And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
~The Great Gatsby
**Update! Get Your GOG 2009 Clothesline Challenge Bloggy Button Here! Thank you, NiniMakes!***
~The Great Gatsby
**Update! Get Your GOG 2009 Clothesline Challenge Bloggy Button Here! Thank you, NiniMakes!***
The 2009 Gift of Green Clothesline Challenge began May 1st!!
The Clothesline Challenge will run for four months this year: May, June, July and August. Of course, your clothesline need not be a traditional line hung between posts in your backyard! You may use your shower curtain rod, your banister, your apartment balcony, or a clotheshorse, of course, of course.
There are four Line Levels this year: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Super Star. Choose your Line Level based on what you think you can accomplish over the next four months.
Novice: Using a clothesline (or clothesline-related product) gives you the chills. You have bad memories of a towel burn you got from a crunchy sun-dried towel. You'll give it a try, pledging to dry 10% of your wet laundry (1 item out of ten per load or one load per ten loads) on a clothesline or CRP.
Intermediate: You've been itching to formalize your clothesline (or CRP) and here's your chance. You want to rig up a better system, whatever that may be, and see how much you can save on your energy bills by cutting out the dryer. You pledge to dry 50% (5 out of ten items per load or 5 loads out of ten loads) for the duration on a clotheslines or CRP.
Advanced: Crunchy towels don't scare you! In fact, bring them on! Crunch builds character! In fact, you are running out of space to hang all of your fine and not-so-fine washables. You pledge to dry 90% (9 out of ten items per load or 9 loads out of 10 loads) for the duration on a clothesline or CRP.
And this year...Super Star Level: As IF! You don't even OWN a dryer! You dry 100% of your laundry, and you do it almost year round. De Clothes Line Chaaaa-lenge Es Fur Baaaabeees. (Use Terminator voice while reading previous sentence).
To sign up for the challenge, leave a comment stating your Line Level and the type(s) of clothesline(s) you have (just out of pure curiosity on my part). I will post a list of participants on my sidebar linking to your blog (or just your first name and state - whatever you prefer).
Caveats? Can't think of any at the moment. There will be some fun clothesline-related giveaways (and I promise to mail them out ON TIME; I am post officially-challenged) and lots of links to help you on your non-dryer journey.
The Clothesline Challenge will run for four months this year: May, June, July and August. Of course, your clothesline need not be a traditional line hung between posts in your backyard! You may use your shower curtain rod, your banister, your apartment balcony, or a clotheshorse, of course, of course.
There are four Line Levels this year: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Super Star. Choose your Line Level based on what you think you can accomplish over the next four months.
Novice: Using a clothesline (or clothesline-related product) gives you the chills. You have bad memories of a towel burn you got from a crunchy sun-dried towel. You'll give it a try, pledging to dry 10% of your wet laundry (1 item out of ten per load or one load per ten loads) on a clothesline or CRP.
Intermediate: You've been itching to formalize your clothesline (or CRP) and here's your chance. You want to rig up a better system, whatever that may be, and see how much you can save on your energy bills by cutting out the dryer. You pledge to dry 50% (5 out of ten items per load or 5 loads out of ten loads) for the duration on a clotheslines or CRP.
Advanced: Crunchy towels don't scare you! In fact, bring them on! Crunch builds character! In fact, you are running out of space to hang all of your fine and not-so-fine washables. You pledge to dry 90% (9 out of ten items per load or 9 loads out of 10 loads) for the duration on a clothesline or CRP.
And this year...Super Star Level: As IF! You don't even OWN a dryer! You dry 100% of your laundry, and you do it almost year round. De Clothes Line Chaaaa-lenge Es Fur Baaaabeees. (Use Terminator voice while reading previous sentence).
To sign up for the challenge, leave a comment stating your Line Level and the type(s) of clothesline(s) you have (just out of pure curiosity on my part). I will post a list of participants on my sidebar linking to your blog (or just your first name and state - whatever you prefer).
Caveats? Can't think of any at the moment. There will be some fun clothesline-related giveaways (and I promise to mail them out ON TIME; I am post officially-challenged) and lots of links to help you on your non-dryer journey.
