I think my clothesline is amazing.  Yes, that probably sounds silly, but I do.  In the photo below, it’s holding 2 “super plus” sizes of laundry (per my washing machine’s measurements) as well as a day’s worth of Jack’s cloth diapers.

Another way of looking at it: I hadn’t washed any clothing since Friday, and this was taken on Monday.With 2 little boys, a husband who generally speaking does 2 outfit changes a day, plus me with all of my painting clothes… that’s a lotta laundry.  This clothesline is big enough that I can hang our king-size bedsheets on it (you have to fold the top sheet in half, but it still dries without any trouble) + a load of laundry.

I got so used to hanging clothes to dry whilst living in NZ that when we moved back to the USA, it was only natural to keep up the habit.  My mom also hung out laundry as often as she could (and that was for 10 children) so I wanted to continue the tradition.  And of course there’s the benefits: energy saving, money saving, environmentally friendly, and so on and so forth.

I keep the clothesline outdoors all summer and haven’t seen any rust (and I’ve been using it since last summer).  It folds flat so that, in winter, I can lean it against the screen porch wall (or slide it under a bed, tuck it in between the wall and washer, etc.).  I have the large model, and I’m glad that I spent the extra $$$ for it.

The key thing to maximizing the clothesline is to use hangers.  I make the most of every inch of this line by using kid’s hangers, adult hangers, and pants hangers.  I hang kiddie clothes on the lower bar between the legs (or in other words, the middle line in a capital “A”) and hang other stuff on the end bars in between the cables.

It costs more than your run-of-the-mill clothes rack, but worth it.  I’m sure that it’s paid for itself in terms of lower energy bills.  If you live in a place where you need to hang clothes to dry inside or if you love to hang out your clothes or if you can’t find the space for a traditional clothes line, then this is the one for you.  Way, way better than anything I’ve used before.

I bought mine from the US website, but the company, Mrs. Pegg’s Handy Line, also has an AU and an NZ site.  Only thing is that when I checked the US and NZ sites today, they weren’t loading.  Hmm.  Hopefully the still ship here and to NZ!  If you want to order one and can’t get the site to load, then I’d email them from the AU site to ask what’s up, because it’s that good.  They’ve also got a Facebook fan page (and yes, I am a fan).

I realize that it’s just a clothesline, but when we lived overseas I felt like I was always waiting on clothes to dry or trying to figure out the best way to get the most out of my small clothes racks, and I really wish I’d had something like this.  Love it!