Drying in the Breeze: My Easy on the Eyes Clothesline

I love the smell of lined dry clothes, and you can't beat the savings of a clothesline. When we purchased our home last year I immediately looked into setting up a clothesline so we could dry outdoors. Growing up, we had a pole like this in our backyard, only ours was much more rusty.

:-)

I had misgivings about setting up a similar set of poles in our yard, mainly because I would have to look at them year round in all their ugliness. Our area doesn't have great weather, so we spend a large amount of time sitting indoors looking outdoors. So, I put my little mind to work coming up with a better solution than metal poles.

Lo, and behold, Walmart had the perfect piece missing from my puzzle. I found retractable clotheslines that can be mounted on the wall, attached to hooks to form a line, or retracted and folded to stay out of the way. And the price was perfect.

Lover sunk two wooden posts into the ground across from the garage, and mounted the clotheslines for me. Here's what the clothesline looks like on the days I use it.

The clothesline part has a little doohickey (actual technical term) underneath that you wrap the line around to secure it and keep it taut.

When not in use, you simply unhook the line (the eye of the line goes over a hook on the posts) and allow it to retract, folding the device against the wall.

Genius! When I'm not using the line, you hardly notice the posts, especially because of the beautiful Morning Glories climbing all over them.

In case you are as inspired as I was, and want to copy my setup, here's a link to a similar model on Amazon.com, although the ones I got at Walmart were about $5.00 cheaper. Sorry! Enjoy your lovely line dried clothes, and the extra money in your pocket.