THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Riddle me this. What do you get when you tie a rope between two trees? An Italian clothesline!

From the day I owned my first washing machine, I had to have an outdoor clothes line. The DIY stores refer to it as a “solar dryer”. And they’re green. No, literally. They are green.

Back home, it was two pulleys and a pole. In the summer months after the clothes dried, we’d hoist the garden hose over the clothesline; turn on the hose for some much needed wet relief from the hot, city summer sun.

I’ve had several varieties.

There was the “umbrella in the ground” type of clothesline.

An all time favorite, “rope between two trees” clothesline.

There were wood racks when I lived in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve never been, it rains there on occasion. Okay, somewhat understated. I needed a mobile clothesline to grab up the clothes rather quickly and move them indoors at the spur of the moment. Over the years, the wood racks have been replaced with plastic coated racks so the wet clothes don’t absorb the wood stain.

My current is the “tri-pod on the deck against subdivision rules” clothesline.

But over the past few years, I’ve discovered an indoor method of clothes drying without the full-on dryer effect. The door moldings in the bedroom. They’ve always been there, yet I’d never noticed them with an eye for drying clothes. They are in every bedroom, more than I care to count…or dust. I’ve now skillfully figured out how to hang the queen size sheets from a pair of pants hangers on the door moldings and dry my sheets indoors.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Mother’s Little Helpers used the dryer. DS2 thought of it as his iron too. I didn’t realize that I had a dual purpose clothes dryer. He now has his own electric bills to pay. An ironing board is permanently propped open in his bedroom.

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: Remove your clothes from the washing machine and spin them in the dryer for 5 minutes. Hang to dry on your favorite type of clothesline. You will spend less money on your power bills; save energy and your clothes will last longer. My favorite part? No ironing required. J