Hanging Up The Wash

About a year ago, I thought about ways to cut our monthly expenses.  One way was putting up a clothes line and drying the clothes naturally.  Since we live in the country, there is no smog or pollutants to worry about.

I remembered how the whites were bleached by the sun and the clothes smelled fresh and unscented.  I asked my husband to put up a clothes line.   It was months after the request that the line was finally put up.  There is one under the carport for those items that do not need to be sun-bleached or if clouds say rain may be on the way.  There is a second line in the yard for those sheets and large items or when the sun promises to shine all day.

Drying clothes on a line produces a different effect than the automatic dryer.  The clothes have fewer wrinkles and are stiffer to the touch.  Towels do not do as well on the line.  The dryer fluffs them so much better.

There are advantages to hanging jeans and other pants on the line.  Shrinkage is almost nil and they look almost as if they have been ironed.  T-shirts remind me of the time when my mother ironed everything including underwear and bed linens.

Line drying clothes is cost effective and good for the environment.

There was a time when women went to the grocer and they carried their own cloth bag with them.  They used it when walking around the store and when they got to the counter, they emptied their bag and paid for their goods.  They then filled up their bag and took their goods home.  They hung up their bag to be used on their next shopping trip.

Then came paper bags that the grocer had at the checkout counter.  They had carts that women used to gather their purchases and those goods were put in the paper sacks.  The sacks were taken home, folded and used as trash cans as the need arose.  They were used to line bird cages and used for many things that required a stiff piece of brown paper.  Kids colored on them.  They were used as masks and crowns and any number of playful things.

Plastic replaced the paper sacks and some people were irritated with the change.  Plastic bags were supposed to help the environment.  I never really understood how.  At first, there was a choice.  You could choose paper or plastic.  The choice soon faded away and plastic was the only thing available.  People used them as trash can liners, as sacks to carry stuff to parties.  They used them to put their dirty laundry in when they go on a trip and as litter bags in the car and on the bus.

The difference between the plastic and the paper is the paper degrades over time while the plastic that is hung in a tree top by the wind during a storm is still there when the storm comes again.

No matter what they come up with the consumer will find other uses for it.  The plastic tubs of whipped topping, butter and other things are used as storage bowls once the contents are used.  They are used to store leftovers, seeds for next season, sewing items and anything thing that fits and needs a lid.

Humans are a resourceful lot.  We come up for uses of items that are not what the manufacturer intended.

And what goes around comes around.  For the past few years, there have been cloth and net bags manufactured for shoppers to use instead of plastic bags.  I wonder what uses we will find for these new bags, this new idea.