clothesline etiquette

1. Hang socks by the toes . . . NOT the top.
2. Hang pants by the bottom/cuffs . . . NOT the waistbands
3. WASH the clothesline before hanging any clothes (walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the line).
4. Hang the clothes in the correct order ("white" with "whites" & hang them first).
5. NEVER hang a shirt by the shoulders . . . always by the tails.
6. Wash day is Monday. NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, especially Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
7. Hang the sheets & towels on the outside lines so you can hide the "unmentionables" in the middle.
8. It doesn't matter if the weather is sub-zero . . . clothes will "freeze-dry".
9. Always gather the CLOTHESPINS when taking down the dry clothes.
10. To be efficient, line the clothes up so that each item doesn't need two CLOTHESPINS , but shared one of the clothespins with the next item.
11. Clothes off the line before dinner time, neatly folded in a clothes basket & ready to be ironed.

These rules were sent to me by my Aunt Elaine this week. Does bring back some memories as we hung everything on the clothesline when I was growing up. I'd forgotten, but I do remember occasionally cleaning the clothesline, probably after it went unused over a snowy winter. But we did hang clothes up in freezing weather. The blue jeans & towels would be as stiff as boards, but Mom always thought that drying clothes on the line saved her electricity bill with the dryer. We always had a clothespin bag to put the clothespins in. Every few years Mom would sew a new one as the sun would eventually wear it out. And we did a lot of ironing back then too. We'd lay out the dried shirts & sprinkle with water & keep layering shirts until we were done then roll it all up into a ball & come back a bit later to do the ironing. And I loved sleeping in bed when the sheets had spent the day on the clothesline. Good memories!