Laundry Lines- Their Rustic and Colorful Appeal

I have always liked laundry lines. I think they evoke a memory of a time when so many things went a bit slower, or times when I lived in Colorado, or traveled in Europe when I was a child with my family. Whenever we were in Italy we saw dozens of laundry lines daily, even in the larger cities they draped their colorful array of clothing across the scenery of buildings and large windows. I have a couple of photos here from my last trip to Italy, when I went with my mother in 2006. Also, in Italy many of the rooms inside, or even the exterior of the buildings have bright colors such as peach, orange or yellow, which added to the array of color on the laundry lines.

I recently hung a dry laundry line inside my apartment. I missed seeing them more often; so I decided why not allow myself some of that joy in an urban environment? Obviously I can’t hang wet clothes on it but I like that I can hang my floral blouses or scarves up there, so I can see them before I iron them.

Every week I have a drying rack out for at least one day, to dry all the clothes I washed in the machine downstairs, but don’t want to put into the dryer. So many of my clothing items aren’t suitable for the dryers and I find most clothing lasts longer without the drying.

There are a couple of my watercolor paintings in this post and I hope to do more paintings of laundry lines soon. It is downright difficult to get the time I want to focus on all these creative aspects. I do the best I can, but there times I feel like I am running a race. I have been working on setting up schedules to focus on the various crafts, or weeks when I can focus more of cooking, etc…. Recently and in the past I took lots of photos of laundry lines and I am hoping to do some more paintings from those photos.

Not only does drying on a laundry lines outdoors save on energy, which is good for the environment, but it helps to brighten white’s fabrics. If you gently shake the clothing before hanging it on the line it can reduce wrinkles that might need to be ironed out. Plus it leaves clothing with a fresh, sun kissed scent. Some people who own their own dryers claim you can later put the clothing in the dryer for five minutes to reduce wrinkles.

I don’t mind things like hand washing laundry, drying racks or the site of laundry lines. I like these things that take a bit longer to finish. So much of modern life is fast paced and hectic. I am thankful for the slower, calmer events and find some beauty in them. I have heard friends complain about ironing for instance. When I used to have a lot of items to iron at once for instance, I would divide them into four items at a time. I ironed them one at a time, in a meditative state of mind, one for the north, south, east and west. That always made the task more enjoyable for me. I think I got that somewhere along the way when reading about American Indian rituals. The Quakers do daily tasks with a meditative state in mind, extending some consciousness into just enjoying the moment at hand.

Well I hope you all had a nice Fourth of July celebration. I went out to see some friends play music, which was fun. One of my friends recently had a heart attack and he was playing. It was nice to see him enjoying himself after going through such an ordeal. Life is so precious. We ought to be thankful for all the small things, as well as the bigger picture.