I love to hang out

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

As I came in from the back porch with my basket of fresh laundry, mostly bedding, I heard my cousin coming in from the front door asking “are you still hanging your clothes outside?”

Of course I am, and I’m not the only one who does. I have always done so when the weather would allow me

There is nothing sweeter than the scent of clothes that have been dried by the sun. When you go to bed at night and slip into those sweet-smelling sheets and covers you know and appreciate it and you can sleep like a baby. My cousin had to admit the aroma coming from the sheets broght back good memories.

Every year (as most folks don’t know) on April 19 Project Laundry List joins with organizations around the country to educate people about energy savings. National Hanging Out Day was created to demonstrate how it is possible to save money and energy using a clothesline. Project Laundry List was founded in 1995 in Vermont after Dr. Helen Caldicott gave a speech at Middlebury College in which she said: “If we all did things like hand out our clothes, we could shut down the nuclear industry.”

She aid the top reasons to line dry are:

1. Save as much as $25 a month on energy costs.

2. Clothes will last longer.

3. Line dried clothes smell better.

4. Hanging clothes is good exercise.

5. Sunlight bleaches and disinfects.

The fifth reason is one that was taught to me both by my grandmother and one of my dear friends’ mothers who was of the Italian descent. When she had a stain on something rather than bleaching it (back in those days they didn’t have bleach in the bottle) you spread the item out on the lawn and let the sun do the bleaching and it always worked for them.

Back in the old days days wooden bushel baskets lined with cloth or eventually plastic were used for the wash. Clothespin bags would hang on the line ready for use. At one time a few years ago, clothespin bags were almost a thing of the past because “no one used them any longer” well duh, I did and so one of my friends who sews made me two as mine were getting pretty worn out.

I have neighbors and friends that have often asked me if we don’t have a dryer as I think they are feeling so sorry for me. I tell them that I do but I prefer my solar-powered one.

Hanging the clothes helps my waistline, saves electricity and I gain satisfaction at seeing them all hung up dancing in the breeze and getting that wonderful smell.

One thing about hanging your laundry on the line is that you have to be sure of the weather. Try to have an “at-home” day that time so that if showers should show up you can get your clothes off the line and in the house before it starts. I don’t plan on going too far away from home should that be the case and at one time you would hear, should you be in a grocery store or other place, and a shower was pending one would say “oh dear, I better get home, I have clothes hanging out,” and off they would go.

In the winter months, mind you, everything goes into the dryer .