We have been trying to cut our energy consumption.
Drive less. Carpool. Collect water for the gardens.
We recently decided to stop using the dinosaur of electric dryers that lives in our basement and have begun to hang our laundry to dry. Weather observation takes on a new perspective. The basement clothes lines are being put into service.
Hanging clothes in the proximity of the furnace is familiar and comforting. Not the burden I expected it to be.
In 1950's Brooklyn we had a furnace room in the basement for drying clothes in the winter. We hung clothes on the lines to the right. Aunt Helen and Uncle Joey hung laundry to the left.
Steam rising off wet sheets.
I watched my mother and learned how to economically hang a sorted load of laundry. Doubled sheets at the farthest back line. Premeditated order. I watched how she collected all the corners of the sheet, shaking it out, never allowing it contact with the basement floor.
She used wooden pegs that made a mean crimp in all they fastened. The spring-loaded clips I use are more forgiving.
I'm looking forward to some of those sunny-blustery days made for drying clothes on the line.
I actually find that I don't mind the scruffiness of the towels.
http://www.mrspeggshandyline.com/
