Our well water is high in
iron. As a result, our white laundry
doesn’t stay sparkling white. My mom
was telling me about how she used to hang cloth baby diapers on the
clothesline. The sun bleached the diapers and kept them white and bright.
I’ve wanted a clothesline
for some time, but we didn’t know where to put it. We have a lot of trees and
wanted the clothesline to be in the direct sunlight. We also wanted it to be close to the house, but not in the middle
of the yard.
We’ve been in this house for
13 years, and we finally built our clothesline. The first thing I put on the line were clean sheets. There’s nothing like the smell of sheets
that have been drying outside in the fresh country air.
It might sound kind of
wacky, but I love putting clean clothes on the line, watching them blow in the
wind, folding them as I take them off the line, and bringing the fresh clean
linens and clothes into the house.
John has been doing the
laundry for the past few years, but I just stole his laundry job. I’m having a
lot of fun, and he is not resisting the take over. He thinks the clothesline is a great investment in both his time
and our money.
All the laundry bins are
completely empty, and I’m looking for more things to wash. I’m now washing curtains. I asked John if he
would have thought about washing the curtains if I wasn’t around. He smiled and said, “If I didn’t have a
woman, I wouldn’t have curtains.”
You’d think after 20 years
of doing laundry for a large family, the job would become mundane and
drudgery. The excitement is back! It
must be the magic of a clothesline.
I love seeing the clothes
cleaner and brighter. Jonathan said,
“Every time I see you, you’re doing more laundry.” It must look like fun because several of the children want to
help. Standing out in the warm sunshine
hanging clothes on the line really does bring me a lot of joy.
Jaylee said, “I think it’s
romantic that dad would build you something that you really want.” I never
thought of it that way before, but she’s probably right. Over time, many kind gestures build an
enduring relationship.
We didn’t know we would use
and love our new clothesline so much.
After the first week, John added another section. Each section is four lines wide.
There are many simple things
that bring happiness. Capture the joy
in the everyday pleasures.
P.S. My sister shared two laundry
tricks:
#1 Whiten the Dingy Whites:
Mix 1 cup of bleach and 1 cup of Cascade powdered dishwashing soap in a sink of
hot water. Let your whites soak in
this solution. I was amazed at how
white it turned those dingy shirts. I
was going to get rid of several white shirts because they were yellowed. Now, they look brand new. (Use rubber gloves
when you put your hands in the water because it makes a lye-like solution.)
Hello Jennifer, I am like you, I find joy in the simple things like crisp clean washing dried in the country air.
ReplyDeleteMy husband Andrew made me a great clothes line too, it is attached to our upstairs balcony and connected to a huge Gum tree, like those clothes lines in Italy connected house to house, it works with a steel cable and pulley. How awesome we both have wonderful husbands who are good at making things!
Love Eva
If we lived closer, we would enjoy spending time together.
DeleteMy parents served a mission in New Zealand. They loved it!