Clean Laundry

The first spring we lived in our house we put up a clothes line. I knew that our line would get a lot of use so I sprung for Cedar, knowing it would look nice as it aged and wouldn't leech chemicals into our nearby garden.

We choose to hang our clothes out on a line for a number of reasons. The obvious one of course is to save on electricity. Other reasons are that they come into the house smelling fresh, they get a natural bleaching from the sun, and there is something very pleasing about seeing clothes and sheets billowing in the breeze.

Every time I hang out the laundry I think about one of our summer residents who upon seeing our clothes line at our open house a couple of summers back was just in awe. He kept saying to his wife that they needed to put one up at there house here on the island. He also said that in the town that they live in, located in southern Connecticut it is against the town's ordinances to have a clothes line. I was aghast. In the town where he lives, some of the wealthiest people in the world reside, and they have rules telling them they can't have something as simple as a clothes line. I don't get it, pay all that money and can't hang your clean clothes out.

Dozens of people walk by our house each summer day. They see our clean clothes out there, underwear and all. We don't mind, after all, we all wear underwear. It's nothing to be ashamed of.