Hanging Out

Today is Hanging Out Day.

We're celebrating with a load of jeans and hanging out in the backyard, watching them hang out and dry.  I'm pretty sure that's the protocol for the day.  I wish everything that I "should" do to reduce my footprint was this easy and enjoyable.

More Flickr groups about clotheslines and laundry (these photos make me want to travel) and a NY Times article.  (Not even something as simple as clotheslines is without controversy in this upside down world.)  All you European and Australian commenters can laugh in amazement and dismay again.

Comments

[Alicia G.]

I adore your clothesline photos. They bring back such nice memories.

[Julie]

I love the photo of your fresh, new clothespins!

[Leslie]

i am new to your blog and have loved what i have read. Your clothesline pictures brought back so many memories of freshly dried, sweet smelling linens from when i was a kid. I am inspired. thank you.

[Caroline]

The weather here in London has been wonderful for the past couple of weeks and I have delighted in finally being able to hang out my washing to dry again - it smells so much fresher. I don't own a tumble dryer, mainly on cost grounds. So in the winter months and wet days there are clothes hanging all over the house - which is why I love good drying weather so much! I love your picture of the pegs.

[Lauri]

Yeah...like I've said about us having a clothesline...it would NEVER get past the HOA. Somebody was driving around and checking on things a while back, and, somehow, could see our wooden playset it the backyard and sent us a nasty letter saying we hadn't gotten it approved and stuff. Geez!
(Personally, I think they got out of the car and went in the gate or peeked over the fence, because you can't see it from the street.)

[kirsty]

*snort* sorry, Amy, *snicker* it's *choke* not REALLY funny!!!

Pretty photos. Really.

[Péitseoga]

We have a retractable clothesline, which is practically invisible when we don't use it, as for wooden clothespegs, i love the look of them, but they don't last long outdoors over here plus it's so windy that that kind of pegs don't work very well either, i learned the hard way... we now have kind of springy pegs.
Lauri, you're joking, right? what country do you live in? is it the US? that would explain why i didn't see clotheslines in 'desperate housewives', i remember watching it and being puzzled over why Susan would put things in the dryer when it's obviously warm and sunny out...

[allena]

oh i love the way clothesline dried clothes smell. but it's no where near as nice here as it is there! it's still rainy here. bummer! in the summer i plan on drying clothes outside again!

[Emma]

Your laundry looks beautiful!

Just as an aside, the nytimes site wants me to pay for that article. If anyone else is finding that, and doesn't want to, the article was also posted here: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming041407.htm

I got that link from the project laundry list site you also linked to.

[Karen]

I did a post a few days ago called (tongue in cheek) "Art in the garden" about hanging out the washing. For a pretty mundane subject it certainly struck a chord with lots of people!

[Amber]

Oh, the picture of the clothespins makes me smile! I wish it was warm enough here to hang out our clothes... but not yet.

[Grace]

Those photos are incredible, especially the top one!

[Leslie]

I was so inspired after seeing this, that after my last post i went out and bought a clothesline for my yard, my husband put it up and i promptly started hanging. I loved the smell. I just stood in the middle of the sheets and took it all in.

[susaninfrance]

glad to see you are even hanging out jeans! you must be proud!

[susaninfrance]

sorry after reading the times article i have to comment again...it is true that when i first moved to europe i thought hanging out the laundry was kinda low class *i cannot believe i am admitting this* but after realizing that the choice was either a dishwasher or a dryer, i quickly started hanging out my laundry and loved it immediately for so many reasons. now back in the states for a while i am still hanging out and have convinced others to do so as well and i do think of it as a statement on my environmentalism, and my new-found frugalness acquired while living in france for the last decade. now that energy prices here in the US are approaching those in europe, i bet it starts catching on...meanwhile in europe more and more people are getting dryers!