This should come with instructions

We bought and installed a clotheline last Sunday.  It's one of those 4 sided, opens up like an umbrella, clothelines.  Quite unlike the long straight, on a pulley, clotheslines that I had at every house I ever lived in.

Let me tell you - the long straight ones?  Much easier to use.  MUCH.

However, because we live in a town where all the telephone lines and such are underground (and therefore no telephone poles to be found anywhere), there really isn't much to attach this pulley-style clotheline to.

And so we went with the umbrella style.  And bought a spike for the ground that eliminated the need of pouring concrete (yay!).  This also means we can take the clothesline out of our yard if we don't want it there (i.e. winter... um, this is the only reason I can think of... perhaps some people find it too unsightly so therefore remove it whenever they're not using it - that's just - wow, too time-consuming for me).

Because hubby still wasn't all that in love with the idea of a clothesline (even though it folded up and will save us all sorts of money and make our sheets smell sooooo nice!) - so we put it in the back corner of the yard behind the tree.  So really, it's there, but not "in your face there" like I would have had it by placing it right beside the patio.

Today was the first day I put clothes out.  And I realized a few things...

1) Putting your clothesline behind a tree - in the back corner of the yard, where grass barely grows because it's so shady?  Maybe not the best spot for it.  In the sense of sun and drying time...

2) Hanging sheets on a umbrella style?  Not the same as hanging on the long-straight-style clotheslines.  So it took a while, but I figured out you have to fold the sheet in half over the line - instead of just hanging it like I always did as a kid.

3) Are you supposed to hang on the inside lines first, and work your way out?  Makes sense I suppose - to allow you to hang more than one load to the line.  But sheets are too big for this - which means I have to time and organize what laundry I do first?  Oy...

Anyways - we'll see.  I don't know how quickly the sheets will dry where they are.  And if they'll be all non-wrinkled since they're not exactly billowing in the wind (because that was another big reason that I wanted a clothesline - I remember it negating the need to iron much of anything)... and I hate ironing sheets...

xxoo.S