower rungs of my telescopic airier and then putting it out made great sense - it saves pegs and line space and can be brought in quick if raining. BUT all socks must be in pairs and his boxers on lowest rungs with my undies on higher rungs. Still have spare rungs at top for clothes that need more drying time in house. Wish I'd thought of it years ago when DS and DD at home altho probably would have had two overflowing airer!

I have a washing line story to tell! When we were living and working in Bermuda in the 90's we were renting a little one bedroom ground floor apartment (lower level of an elderly lady's home) with full use of her back garden. I worked full time, so my Saturday morning ritual was to wash the sheets, towels and shirts and hang them out to dry on a long washing line my husband has rigged up for me. In the bright sunshine they rarely took more than a couple of hours to dry.

One Saturday lunchtime I had a telephone call from my landlady saying she had just received a call from a concerned neighbour..... an owner of one of the very large homes in the area, situated just around the bend of the lane that we lived on. This woman wanted to express her concerns about being able to see my line of washing blowing in the breeze from a number of the back windows of her palatial home, as well as from her back patio .....and not just once now and again but every Saturday morning, and when she invited her friends over to have lunch on the verandah overlooking the water, she was distressed that they too would have a distant view of my sheets, towels and shirts blowing in the breeze!

But, being resourceful as well as very wealthy she didn't just complain but also came up with a solution. She advised my elderly landlady that she would call her regular handyman and ask him to drive into town and buy a rotary dryer and then he would come round and install it in our back garden "in a more discreet" area! Later - in the afternoon - that is exactly what happened!

I learned a lesson from this experience (which was of no use at all to me for the rest of my life) and that is there are the "haves" and the "have nots" and I was very aware of which side of the washing line I lived on.

As far as I know that rotary dryer is still standing in the little garden - my elderly landlady has long since died - as,no doubt, has the complaining neighbour and we no longer choose to live in Bermuda! But when I visit every now and again I do take a drive around that area and it brings back funny memories of living in a world - and amongst neighbour's that seemed to have lost all bore sensibility and logic!

Sheets are always hung by hems, pegged corners and middle, shirts by bottoms, bottoms by tops. All washing pegged so that it faces the wind and the wind blows through it, it drys quicker. I still use a wooden prop to lift the line as well.

Whilst the weather is HOT clothes come off the line and get put away. Any other time I put them in the airing cupboard for a few days. Bedding and towels are stored in the airing cupboard.

I'm so pleased I'm not nearly as anal as I thought I might be about hanging out washing. HOWEVER,when it comes to airing clothes,it's a different matter. I can't abide washing not being aired properly. Without an airing cupboard,I use a short airing cycle on the tumble drier. What do you do?

When we came back from honeymoon in 1967, someone stole all my trouseau undies from the line!

We have too many trees in and overlooking our garden now to hang anything out as it gets covered in bird sexagesimal (I had to let that auto correction stay.) How on earth does messages turn into 'sexagesimal'!? I must look it up.

I see it's a number system based on 60, um, dissapointing.

Further to the subject of 'knicker nickers' if you want a chuckle there's a brilliant children's poem by Brian Moses called 'Aliens stole my Underpants' which makes me laugh.

When my daughter and son-in-law bought their house, less than 2 years ago, there was a clause in the contract that said they couldn't hang out washing on a Sunday.
My protocols are mostly similar to what others have said but, in addition, I always hang whites and pale colours the right side out so that the UV will bleach them clean and bright colours and dark washing inside out so that the UV doesn't fade them.

How hilarious, I presume you're joking. Why would anyone bother how somebody hangs their washing out? Btw I would never hang shirts by the shoulders as it leaves peg marks and having them blow upside down, makes them dry quicker because the thicker parts e.g. Collar etc blow in the wind.

I like my clothès lines to look tidy, so I put all trousers in a row, then tops, underwear and then socks. Other line gets bedding and towels

I'd never use a tumble dry for just two of us. My electricity usage is very low. Now if a large family or business, then yes, I'd consider it.

When I lived in the US, My US mother was not happy I wanted to hang laundry out on a Sunday (we lived on an 'A' road). But I refused to put my clothing in the tumble dryer any more, as I learnt from living over HERE that knicker elastic lasted longer, bra elastic and shape, too. Also towels are thirstier, vs tumble dried with fabric softener. Sheets, pillow cases? Haven't ironed a sheet since polyester came out. Clothes went on the line according to the weather not mother. I love the fresh smell of line dried things.

Here I have a city courtyard garden, so I have two or three drying racks. Shirts go onto coat hangars on the long window curtain rail on he SW side to get the sun, they dry mostly ready to wear or little ironing needed.

The rest gets fitted onto the racks packed tight by to allow air through. I am amazed at how much laundry you can peg onto a couple of good drying racks. Inside or out... and it's easier to drag a couple of racks inside with clothes on them if it rains vs having to dash out and unpeg them all and bring in to...erm, put on airing racks.

Thirty six years ago wWhen our elder son was a baby, we lived in maisonette with our garden at the side, visible from the front - our downstairs neighbour had the front and back gardens. I used to hang the terry nappies out most days on a rotary dryer. One day, a man who lived a few doors down on the other side of the road fell into step beside me and asked if he could 'pop up for a quick word'. When we were seated, and he'd refused coffee, he said that he and his wife were planning to put their house on the market. I looked at hm a bit quizzically as I couldn't think why he'd goner to all this trouble to tell us in private. He then continued: " ... so I'm sure you'll understand why I'm asking you too stop hanging the nappies out at the side, since it does rather the tone of the are and might affect the value of our house". My husband and I started at him open-mouthed. He went on: "I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind if you used her tumble dryer". We said we'd make our own arrangements, and hen he'd gone we succumbed to very unneighbourly laughter at the idea that someone had actually used the phrase 'lower the tone' in real life. Luckily our downstairs neighbour let us put our rotary dryer out in her back garden, and we ourselves moved to a bigger house a couple of months later. We never found out whether the man's wife would actually have welcomed me going round to dry the nappies in 'her' tumble dryer every day, or indeed if she ever knew he'd offered it. Maybe it was her idea.
As far as clothes are concerned, I do have my obsessions, which relate mainly to ensuring that different types of garment are hung side by side, the same way up, and with each type subdivided into whose they are. I am prepared to deviate if the dryer isn't evenly balanced all the way round. But for much of the year we have to use the heated airer in the spare room, because our part of the Scottish Borders, where we live now, is often very wet and windy and the air doesn't warm up until April.

I was once told by a churchgoer that I wasn't a proper Christian as I hung my washing out on a Sunday. Since I was working full time and collecting my old Ma's washing to do at the weekend I thought it a ridiculous comment. At the time I was living in a beautiful old Georgian former vicarage next to the church and I felt the criticism was probably prompted by jealousy. Jesus wouldn't have minded!

Never mind protocol (whatever that may be). If you hang T-shirts by the hem, the shape gets distorted. I hang them over the line and peg them where the side seam meets the sleeve seams. The peg marks don't show.