Thank you for dropping by my Raising Jane Journal to participate in my giveaways! We’ve chosen a winner for this giveaway already (click here for details), but don’t be afraid to leave a comment anyway. I love reading them. And stay tuned for more great MaryJanesFarm giveaways.
For a chance to win 20 FREE beautiful, handmade clothespins from All American Clothespins, tell me your favorite memory about hanging laundry on the line in the comments below. I’ll toss your name into a hat and draw a lucky winner sometime mid-June.
Albert Crooks and his 15-year-old son, Al, craft beautiful, sturdy clothespins from ash (the perfect hardwood for clothespins) and heavy-duty, stainless-steel springs manufactured in the U.S. “No more using four or five cheap clothespins to hang a wet towel to line dry. Our clothespins are tumble sanded and are finished with tung oil, which will not leach out and stain your laundry.” For beautiful clothespins that will last a lifetime, visit AllAmericanClothespins.com.
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I remember the old clothesline on the farm I grew up on. It is still there and the birds still try to use it for nesting.
I have always loved hanging clothes. It’s not just how great clothes smell when I bring them in, but it is the actual act of hanging. I love to see what direction the wind is blowing and get the best airflow pattern going and watch them billow in the wind. I love to see grandchildren get lost between the rows of drying sheets as they play hide and seek. I even like bringing in “stiff ” sheets on one of the last fall days of hanging. Needless to say, I’m hooked on hanging laundry!
I grew up in the house on the corner in town but in my heart I knew I belonged in the country. In my thirties, I moved into my dream cottage in the foothills. Though every day was beautiful there, laundry day was especially lovely. As I hung clean wash on the line, the view was looking down the valley, across rolling green hills, apple orchards, and rows of strawberry plants. Hard to beat!
Living on the farm was the test for me to save money. Hanging all our clothes on the line, even my business casual clothes (since I also worked full time), was one way to accomplish savings. Plus, they always smelled sunshine-fresh! One winter, it was such a mild one, I was able to hang laundry outside into the month of January!
Nothing beats laying in bed surrounded by the summer fresh smell on my handmade quilts that were hanging outside on the line all day. I have several quilts that my grandmother made me over 30 years ago and I wash and dry them all on the line hoping to make them last. Last Summer I was hanging quilts up and noticed I had a quilt made by my grandma, one by my mother and the only one I attempted to make myself, all hung in a line together. I took a photo of that cherished view.
These are beautiful. I remember helping with clothes on the clothes line. Wasn’t tall enough to hang clothes but I pushes the clothes pin bag down the line as clothes were being hung!!
I loved hanging the diapers out in the fresh air and the wind blowing in my face.
Aloha!! My grandmother was born in 1907 and was with us until 1992. She lived a rural lifestyle, from her childhood in Missouri to her life on a ranch in the mountains of Southern Nevada with her husbands family. I had the unique opportunity to spend my summers in a magical place with her, gardening and one of the cool things was learning to do laundry and hang it on the line! We had a busy life with a dryer at home, but life was simple at my grandmother’s!! I now live on the island of Kauai and have the best clothesline ever!! I have to dodge the rain, but hanging my laundry is one of my favorite things to do! My house here was built in 1891 and there is something really special about it!!
What a great way to save money and enjoy a sun-kissed scent. Hanging sheets also makes a perfect maze to venture through.
I remember growing up my grandmother always hung the laundry on this long clothes line that ran across the back yard. It could only be reached my a step stool on the back porch. The smell of fresh air dried bed linens brings me back to when I was 7 or 8 years old. Although I don’t have an outside clothes line, I do hang dry most of my clothes inside my house.
My grandmothers and mother always hung laundry out to dry so that is one of my most favorite of all memories!
Mama told me of a toddler memory she had of me and it was of me spanking her for wetting her pants…She was trying to potty train me and I knew hers shouldn’t be wet…..
The first thing purchased and built before moving the furniture in was my clothesline! I love to hang the laundry and have heard about these fabulous pins would love to win.
My grandma told me to hang out my cloth diapers (yes I used cloth) and let them freeze to make them softer. It actually made the baby’s diapers really soft. But it was NO fun hanging clothes in the snow. The neighbors thought I had lost my mind. Not only because of the snow but also because I didn’t use disposables.
