90. Hanging Clothes to Dry.—To some it might seem that the laundry work is practically done when clothes are ready to be hung on the line; but the next step has some very important features, the oversight of which might make necessary the rewashing of articles.
One of the chief virtues of proper drying of clothes is the effect that sun and air have on them. When clothes are hung on the line quite wet, almost dripping in fact, the combined action of sun and air is one of the best bleaches known. It is because of this that white clothes should be hung, when possible, out-of-doors, and that colored clothes should be hung in the shade or indoors.
91. To save time in the sorting of articles for ironing, hang all garments of a kind together. Then, to have the clothes dry in the best possible condition, keep in mind the following general directions:
Be sure that the clothes-line and pins are perfectly clean.
Shake things out well and turn outer garments, if they have not already been turned, wrong side out.
Hang large pieces, such as sheets and table-cloths, on a straight thread of the material, one-fourth or one-half of each over the line, and fasten with four or five clothes-pins. Sheets may be doubled crosswise, so that the upper and lower hems meet, and pinned to the line by the hems, to minimize the danger of hems being torn by the wind.
Fold flat pieces as they are taken off the line, as then they will be easier to iron.
Take starched clothes from the line as soon as they are dry, as long hanging will cause them to lose their stiffness and make them more difficult to iron. Also, as a brisk wind will take out the starch, be sure to make it rather heavy on windy days.
But who knew that the act of line-drying itself could be so contentious?
When my husband and I hang washing out together, there is a running commentary on the failings of each other's methods of hanging. I like to hang shirts from the bottom, he likes to put them on coathangers...I pair up socks before pegging them, he hangs them how they come out of the basket. And if you add my oldest daughter into the equation...well! Then you get a method which seems to involve tossing the item over the line and pinning it however it lands.
So I was interested to see the guide at bbb.co.uk's h2g2 site about how to hang clothing correctly.
In summary, some of the content covered is:
Perhaps you can tell a lot about someone by how they organise their washing line?
I like to match items up as I hang, - pyjama bottoms with tops, socks paired, sports uniforms together. Not because I'm particularly anal, just because it saves time later when I bring the washing in and fold it - and that is a task I dislike more than the hanging out.
And I tend to hang all the large items first and leave the underwear and socks until the end. I figure I can always find room on a rack for those items if I run out of space, but it's harder to find space for a bedsheet.
If I have items that are stained with pasta sauce (which is a reasonably frequent occurrence with one smallish child) I try to find a space on the line which is in full sun, as that exposure causes the stain to miraculously disappear.
My methods have been adopted over time through trial and error combined with family tradition, but I'm wondering whether there is a more definitive method from before our time, that I should have learnt?
How do you hang?
