Cellar Scribblings

[Sason]

I did indeed! Just to make you happy, Chuck!

[CellarDweller]

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!

Yeah, I wish that's what I planned for Saturday.  Currently at mom and dad's place.  They're away for the weekend, so I'm doing laundry today.  Possible rain tomorrow, so this way I can use the laundry line outside in the sun to dry some of my clothes.

Once I'm done here, I need to get some cleaning done around the apartment, and then I can relax on Sunday.

[brianr]

That is the first time I have heard one of you Stateside people talk about hanging clothes on the line. Someone told me they were not allowed in the area they lived (Birmingham, Al I think). It is my only way of drying and in winter I have to bring them inside about 3pm and hang them in the hall in front of the heat pump or in the sun in the 2nd bedroom (it gets late afternoon sun while my backyard loses sun by 3pm)

[CellarDweller]

Brian, you're reminding me of a conversation I had with Matthew when he was here in 2009.  We were driving around and passed a house that had one of these:





I don't know what they're really called, I call them 'laundry umbrellas".   So after seeing it, Matthew said he was surprised he hadn't seen more of them around, and that in NZ, just about every house has one.

I turned to him and said:  "Interesting.  Well, in America we have this thing called 'electricity', and we use it to dry our clothes with a dryer."

He looked at me and rolled his eyes.

[Penthesilea]

I don't know what they're really called, I call them 'laundry umbrellas". 

According to Google they're called Hills Hoist or rotary clothes line.

We call them Wäschespinne = laundry spider.
Not too far from your laundry umbrella.

[brianr]

The Hills Hoist has been manufactured in Adelaide, South Australia by Lance Hill since 1945. The Hills Hoist and similar rotary clothes hoists remain a common fixture in many backyards in Australia and New Zealand. They are considered one of Australia's most recognisable icons, and are used frequently by artists as a metaphor for Australian suburbia in the 1950s and 1960s.   Although originally a product name, the term "Hills Hoist" became synonymous with rotary clothes hoists in general, throughout Australia.

We had one when I was child but I think they are ugly now although one of my neigbours and the house behind me both have one.
I just have a straight line as in photo. It does roll away but I never do that

[brianr]

Brand names used generically reminds me. The other day, after having my fibre cable installed, the guy said he would lux the floor. I told him I would do it. When I first came to NZ, an electrician asked me for the lux and I did not know what he was talking about. In Australia we say Hoover, the proper name is Vacuum cleaner. A common brand is Luxaflex which apparently took off in NZ while Hoover did in Australia.

[Jeff Wrangler]

According to Google they're called Hills Hoist or rotary clothes line.

We call them Wäschespinne = laundry spider.
Not too far from your laundry umbrella.

My mother just had four long clothes lines strung the length of our backyard, with metal props to keep the lines from sagging. I can still see sheets hanging from those lines and billowing in the wind like sails on a full-rigged ship.  

Tell you what, even after we could afford for my mother to have a clothes dryer, she still preferred to "line dry" bed linens in the sun and fresh air. 

[Penthesilea]

My mother just had four long clothes lines strung the length of our backyard, with metal props to keep the lines from sagging. I can still see sheets hanging from those lines and billowing in the wind like sails on a full-rigged ship.  

Tell you what, even after we could afford for my mother to have a clothes dryer, she still preferred to "line dry" bed linens in the sun and fresh air.  

Me too. And not only bed linens, but all of my laundry. Sun-dried fresh clothes are simply nicer.
I use my dryer only in winter. The day when I hang my laundry outside for the first time in a year always makes me happy. It marks the end of winter for me.

I have one long clothes line across the garden (for bed linens/bigger pieces) and three mobile laundry racks that I can take wherever I want; sun, shade or inside when it starts to rain.