In the recent articles, Green Laundry, Parts 1 and Part 2, we looked at several great tips to make laundry day environmentally friendly. Thanks to the fact that driers use about as much energy as your average refrigerator, many experts suggest using a clothesline for at least some, if not all, of your laundry load. The world outside our laundry rooms can provide us with natural wind and sun, two things that can help save over 700 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per family per year. But how do you put up a clothesline?
How To Put Up a Clothesline
Clothesline should run north and south in order to maximize sunlight, but also should be more or less out of your daily sight, because who wants to look out of their window and see a clothesline and not, say, flowers? You can either purchase a ready-made clothesline pole set or set about the exciting weekend project of creating your very own clothesline. (Just make sure that Junior is inside and his Smartphone confiscated, unless you want this DIY adventure to go viral.)
Get some galvanized iron pipes, hooks, and cement. Dig a hole that is about one foot wide and one foot deep, put the pole inside and then pour in some cement mixed with water. Repeat the same process for the second pole. There are several different kinds of clotheslines and each has a different method of installation.
Many, many people find it very easy to install a clothesline. You can even purchase clothesline kits at your local hardware store. (In our family, we don’t have that kind of coordination to get seriously involved with galvanized iron pipes and then be that daring to throw cement into the mix. I’m certain the dog would be lost forever.)
For more instructions on how to put up a clothesline, check out these great links from eHow or LiteGreenLiving.com.
How Far Apart Should the Poles Be?
Clothesline poles should be far enough apart to accommodate your laundry because you don’t want heavy items dragging. Be sure to make the hooks (which hold the clothesline) high up. Once you put wet clothes on it, the whole thing will droop so making sure that the line is a bit taller than you is a good idea.
And, once your project is over, you can give Junior back his Smartphone.