56 comments:
Count me in!! Not sure whether to go with Intermediate or Advanced...heck, cruchy towels don't bother me...I'll go with advanced! I have a traditional clothes line in the back yard...most people on my block do to! And a pickle backet/barrel is a 5 gallon bucket that restaurants get there whole or sliced pickles in.
Back for year two! And I am chomping at the bit. This Sat it was 65 and sunny...today snow! UGH.
I will go advanced for 4 months and see what damage I can do.
My line is between an old tall pine and a super shiny eye hook on my daughters swing set. I even got a middle of the line extending pole holder thing-a-ma-jig last summer.
I'm in too! Though I might have to be a Precocious Novice (say 35%?) since our household is terrified of crunchy towels.
Even if it rains all May again this year I'm ready though - in addition to my regular outdoors line I have two collapsible wooden drying racks in my basement now!
Oh, Yeah, baby! I'm in. We actually never stopped from last year's challenge. We did have a few times where we had to string things up by the fire when the cold combined with sleet, but for the most part it was fine in the cold. Of course we live in Texas so...
I think we'll try for Super Star. We do have a dryer, but used it very little last year - mostly only due to poor planning on my part. I'll work on doing better laundry planning this year.
Right on!! I am in - proudly advanced. I have remained inspired since last year, I never really stopped! I dry 1 load a week - the rest are all line dried. I have to dry my whites. I just do. After I wash them in hot water and use bleach. Please don't make me take a no bleach challenge. It's only one load a week, I swear.
count me in too! I just found a great site dedicated exactly to this post. The universe must be telling me something about drying clothes today!
The site I referenced is www.laundrylist.org
I'm not sure whether to go advanced or intermediate. I line dry pretty regularly right now, back from a break I took during my pregnancy and C-section recovery. I'll dry pretty much anything on the line, and just put towels and jeans in the dryer at the very end to de-crunch them. Works well if they're just a trifle damp.
We use one rope hung from the house to the shed, and I'd really like a second one.
Count me in again. So excited to have the weather dry enough to actually dry outside again - sick of seeing it hanging around the house. Oops just remembered the bath mats stayed on the line all night and now fog - ugh!
Forgot to say I'll go for advanced. Still use the dryer a little bit once a week but will try and nix it all together this time.
Advanced!
I've been thinking about this this past week. I'm in again and I'm going Advanced this year. I'll be posting on my side bar to keep myself accountable. :) Hopefully we'll get some nice sunny days so I won't be forced to start in the negative numbers. ;) Ooooh and there's always the perk of being able to use my Nini Makes peg bag. :) LOVE IT!
Hey there! Found you through my friend kelly at Gohn Crazy. I'd like to participate this year. Let's see...I think I'll shoot for the advanced level, oh crap....
at any rate...woot!
I'll go intermediate :) I hate crunchy towels. HATE THEM. But I'm working through my issues. ;)
We're putting up a clothesline in the backyard between two posts. I started out wanting to for my cloth diapers and a fondness for being outside with a basket of wet laundry, (brings back memories). Anyway, we're aiming to get it up soon, but I've been harassing my hubs :)
I'm in for year two (I was posting under the name Amalia last year). Since I don't have a dryer and have the Giant Clothesline of Doom (I can comfortably fit five loads of laundry on HALF of it my line) I'm going to go in as SUPER STAR.
It helps that I don't have a dryer.
I'll post a pic of my line when I get a chance (maybe Sunday?)
I have been a clothesline user for 20 yrs. My first home had the old t-pole. In 2007 we moved from MA to NC into a condo. When he decided condo living was not for him we bought a house,the 1st thing I made my new husband
was put up clothesline. The guy at Home Depot got a good laugh. I am working on getting a company started that installs clothesline in NC. Theclotheslinecompany.com is in start-up. Nothing better than a set of cotton sheets hung in the sun!
I am an advanced CANADIAN clothline user for over 20 years. I have 2 traditional clotheslines (1 currently on the ground -- it was a rough winter), one rope in the basement as well as various hangers from the rafters and a rack, and I have my shower rod. Crunchy towels do not scare me -- they're natural exfolliators! I use my traditionals from May to mid-Oct (BRRRR!!) & the others year round for SOME clothes. I love the smell of clothes that are line dried -- it's right up there with fresh bread and coffee.
