This is an umbrella design clothes line and it actually looks more like a spider web. When I grew up a lot of people had either a laundry spider - as it is called in German - in the yard or the typical laundry lines between poles. For winter or city dwelling a lot of houses have attic or cellar spaces dedicated to clothes lines. It was not that I really loved going up into the attic to hang or take down laundry or running out because of a sudden impending rain storm sweeping through and you try to get the almost dry laundry before it was soaked. Just like other daily chores, it was just that, a chore.
Until a few years ago I did not have a dryer, but somehow thought when having children and doing laundry for a few more people - more messy anyway - it would be logical to have a dryer. It did not even occur to me NOT to buy a dryer, after all every other family I knew had one. But even though a dryer is more convenient, it is neither good for the environment nor for the clothing itself. Add the whole fire hazard to it, even though we clean the lint trap after every load and the exhaust pipe is less than a foot long, having had more than one house fire in my past, it sticks with you. And so in my quest to change the things that I can change and make at least a small difference, I decided we needed a clothes line. My own clothing for the most did not make it into the dryer anyway, because my first encounter with those machines during living in student housing taught me the lesson of never ending shrinkage. So the idea of a clothes line was just taking it a big step further.
At first we just wanted to have a regular line from the deck to a tree with a pulley system, but being under the pine tree did not seem like a very good idea and it would have only given something like 30 feet, which is not enough. So I looked into the laundry spiders I knew from Germany and if they are available here at all.
My search found a company that has been around for a while making a system made of steel, which I think will rust too quickly.(Whitney) I also found the Belgian company Moerman offering these umbrella dryers made of aluminum and also way more stylish. I could not find any reviews, since they are very new to the American market, but since we are not talking a major purchase, I contacted the company selling these for some more information and felt comfortable ordering it. They came in 4 different sizes and I decided for the second biggest. It has 170 feet of clothes line and it spins in the wind - appropriately it is called the Super Spin. It has a cover to put over it when it is collapsed or one can just take it out of the ground sleeve and bring it inside. I do not think we need to have it out when we have a party.
I ordered it at Shop-at-Clares an actual store in Pennsylvania and not a big box retailer. They have been good about answering emails. It was delivered within days and so my husband was very nice and put the stake/sleeve into the ground, we might have to redo it though, since it sticks out a tad bit and is also not a perfect vertical.
When I threw out my back in the fall I started to share laundry duty with the children. I would do the sorting and they had to the moving into the washer, out of it and into the dryer and out again and then I did the folding and putting away. This helped tremendously with the strain on my back, but that system does not work the same now and I have to come up with a different routine. Besides the schlepping of the wet laundry, I actually quite enjoy standing in my backyard and hanging the laundry. I am sure there are days when it will be a hassle. I am not sure yet how I like to stand in slushy snow and turning my hands into icicles while attempting to freeze-dry my laundry. There still will be days I will decide to use a dryer and I will keep putting socks and underwear in the dryer - until it makes me feel to guilty. At least I have a gas dryer, which uses less and cleaner energy than electrical powered ones.
So being the paranoid person I am, now I am less concerned about the house burning down, but I do wonder if somebody comes to steal clothing, but just as I revel in my bravery in the presence of spiders, I just ignore these thoughts as best as I can :)
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