The Simple Clothesline

*Updated 'cause I celebrated too soon and need to correct the date: Chinese New Year celebrations culminate in the Festival of Lanterns on Feb. 21, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. Here is our string of lanterns, lighting our way to a better year.


Credit: Dub Scroggin

Clothes hanging on a line are also evocative of a clean start. But my homeowner association is one of more than 300,000 across the U.S. with covenants prohibiting outdoor clotheslines. The reasoning is that they are an eyesore that lessens property values—contradicting today’s efforts to recycle and conserve.

According to Project Laundry List, a national organization promoting clothesline use, there are more than 88 million dryers in the United States consuming 6 percent of the average U.S. household electrical use.


Credit: Dub Scroggin

Tucson is perfectly suited for drying clothes outside. Because of our abundant sunshine and low humidity, we can hang out our wet clothes and ten minutes later—poof—they’re dry and smell wonderfully fresh. Compare that to time spent in an electric or gas dryer.

When we moved here, my husband hung a clothesline for me between the posts on our back porch despite our homeowner association rules. Should we use natural sunlight or build nuclear energy power sources? My simple clothesline wins every time. And sunshine is free energy.

This weekend I realized I needed new clothespins. An article in the Winter 2008 issue of Somerset Life magazine about making clothespin paperclips inspired me to make mine pretty. But I want clothespins that can actually be used for their original purpose—to pin clothes to a line.


Credit: Dub Scroggin

Using a pack of wooden clothespins from Target, I took one apart and traced around it on pretty paper. After cutting out the paper strips, I painted YES glue on each clothespin section and attached the paper. To make them functional, each papered clothespin was then coated with polyurethane for weather-proofing.


Credit: Dub Scroggin

Yes, I could just use the clothespins as packaged. For me, though, it’s about celebrating life’s minute details—whether it’s hanging clothes to dry in the sun or hanging lanterns to light our way in the dark.


Credit: Dub Scroggin

The trick is to remember to treasure the details in life—and that includes Mother Earth.