Clothes lines aren't allowed in our neighborhood, so I just have a couple folding racks that I hang things out on in the summer months, then put them away each night. I think I'm intermediate because we don't have enough room for the towels and sheets, but I can manage to do all the clothes, well except our unmentionables. :-)
I think I am advanced, definitely with my own clothes, but I am a beginner with my kids clothes. Their clothes are small and it takes forever. Maybe that can be my challenge, to hang up their stuff!
We have a clothes line thing, with six lines, that runs between our house and our garage. We leave it up year-round because I really like the smell of line-dried sheets. :-)
I *heart* my clothesline, it is a circular jobby (don't know what you call it) I have had it forever. I must wash 5-10 loads/week and hang everything. I guess I would be advanced.
wrinkle prone clothes and towels I tumble dry for 5 minutes first and they come off the line crisp without being crunchy!
I'm in for the advanced level! I have a retractable clothesline and a wooden rack.
This sounds like so much fun, if laundry can be considered fun. I'm going to try for the Advanced level. It's always windy where I live so my clothes dry pretty fast, and less crunch in the towels when they flop around in the wind. I have 2 tradtional lines strung between my house and garage with eye bolts.
I just broke out my umbrella style clothesline today and thought "I wonder if the challenge has started yet?" So I'm back for year two and shooting for Advanced level. Bring it on! :)
My blog is private, but I would love to join. Currently, I am joining as a novice, and currently use my kid's swing set as my clothes line. I hope to improve on that, soon!. Lynn Stephenson
Ok...I'll give it a try. I've never used a clothesline so I'll definately enter under the Novice catagory. hhmmm...now i'll have to talk dh into installing a clothesline for us :)
I'll give it a try. I'm a rookie, so I'll go novice, but we do have a clothing rod mounted in the laundry room and maybe this summer we'll give the sheets on a line outside a try.
I don't have a blog, so this will have to be scout's honor.
Carolyn
Better late than never! I am excited to join as a novice. I have a wooden folding drying rack and need to get another line. I have been lusting after this one http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80119043 but don't have an Ikea within a reasonable driving distance...oh well.
Ok, missed this! I am so into this - love this idea! I am going to tweet the heck out of this challenge just cause it is so very cool!
I'm up for Intermediate Level...although I think I could be Advanced, but I don't want to set my own bar too high!
Jeanne of EcoLabel Fundraising
@EcolabelFund on twitter (so you can see the tweeting I'm going to do about this due to my extreme excitement on this subject!)
www.ecolabelfundraising.com
I am a Super Saver type. I always line drine outside when the weather is dry adn indoors when its wet or extremely cold. I use an old-fashioned clothes airer and radiators. I hvae just had wood buring stoves put into my home and they keep the house really warm and tasty and make for a great drying environment.I live in England
I did this last year at the novice level and I am now fully prepared to be ADVANCED! I have been waiting all winter for this yeah!!!!!!!!!
Nicol
OK! I'm gonna try it! I'm a Novice for sure but could shoot for Intermediate as well. My hubby is gonna think I'm offically nuts after this! :) Thanks!
A little late, but I'm in at the advanced level. I would love to go to the Super Star Level, but our household is not quite there yet. Not enough room to hang underwear inside and my husband is not thrilled with the neighbors checking out his underwear on the line in the backyard!!
I have one of the compact, umbrella type clotheslines. Works great for us since we have smallish yard.
My mom dried clothes on a line when I was a kid because she didn't have a washer and dryer. Drying on the line meant not having to plug quarters into the pay dryers. I kept up the habit initially out of a need to keep the electric bill down. I wonder how much energy I've saved since I'm at 25 plus years of drying most loads on a line (except for a couple of short periods when we lived in apartments and I had to rely more on a dryer).
One of the things that was a must when we bought our house was a yard big enough for a clothesline! I guess that I am an advanced hanger! When I lived in the city everyone who had a line used to hang their clothes.Now that we're in the burbs, not so much. A friend of mine told me that the trick for towels and jeans was to dry them in the dryer for 15 minutes and then hang them. Not so scratchy for sure, and use a minimum of electricity!
