The Aroma of Sun-Dried Bedsheets

I've encountered these pullies before--rusted, crumpled on the ground--and wondered what they had been used for. Here's one in working order, holding up a clothesline in a friend's backyard. She hangs sheets and pajamas on it. She had worried the neighbors would mind, but that's not the case. The pulley system allows her, or a housekeeper, to hang up all the laundry while standing in one elevated spot on the backyard deck.

Interesting is the story she told of the appealing aroma of sun-dried laundry. She thinks it's the wind that makes it smell so good. She has vivid memories as a child of crawling into bed with freshly cleaned and air-dried sheets. She continued the tradition with her own children. When her kids were young, there was one item (a security blanket?) that one of the kids would only allow to be washed if it was dried out on the line. I like to think of the air-dried sheets as sails whose aroma does the transporting.

This deep sensory connection, of falling asleep to the aroma of the wind, captured in the bedsheets, has an added dimension when it comes to energy. In the photo is our "whole house energy meter", which all houses should come with. The first photo shows our house being powered by nature (air-drying of clothes). Only 90 watts are being used. The consumption skyrockets to 4000 watts if the electric dryer is being used. A clothesline, then, is a way to be solar powered without the expense of panels.

As important as the pulley at either end of the clothesline is the mechanism that allows the clothesline to be easily tightened, particularly when it's new and is stretching out. This little device locks the rope in place after you pull it through.

One note of caution: It may be important to keep the clothesline away from shrubs and other perches, as birds are most likely to lighten their load while perching or at the moment of takeoff. At our house, we use folding racks indoors to dry laundry, with the exception of towels, and an outdoor line under an overhang for sheets in the summertime.

Update: Here's my friend's experience with clotheslines and birds:

"When I started using the clothes line more than 40 years ago I decided that if I had bird droppings I would spot wash the item if I needed to. Surprisingly enough, I have had very few problems over the years even when I still had some wild cherry trees in my back yard, and some of the bird droppings left some very purple markings on my deck. But not on my clothes!!! You just have to have faith."