I use the dryer in the winter but love my clothesline the rest of the year.
It recently has been warm enough to start hanging the laundry again. I especially love the feel of the towels and sheets when they are dried on the line.
I don't care if the neighbors can see my chonies, i love my clothesline!!!!!
I have outdoor lines, a retractable line on my 40 ft long porch , and I hang clothes up on hangers in my tiny laundry room when the weather wonlt let me use either of the outside lines. I bet the past 8 months I havenpt used the dryer a total of 10 times! I like hanging them up mostly because it cuts $20 a month off my electric bill! You see, I have been for quite awhile on a goal of using less electricity than the same billing period last year! An over all goal of continuing to use less! Right now I have it just barely reaching $80 a month! We are all electric and have a 3000 SQ ft house plus outbuildings that have electricity.
__________________ cat lover We Welcome Strays
When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping"; now we just "chunky dunk"
Now remember ellen that $20 is from not using my dryer! I also use the new light bulbs, turn off lights when not using them, plug in lots of things to the 6 strip plugs so when not using all that the strip gets turned off and none of the "appliances" are using the power even when not on that way. Any way I can I want that electric bill small! lol My biggest problem is they keep raising rates and I am running out of ways to curtail usage! Maybe solar power is closer than I think! lol
__________________ cat lover We Welcome Strays
When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping"; now we just "chunky dunk"
I love my clothesline! There is something so peaceful about hanging a load of laundry out to dry. When the weather doesn't permit outside drying, I hang clothes on drying racks and the shower curtain rod inside. I only use the dryer for towels (DH and DD2 don't like scratchy towels) and in the winter I use it for sheets as well.
kathy, you might be able to dry the towels on the line, then toss them in the dryer on no heat with a couple tennis balls to soften them, that might help with the softness and not increase the electric bill by too much by not having the heater going
catlover, know what you mean about cutting to bare bones, I'll try to get our tv on outlet strips and the computers are already on them but we don't shut them off at night, will talk with dh about that one
he told me that to run our plant lights it's $60 a year, almost $10 a month for for the six months we use them, so in addition to getting the clotheslines up, I might be more aggressive about converting our basement window wells into mini greenhouses for the dark months of the year, in fact, I wonder if we could hook the plant light shelves to our solar panels during the day and then switch them over to basement general lighting at night? hmmmm....
Do you think you might go for the new wind tunnel thingies that hook onto a house? I thought you had a hill on your property?
back to clotheslines....does anyone have the square kind that has a single post? do you prefer it over the telephone line style of two posts with three lines strung between?
and what kind of props do you have?
I saw something interesting at the grocery store, they had chains strung up for their hanging plants. Two chains one above the other about three feet apart, then to keep the chains from sagging they hooked vertical cross chain pieces from the roof to the top chain to the bottom chain. These were about three feet apart from each other. From the chains they could safely hang the plants without fear of them blowing off in the wind or sliding into each other. Think about this for clothing on hangars and it might work out okay.
Fresh hung clothing is a luxury item!
__________________
Ellen in PA
"God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of love, power, and a sound mind."
Ellen, I have an "umbrella" clothesline. It has a single post that spins around. I opted for this kind because DH complains about having to mow when clothes are hanging outside. This has a much smaller footprint so it's easier for him to mow under it. Another advantage is that since I live in a neighborhood with a lot of tall trees, at certain times of the year (early spring and fall) parts of my yard are shaded. By placing this in the very center of the backyard, it is in full sun all of the time. Also, you get less sagging because there's not as big a span. One disadvantage is that they can be kind of pricey. I think I paid about $75.00 for mine. But it does save me about $15 - $20 a month on my electricity bill. I use it about 5 months a year and this is my third summer using it. So, by the end of this summer, it will have saved me about $225 - $300. So, I would say it was a good investment.
As for the towels, I hang all kitchen towels, wash cloths, cleaning rags and face cloths on the line to dry completely. All other towels I hang until just damp and then throw them in the dryer for about 15 minutes to finish drying.
Ellen, we have the TV's DVD players, recorders, and VHS all on the strips; so they all get turned of when not using them; don't forget about your cell phone & GPS charger on a strip also!
We do live on a hill, but if we do solar it will be panels on our 40 ft long porch roof; that is why we had the house sitting the way it is; of course we will have to rid of a few trees when we do it.
Your window wells should work very well for mini greenhouses! We gathered years ago any windows that were being thrown out and constructed a mini greenhouse. It has a storm door on it someone was throwing away and at the front top we have a window from the back of a pick up truck topper, the kind that you lift up to open. So it is wired through a pulley and I can open and close it as needed. Except for the entire front and two sides being windows and the storm door on the back having a window we only have two back small areas on either side of the door that is wood. I lined it with bubble wrap insulation. The whole greenhouse is only 4 x 8. but all sorts of shelves in the windows.
I also make my pot of coffee and pour the whole pot into a coleman thermos that holds it perfectly and turn off the coffee pot instead of leaving it on all day.
I put in 2- 4 x 4 posts and ran one line from each to the post at the other end. I used conduit piping and drilled through one end and put a hook on it attached with a nut. These work as my line supports; you can make them any length you need them. I also have an umbrella line that I have had for 25+ years. I don't use it often as my single lines dry the clothes much faster.
__________________ cat lover We Welcome Strays
When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping"; now we just "chunky dunk"
I have been hanging to dry the past two summers and save about $20 a month as my dryer is 27yrs old. I don't have a clothes line and with the neighboring trees I would have to have one of the umbrella type but instead I strung two lines on the porch about 20 feet long.
I have one line running about 3 feet and the other at 6 feet and put clothes on plastic hangers to get more clothes on the lines. I hang socks on the pant hangers and hang them on the porch railing so it doesn't take up space on the line.
I have to dryer dry towels for about 10 min to help soften them up as everyone else complains about them being hard.
Normally I would have been hanging out for the past month but we have had to much rain and on the days without rain I wasn't going to be home to get them out on the line early enough.
Since the clothes are on the porch I only get early morning sun on them so days where there isn't a breeze it can take all day for them to dry.
cat lover 
When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping"; now we just "chunky dunk" 
Ellen in PA 
Kathy