I am SO in! What a great motivator you are. I am a total novice, but a very energetic one.
I am new (and a bit late) and in love with crunchy towels. I live in Scotland so the sun is something we see only every so often, but its OK, my clothes wait patiently on the line for days, getting lots of extra rinse cycles!!
Arriving a bit late to the challenge, but that's ok because, even though I live in frozen Alaska (and there's still tons of snow on May 25), I line dry all year; frozen laundry still gets that wonderful fresh outside smell, and it doesn't take as long to dry inside while it thaws. Time is the big hang up for me, being a working mom of two young ones, so I'm going for Intermediate.
My clothesline is strung between my porch and my neighbor's porch (duplex), and then when we camp out on the tundra I use my fish rack(after washing clothes by hand too). I'll post pictures on my blog sometime this summer(if the snow ever melts enough for us to get out to our camp!). Then we will spend a month at my mom's house in Indiana, where the clothesline is out by the chicken coop and hanging out laundry is so easy-breezy. But in Indiana, you don't get the sea salt smell mixed in with the wind and sunshine as you do in Hooper Bay, Alaska -- I had no idea of such things growing up in a landlocked state -- it was exciting to find that out!
Hanging out laundry is one of my favorite things to do in this life. And I'm totally addicted to the smell.
Better late than never! Advanced here - we dry our cloth diapers on the line outside and hang-dry most other things on a drying rack. Our clothesline is a retractable one that stretches from the house to the backyard fence.
How fun...I would be intermediate. I just set up my new clothesline outside this weekend. It's a single line retractable. I live in WA so in the winter I use an indoor drying rack.
I'm in. I'm hoping to do more, but I'm signing up as intermediate. I have mixed feelings about crunchy towels, but I figure it's only for part of the year considering we live in Michigan.
Just ran across your site from somewhere (????) and so signing up (a bit late) for the challenge...In the most humblest manner possible, I guess I'm a SuperStar--we don't own a drier and air dry year-round (in Maine). We have a long clothesline on pulleys from our deck to a tall tree...which allows us to hang long things like sheets and tablecloths (but on windy days, they tend to wind around the line and get stuck). We also have a line strung between two trees for overflow and use drying racks in wet weather and for socks/undies...Sometimes when it rains for a week or more straight, I'm tempted to go to the laundromat to use the driers, but am too lazy to get it all washed and in the car. Our real laundry bottle neck is folding it once it's dry (now if they'd invent a machine that folded...)
Yep, I'm advacned, been hanging out my laundry since, well since my Mom was doing and both of my Grandmother's. Man, I hated it as a kid. But, once I moved to a house with a huge yard that was showered with sunshine all day and the line was already there, I just couldn't help myself.
I will say I do own a dryer as my husband bought it for me (him) just before we got married.
Now, at our new home, a little shady in the yard, we have three lines strung between to huge trees, two collapsable drying racks, and two of those handy dandy hanging ones with clips.
We use Charlie's Soap and have nice soft laundry, even when it is hung out to dry. But, if you must put the towels in the dryer, pitch 'em in for a few minutes and then hang 'em out to dry!
I think I earned the super-star level. I hate the dryer and never use it. I live in sunny Israel and it's a pity not to use the natural sun, which gives me the feeling that not only does it dry the clothes but also cleans some stains.
great challenge! keep up the good work!
I found you in May, just did not get to blogging about it. What a fantastic challenge! We're Super Star/Advanced. I hang everything. My husband does not. But having a husband who helps with laundry is good enough for me. He can throw it in the dryer. =)
In May we washed 18 loads, hung 16. For June we're 2 for 2.
I have three lines. Two go from the back porch to a tree. The last one is between two trees. I don't have anything for indoors. I hang outside year round. It just takes a load 1-2 days in the winter, compared to 1-2 hours in the summer.
Thank you for hosting!
Hello! Can I start late? I promise to carry my challenge on through September because we usually have sunny Autumns.
I'm an Intermediate (sorry, just don't like rough towels). I have two lines which I strung between two Oak trees. The lines get the good, hot afternoon sun.
