I went out and bought myself a retractable clothes line about a week ago, a few days before the challenge started! I had my wonderful husband hang it up for me. It goes from our shed to our swing set, that the kids play on. It stretches 50 feet. Plenty of room for all our clothes. Well kind of! We are a family of SIX!! And that means LOTS of laundry.
Well for the first week it sat there not getting used. Habit had me using the dryer. So last Thursday I pulled the plug on the dryer! I have been hanging my clothes ever since!
I have actually been enjoying being outside and hanging my clothes! Even my kids are helping! They hand me clothes pins and clothes and we talk while out in the yard. It has been a pretty great experience. Yesterday while I was hanging some clothes the kids were able to swim and I could watch them.. Two birds kind of thing...
I used to visit my Grandma every summer growing up and she always hung our clothes. I loved going and helping her, well most of the time. I remember my clothes smelling so fresh and clean. So now while I am out there I think of my Grandma a lot, I sure do miss her!
When I first told the kids that I was going to be doing this my daughter was pretty mortified!! She did not want me hanging her undies... So I have agreed and they don't go up on the line. I keep all of our under clothes in the house!! We do not have a fenced in yard, anyone can see...
As I went out to hang my second load of laundry one of my neighbors yelled over. He asked if our dryer was broken and offered me the use of his. I told him thanks but I was trying something new. He gave me a quizical type look and went on his way....
Last Thursday was a beautiful, breezy day in the high 70's. I did 4 loads of laundry, folded them and put it all away. Everything went great, my clothes dried faster than if I put them in the dryer. The next morning I put on a pair of the pants I washed and went into the girls room to wake them for school.. I felt a pain on my thigh, then another I tried to scratch it and felt something in my pants. I panicked and took off my pants as fast as I could. That is when I heard the buzzing..... I scooped up my pants and handed them to my husband so he could get the bee out and kill it. He gave me the funniest look, but took my pants and killed the bee. He gave me back my pants but I could not bring myself to put them back on, so I put them on the laundry bag and another big huge carpenter bee came crawling out... So I grabbed my hand vac and sucked it up!! There were actually 2 huge carpenter bees in my pants.. Who would have thought!!
Since then I have learned to give ALL of my clothes a good hard shake before folding! I do not want any more critters in my clothes!!! I am looking forward to the carpenter bees to go away.....
I do have to say that My clothes are looking great from hanging them outside. They are a lot less wrinkled and my whites are whiter and my colors are looking great. I put in about a cup of vinegar in the wash and it is keeping my clothes soft and not scratchy!!
Happy wash day!!!
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