Once we turned 12, my two sisters and I were the designated laundry doers in our house. With a dad who liked his whites very white and even his socks ironed ( yes that’s true). We were busy.
Fortunately we had a pulley on our clothesline that ran from the house to a pole at the back of the yard so we could hang our sheets and clothes out daily.
I remember those little clothespin bags made of our little dresses filled with wooden clothes pins.
Glad to seee they make them like they used to.
Brings back memories of spending time on my grandparents farm helping my grandmother hang laundry. Those memories are special and now bittersweet since the farm is being sold.
playing chase through the sheets!!! Drove my mom crazy but when I had kids, I played with them!
Loved watching my mom hang the laundry on the line, but especially loved it when she hung the bed sheets, my brother and I would run through them and makes forts in between the sheets as they hung – such special memories!
The smell of the sheets from Grandma’s clothesline when she tucked you in at night in the summer.
I use the clothes line when the wind blows just right or I will have the feed lot smell
My mom would hang laundry in the back yard. I still remember the wonderful fresh scent when I’d help her take down.
My favorite memory is hanging clothes from my deck on a gorgeous day and looking up to the sky through the trees and breathing in the beautiful fresh air and the scent of the clean clothes.
My mom and grandmother always hung out laundry. I still have some of my grandmas wood pins and her clothes pin bag!!
This is a very silly memory from many years ago. We were a young family and we did not have a dryer and I used a ringer washing machine. I hung two sets of sheets on the line and it rained. It rained the second day and I left the sheets hanging. It rained the third day and they were still hanging. My neighbor called and asked me if I thought they might “grow” if I left them out there long enough. My neighbor was much older than me and an avid gardener!
As a young girl I remember washing clothes with my grandmother using a wringer washer out on her back porch and hanging the clothes out to dry in the sunshine.
I still hang laundry on the line, but my favorite memory is getting ready for a new baby! I would wash and hang out the little clothes, blankets, and diapers on the line in the sunshine. It always looked so beautiful, I have pictures of those clothes on the line!!
I already subscribe, but would love to win some clothes pins!
Hanging clothes on the line in Nebraska was another way to enjoy the freshest of smells. During college hanging sheets on the line in December and January in the wind and having an instant freeze making them hard as stone and almost knocking you off your feet is now a funny memory, but oh the joy of those sheets on the bed.
Hi MaryJane,
I love my memories of hiding in laundry that was hanging on the line while my grandmother hung more. I actually thought she couldn’t see me but I was an easy find as there were my skinny little legs and white ankle socks with black MaryJane shoes sticking out for all to see. Haha! And just this past weekend, I looked over at my quilts hanging on the line and there were my granddaughter’s skinny little legs peeking out at me from under one of the quilts. Apples don’t fall too far from the tree, they say! Love it!! Making more memories.
My mother is in her seventies now and when I get a chance to go back home to visit, I can be assured that there will be sheets out on the line! Nothing smells better and reminds me of the comforts of home, than the smell of my mom’s line dried sheets!❤️
As a child my family lived on a farm. We had all kinds of animals including two baby goats that were my responsibility. They loved to play hide and seek in the hanging laundry with me. Needless to say, my mother was not impressed with the game when all three of us would get tangled up in the clothes and pull down the line! That only happened a few times. Dad raised the clothes line. Smart move!
I love to hang out my clothes. From baby diapers to my own clothes. Except in the winter when my fingers would freeze & so would the clothes. Nothing beats the warm clean smell of sheets & towels hung out in nice weather.
The best part is finding clothes pins that really hold your clothes. Some of mine are 50 years old! Good clothespins are hard to find.
Everything ALWAYS smelled so fresh and clean once you made the beds and while folding all the clothes.
When I smell fresh laundry that has been dried from a clothesline, it brings me right back to summers in Massachusetts during my childhood. The days were long and lazy and seems simpler then.
I still have a clothes line, and clothes pins bag that hangs on the line! The Amish use a special sock holder/with clothes pins all around it, to dry their socks on! It’s very common to see clothes on the line in Wayne County OH! My Mom used a wringer washer, and one day, after hanging out sheets, a bird flew over & left some droppings–I remember my Mom saying, “That dirty bird!” (I don’t have any memories of her swearing!)
When my kids were little we lived in the middle of a hayfield. My husband put up a clothesline for me in our tiny backyard and I would hang up the laundry beside our garden full of vegetables and cosmos. That and the blue wide open sky made it perfect!!