I get a deep pleasure out of hanging up clothes- my 5 year old daughter likes to help. :)
What a greatidea. I live in the southern hemisphere where we do get a bit more sun but given that May - August is the middle of our winter I think it is still a good challenge. I do own a dryer but hubby has just installed an undercover foldout clothes line on our patio for wet weather so count me in for the advanced challenge.
Am I too late? I guess the challenge is about halfway over now, but I just came across your blog today via NiniMakes.
I am an intermediate longing to become advanced. I love hanging laundry out on the line. I love everything about it. Everything except when my 4 year old and 2 1/2 year old boys start pulling everything down and getting them dirty again. One day soon I will dig in some posts that will allow me to hang my laundry up nice and high and out of their reach. Until then I can only hang short things like diapers and little boy and baby girl clothes. Sadly, no sheets.
Better late than never! I would like to say advanced....but I do get lazy.
We have a big, traditional Hills Hoist in our back yard, and I do have a big drying rack inside that we put over a ducted heating vent.
But as I readily admit, I am lazy.
You've guilted me in to it. Count me in.
NO MORE DRYER!
Waaah, I want to participate, but we have a humidity problem I don't know how to deal with. Sometimes I hang the clothes out and instead of drying, they SOUR!! Does anyone have that problem?? I assume it's the humidity, but I have no idea!
Welcome to all of you! It's never too late to join the Challenge. Let's try to Line Dry in July! :)
I just found your site randomly and wanted to say that I think this is great. Our heating unit broke on our dryer 3 years ago. We decided to not fix it and just hang dry everything. At first it was harder but now it is just part of life. We hang clothes outside on a line and inside on a large drying rack (when it is to damp outside). Our house is 2 adult and 2 kids and we all enjoy it!
sg
Can I jump on the line? Just found your blog via Momma Bear's blog. I'm thinking I'll have to be considered a novice since I don't have a clothesline. :op The last one I had got really bogged down and broke. Oops. I've been meaning to get another and am thinking this is the inspiration I need.
I have had a clothes line all my life, used cloth diapers on all 5 kids. I do not use a dryer at all, if it rains I dry on a clothes rack inside. I also have a clothes line hung across the end of the garage.
Millie Barnes, Chef, Nutrition Coach
HTTP://optimumhealth.wordpress.com
I am Superstar Level - I do not own a dryer. All my washing goes on the line or on wet days on the airer in the spare bedroom.
When my boys were little we used terry towelling nappies and I used to love seeing a dozen nappies flapping in the wind. As long as you bring them (and towels) in as soon as they dry you don't get 'that crunchy feeling'!!
I love pegging out, am not as enthusiastic at bringing in though, although I never leave things out overnight.
Today I can't hang things out :-(as we are having an invasion of crop flies, so I'm sitting next to a laundry basket full of damp washing as I type.
Sue xx
Sue15Cat - we Americans need to create a little dictionary for your comment... I love the differences in language: nappies, pegging, airer and even damp washing! :)
MangoGirl - Knowing what I know now I definitely would have used some cloth diapering (or nappies!) with my two children.
Carla - It's never too late! Welcome to the line! :)
SG at MG - Welcome! Glad you found us!
Those of you who joined earlier in the summer, I'll be checking in on you specifically to see if you'd like to submit an update! :)
I'm in! Have been hanging out all summer but just found your fun blog! Consider myself intermediate with my sites on advanced...should be easy in Florida, right? Let the sun shine in!
Dang! Wish I'd read this earlier in the summer. I'm an intermediate ONLY because we live in a subdivision that doesn't allow clotheslines....but we sort of cheat with a low line stretched across the deck, otherwise I'd be an Advanced. LOVE crunchy towels! and sheets that smell like the sun.
oh what a charming idea ! It took me while to understand it tough... I've happily lived 35 years without a dryer ! And last 4 years with kids in house...
There's a traditional clothes line for sunny days and linen laundry outisde. With the folding metal one we dry the 'smaller' bits and pieces. And now and then we use creatively other ex-tempore drying options..
Wintertime is but difficult due to snow.. but nothing we can organize.
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