Drying Laundry the Vintage Way - How to Use a Clothesline
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Let’s do laundry the vintage way! I bought my house 7 years ago and the very first project I did was install a clothesline. My dad helped and it’s held up really well. I love using a clothes line because it’s a great way to get outside, it makes your clothes last longer because you’re not using a dryer, it saves money over time and it’s better for the environment. Plus line dried clothes have the best smell. The sun creates a chemical reaction with the wet clothing and that’s what creates the amazing, nostalgic smell.
My family didn’t use a clothesline growing up so I learned how to do this stuff through trial and error. I am not fussy about doing my laundry, this is what has worked best for me over the years.
Weather and time of day
Let’s start with what the weather should be like and what time of day we should do laundry. An ideal day is sunny and warm with a breeze. But I’ll do it when it’s 60s and windy or cloudy. Something to watch out for is how humid it is. If it’s really humid and not windy your clothes are going to need a lot more time to dry. Ideal time to start the laundry is in the morning or early afternoon so it has all day to dry. Avoid doing it too late in the day because then you’ll be fighting the sunset and you don’t want to do that.
What to wear
I wear a housedress (Pictured above) or apron with pockets. I love wearing housedresses because they have big pockets for holding tons of clothespins. Plus they are super comfortable and breezy for being outside when it’s hot. I’ll link some super cute vintage housedresses and vintage aprons that you can shop for online.
Related: Easy DIY Vintage Apron Wall Display
Vintage clothespin holder
I use a vintage clothespin bag that I found for $5 at a Burley Park flea market. I have a hook on my clothesline that I hang it from which makes is very convenient. I’ll link some vintage clothespin bags if you’d like to buy your own.
Related: How to Wash Vintage Clothing
Drying racks
If any clothing that you’re washing is made of stretchy material and is heavy when wet do not hang them on the clothesline. It might stretch it out of shape (I detail which items to do this with below). I use foldable drying racks which are also great for using indoors during winter. I have an IKEA one that I use all the time and this drying rack on Amazon is very similar. It holds a ton of laundry at once which is a big help.
Clothing rack hanger
I love using portable clothing dryers for small items like socks, underwear, hankies and rags. I have this octopus rack from IKEA. It takes up a lot less space on the clothesline and I can easily hang it outside on a hook on my clothesline. This also works great in the winter months when you’re drying clothes inside.
Steps in doing laundry
You can watch the step by step process in the video below!
Wash clothing as you normally would, in the washing machine with your detergent of choise
Take the laundry out of the washing machine and throw in a laundry basket to take outside to your clothesline
Bring the laundry basket to your clothesline. Take a pice of clothing out and give it a shake. This will help get wrinkles out, get rid of loose lint and help the item not be stiff getting off the clothesline.
Start by hanging up the clothes that you don’t want to get wrinkled, like button up shirts and dresses.
Items of clothing and how to dry them
T-Shirts - I hang t-shirts upside down. T-shirts have stretchy material and if you hang it by the shoulders it can create an annoying dent and crease. So pin them to the clothesline by the bottom hem.
Dresses - With cotton dresses they aren’t very stretchy so I hang them regularly by the shoulders.
Pants- Hang by the waistband. If you’re worried about them wrinkling make sure to button and zip them up.
Sweaters - When sweaters are wet they can be quite heavy. We don’t want them to get stretched out of shape when we hang them on the line. Some sweaters come out relatively dry depending on their material. But if you have a cableknit sweater or something that’s really heavy when wet, dry it on a clothesrack. See below about using a drying rack.
Button Ups - I’m too lazy to iron my button ups so I hang them as best I can to avoid wrinkles. I’ll button the shirts all the way up and hang them as is since they don’t have a lot of stretch. I hand press any wrinkles and lay everything flat while it’s wet then it will help it dry wrinkle free.
Towels - Towels take the longest to dry so I hang those up pretty quickly. I like to alternate each end of the towel so that the wind can catch the end. If you have them even then sometimes the ends will stick together and take longer to dry. You want to make sure you lay flat on the line, if you bunch them up then those areas will take longer to dry.
Sheets - Sheets I throw over and pin, I make sure to pin everything because you never know when a gust of wind will come by and throw my sheet on the ground. I wash a lot of vintage sheets and I don’t do anything special with them, I just wash like normal. But if you do have a vintage sheet, tablecloth or other linen item that has a smell that you want to get out I have a vintage sheet blog post showing you how to do that.
Socks and Underwear - Sometimes you’ll have so much laundry that you’ll run out of clothespins. I save clothespins by pinning socks together because they dry pretty fast. Or I have this handy octopus from IKEA to hang up my socks and underwear.
How long does it take?
How long it takes the clothing to dry depends on what you’re washing, if the sun is out, how breezy it is, etc. I wait at least an hour or two and then I’ll check on it. But sometimes I’ll put it out and go run some errands, there’s no harm in leaving it out.
Taking down the laundry
Time to take down our laundry! Take off the clothespins and give the item a shake. I do this to get off extra lint now that it’s dry and to flick off any bugs that may be taking a nap on my clothes. I fold the items when I put them in the laundry basket to save time when I bring them inside. I empty my pocketful of clothespins into my holder, hook the holder onto the laundry basket and I’m ready to go inside.
If you have any suggestions for how you do things differently or have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments. If you don’t have a clothesline at home you can use drying racks which work great, I use those in the winter months.
If you like the clothesline look you should check out my easy DIY garlands to use as decor. I make them look like little indoor clotheslines!