I still hang my laundry on the line to dry. I love looking out the window and seeing it flapping in the wind.
I still love to hang out my sheets on the clothesline. Been doing it for a long time. Back in 60’s my sisters and I always hung out the laundry after wiping down the lines. Then to put my brother’s jeans in stretchers and hung them out to dry too. Lots of memories.
During the summer I still hang my laundry outside to dry on the clothes line. My dryer barely gets any use which makes hubby happy after a winter of high electric bills. There is nothing better than the smell of fresh clean laundry right off the line.
My favorite memory – funny story- our show heifer Ruthie- got in the yard and was playing in the fresh washed sheets- she had a sheet on her head and was running around- she looked like a Hereford bride!!
I love clothespins!
I always had to take the clothes off the line on Mondays after school. I still remember how wonderful they smelled. That smell always takes me back to childhood in my neighborhood in Missouri.
Growing up in Dallas, we did not have a dryer so all of our clothes were line dried our of necessity. I always loved the fresh smell of the sheets and other items. In fact, years ago I ordered the metal posts (T shaped) and had my husband erect my own clothesline behind my house in the country and I hang out clothes all the time during the warm weather. Although I have a dryer and would not want to give it up, I still love hanging out sheets and other clothes. Brings back memories of my childhood and mom.
My favorite memory is the sheets flapping in the wind and the children playing hide and seek and the babies crawling on the fresh grass under my feet!
Everyone has such wonderful memories. My Grandma always hung clothes out to dry How I loved helping her & now for many years I have always hung my clothes out & have passed this on to my daughters. I too hang my clothes,sheets etc out in the freezing cold As I tell everyone I am freeze drying as my neighbors laugh at me.
I have ordered those wonderful clothes pins before & they are the best by far
Thank you Mary Jane for introducing them to me & for your fabulous magazine
I lived with my grandparents the first 5 years of my life. Every Monday, my grandparents were up at 5:00 am, unless raining, to get the laundry started in the old ringer washer, double rinse tubs, and then to be hung out on the clothesline. I would help Mamma hang the bath towels, sheets, kitchen towels, and handkerchiefs with good ole’ fashioned wooden clothespins. I had to take special care of the ones with the springs, as they were hard to come by. We had the ones without springs, but we springs were so much nicer and hung the clothes better. Nothing like it! I still wash and hang my clothes out on the clothesline, yes, with wooden clothespins, but it is hard to find good ones. The ones at the local superstore are not sturdy; they break easy, the springs come right off, or they just won’t stay on the clothes if a little breeze comes up! I loved my Mamma’s clothespins… Ahhh, the good ole’ days!
Yes, we “helped” or “hung” lots of clothes on the long line in the back part of our yard. I liked both kinds of wooden clothespins – the ones with the spring – like you are giving away – were great because they clipped over all types of clothes, and kept every item securely on the line. But, while the ones with the round top and straight “legs” were more difficult to secure on the line – they were very special! I drew little faces on the round top, and colored in pants down the legs, or gathered little dresses around the body to make girls and Mommies. A little yarn made terrific hair, and I really loved to create little clothespin families. I actually have one, all dressed up – in my special keepsake drawer!
Nothing like a good old clothes pin that works.
Cherish and built to last a life time. I love fresh laundry that’s dried outside.
I grew up helping my mother hang up and take down clothes from the clothesline. I loved how wonderful they smelled from the fresh air. I still hang my own clothes out 40 years later!
I hung many lines of clothing and bed sheets on home made clothes lines as a teenager. I remember the fresh smell and crispness. Loved getting into bed with fresh sheets. The house smelled fresh when bring in the clothes. Thanks for offering this great prize.
I haven’t hung clothes out since I was young, but I remember the fresh smell that they had from blowing dry in the wind! I remember enjoying hanging the clothes because you could talk to God while doing so and you felt closer to him out at the lines!
Growing up we had no dryer. All our clothes were hung up outside on clothe lines. In the winter and rainy days, we hung them on a line on closed in back porch. I also remember driving to my grandparents and see all the clothes other people had hanging outside. I still hang my sheets and blankets (and most of my other clothes too) outside and my granddaughter’s still run thru them. And yes, they still smell so good. I find myself sniffing them as I pick them.