Old-fashioned clothesline

[CarolC]

I wash 2 loads of pet laundry a day and dry 2 loads a day. I just got something I've wanted since 1995. A pair of old-fashioned iron clothesline posts off Craigslist for $25. The man who fixed my fence installed them.

If I line-dry 2 loads a day, and my dryer uses 2100 watts, that saves 4200 watts a day just on pet laundry. It's much better for the planet, and also takes some strain off the electrical grid, because where I live they have frequent problems with the grid and keep calling for us to conserve to avoid rolling blackouts.

In 1995, I had my first handicapped dog, and I was doing 3 twin blankets a day, and hanging them on a makeshift clothesline strung across the corner of the fence. I've wished for a real clothesline ever since. My wish finally came true!

[critters]

I can’t live without mine!

[CarolC]

What kind of wire do you have?

[critters]

The kind covered in green plastic. I'm not sure if the core is solid or braided wire.

[CarolC]

How long has it lasted? With the weird weather we're having, 105 degree days have become common and I'm picturing the wire heating up inside the plastic sleeve, making it dry and crack. Right now I have PVC clothesline with fiber core because that's what I had in the garage, but I'd like something stronger.

How much longer does it take to dry in winter?

I put an extra line in the sunporch in case it rains. Also for overflow when I have too many washcloths. Washcloths take no space in the washer but a LOT on the clothesline.

So far, 18 days x 4200 watts is 75,600 watts (75.6 kw) saved on pet laundry.

[critters]

Oh, I just got those lines replaced when the post rotted. They last decades. Eventually the plastic breaks, lets water in, and the metal inside rots. It's not a big deal to replace the wires, should it be necessary. Sometimes the hardware--like the turnbuckles--is terribly annoying first.

[CarolC]

I didn't know they would last that long. If the plastic cracks and starts catching on things it would have to be replaced. Last week I scraped the posts with a rigid paint scraper (rusty, especially at the welds), brushed them with a wire brush, and painted them with silver (Aluminum) Rustoleum using a foam roller I had. Worked good. They look so pretty, I keep looking at them! I stand in the yard and admire them from over here. Then I stand over there and admire them from over there. And I have 1/3 can left for touch-ups.
This week we got . That's OK, we need it, but now my bright, shiny clothesline has been sitting out in the rain/drizzle/mist for days. Glad I got them painted when I did.

I don't know if they used turnbuckles. THey might have. They came with only one 6" piece of cable still attached to one eye bolt with 2 clamps and a thimble. The eye bolts have long threads so they could provide an inch of tension adjustment on each end, or 2" per wire, if they still worked. I think they are all rusted and frozen. They'd probably have to be sawed off and replaced. I brushed and painted them when I did the posts. With new hardware along with wire, the new lines will cost more than the posts did. It can wait. The PVC is working for now and I have more of it in the garage.

I can't hang anything out right now anyway! Indoor drying this week, which is a slower process. I've got bedpads hanging in the sunporch, blankets in the garage, and washcloths and barmops in the bathroom. I'd like to think Martha Stewart would understand...she has pets.

[critters]

I used mine considerably longer past the cracked stage. I expect you have turnbuckles on 1 end of each line, for tension because the lines stretch over time. If you're lucky you might have them on both ends, but they're more expensive.

[CarolC]

They also take a number of inches away from your line. I have 42 ft and don't want to give up any of them!

This has been more complicated than I thought. It was great till the rain started and I put up lines indoors and started using a drying rack. Then someone pointed out that merely washing does not get rid of germs. Part of Dolly's paralysis is that she has no tone in her rear and an "open vulva". The urinary tract is inside the vulva on female dogs, so we have to be careful of germs in anything she sits on. She sleeps without a diaper at night, so that's 8 hrs when she could pick up germs off of bedding that looks clean but might not be.

Her plush blankets say non-chlorine bleach only. Her hospital underpads have a waterproof layer inside that bleach would eat holes in. They get sanitized by UV light when hung outdoors. But when hung indoors, they aren't sanitized by bleach, or heat in the dryer, or UV rays from the sun.

I tried Lysol Laundry Sanitizer free and clear. It has a chemical smell that reminds me of Goof-Off. I was holding my breath every time I measured it. The pets didn't seem to notice it, only me.

EDIT TO ADD: Finally got a bright idea. Decided to risk Dolly's oldest plush blanket and try washing it with bleach. Clorox says you only need 1/4 cup per load for an HE machine to sanitize. It turned out to be colorfast. I tried several other items of bedding with the same result. They were supposed to be non-chlorine bleach only, but they came out OK. So the only things I can't bleach are her underpads and diapers. NOTE: I diluted the 1/4 cup of bleach in 3 qts of water, waited for the machine to fill, and poured it in. Didn't pour it in full strength.
This solves a lot of the problem of drying on an indoor clothesline or rack in bad weather.