FYI - Clothespins/Clothespegs
"Wooden clothes pegs, an invention of the American sect, the Shakers, have been mothballed and are no longer manufactured in the US. Why? A sharp decline in the use of clothes lines: Some 80 per cent of US households own and operate a tumble dryer, with millions more of us going down the street to a laundromat. The average American household dries eight loads of washing a week; over 2 million households do 15 loads a week or more.
Further, there’s a stigma to the display of a clothes line in America: Clothes lines are viewed as flags of poverty, yet we could be saving 10 percent on energy costs if we did our laundry the green way. Clothes lines evoke a negative emotional reaction from many Americans, who view them as flags of poverty. Property owners often fear that a clothes line in their neighbourhood will lower the value of their house.
There’s also a strange brand of prudery at play. Middle-aged men, prone to scanning the web for all manner of scantily clad beings, do not want to see oversized bloomers out their window." From Bobulate
see link below.
Take your pick from below and whether you call it a clothespeg or a clothespin, they are all the same.... or are they? None of these look very cozy :-(
Bev
Hugs Sarah.
Our neighborhood prohibits such things as unsightly but never thought of the poverty thing.
I do have a hanging rack in laundry room to put items I don't want to go in dryer.
Here is a romantic idea lines of sheets hanging over
rows of lavender in bloom.
From the time we move into our new home (if we are lucky enough to buy a new home) it's the first thing we buy for our back yard.
They serve all sorts of purposes, boys (and girls) like to jump up grab hold and try to swing around on them.
If your dog is annoying you and needs tying up, you tie a long lead to the clothesline and it allows the dog plenty of movement, within a restricted radius.
ON summer days you throw a tarpaulin over the top and put your outdoor table and chairs underneath so you can sit in the shade (especially while you are waiting for your garden trees to grow large enough to provide shade)
You do the same thing when you are having an outdoor party, but before you put the tarp on, you hang coloured party lights along all the lines.
When you need to beat your rugs, you hang them over the clothes line and use a strong broom to whack the dust out.
Of course these are only a few things that come to mind, I'm sure they have been put to many other uses, besides hanging clothes.
So of course for a long time, people would buy the BIGGEST Hill's Hoist they could afford, (they certainly aren't cheap!) and that they could fit in their back yards.
Then of course, over the years they have evolved into fold-up and even fold-up and remove clothes lines, for those who feel the need to hide it because they don't share the same pride in our Aussie Hill's Hoist. LOL!!!
Of course the main difference here is that we usually have abundant sunshine in which to dry our clothes.
Plus we are more ecology minded, so we have been cutting down on our own energy usage for years. Besides, if you ask most Aussie women they'll tell you:
"There is nothing to compare with the smell of freshly washed linen, straight off the clothes line."
Hence, we still have an abundant supply of pegs available in Australia.
So, if you need some, just ask any Aussie Cutie to get some for you and, as long as they weigh less than a pound, I'm sure they'll be inexpensive enough so that you can make all the peg cozies your heart desires. :-)))
(Tongue stuck firmly in cheek) hugs n roses, Meganne
PS just had to share some Hill's Hoist photo's with you, hope you enjoy. :-)))
By the time I got a Hill's Hoist I was too old to swing on it. :-((
Electric and gas clothes dryers are estimated to consume between 6% and 25% of a household’s total energy!
I still have the "umbrella" style dryer I've used for over 40 years but I admit to using the electric dryer in the winter. Hate to shovel 3 feet of snow to get to frozen laundry !!
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=wooden+clothespins&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=11467746259444612128&sa=X&ei=QWydT9biL6aI6QHqw_SVDw&ved=0CIgBEPMCMAA
And also a magnetic:
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/office/clips?utm_medium=feed&productId=10023462&utm_source=google_products&sku=10042402
long links don't know for sure if they will work - just Google wooden clothespins or magnetic clothespins.
I can't imagine being banned from having a washing line. :) xXx
We were poor when I was growing up, and we never had the fancy clotheslines that are strung on steel posts and have nice wire for the four parallel lines. No, we had two lines that we wired up to old worn posts, maybe they had been dead trees. Then when you put the laundry on, the lines would droop down, and your laundry could scrape the grass or ground. So, we had these huge poles that had a notch on the end, and when your load was all hung, you would take the pole and prop up the lines using those poles. I actually loved that job, and now it always gives me such a nice memory of doing it with my grandmother and mom. I chased a neighbor out of our yard with one of those poles one time. She was leaving and I didn't want her to go :-)
Here is a design I've used a few times and it is a favorite of lots of people - a clothesline with a quilt, birds on the line, a basket of laundry and a peony bush. I got it at embsupply.com for just $3.50. It's a Dakota design.
Using a clothesline is like getting a basket of free energy! Jan
I grew up with a clothesline running from the house to a power pole at the back of the property - a non moving one. Later my dad put the pulleys at each end so you could just stay in one place. They got a dryer later on, but still in summer, clothes went on the line. All my aunts and Gramma had one. When we finally had our own home, there was a perfect spot for an umbrella clothesline, but before we could buy one, my hubby had taken some stuff out to the dump and spotted an umbrella clothesline with no line. Needless to say, he grabbed it and we got some plastic covered wire and strung it and wa la, I had my own clothesline! Used it spring, summer, and fall. Didn't like freezing my fingers or taking in frozen clothes, so always used the dryer in winter.
Seems strange, one of my daughters lives in Barbados and they don't use dryers and the landlord has an umbrella clothesline in the backyard (it's small). I think she does have a dryer, but mostly uses the clothesline - probably uses the dryer in the rainy season.
Love the pictures (both sets) and Meganne's writeup.
I think most wooden pegs now come from China. The last two packets I bought did
Still, I'll be happy when Ray is no longer on night shift and we can get back to normal :-)