The Change of Season: Drying Clothes Indoors

 

 

Hello, dear friends and readers.
It has been a long summer of not being able to access photos from my camera, and therefore, making it very challenge to continue writing on the blog. I know everyone has moved on to iphones and Instagram, but I am going to hold on a little bit longer to the blog platform. I suppose you can say I’m old fashioned. I do wish there were more blogs to read – so many of them as littered with ads and commercials. In any case, I will continue to blog and keep it out of date over here in my little world. 🙂

 

As we approach the end of October, I can say we have been very blessed this Autumn with amazing weather. We are just finishing up the garden harvest, which is, of course, always a massive undertaking. With our warm fall season, many of my roses are still blooming and there are random flowers still quite radiant. Even my geraniums and window box ivys are doing fantastic – although, we did end up taking them in this week, just so we can see about over wintering them.  Tomorrow we are finally expecting a nasty weather; we shall see how it looks afterwards.

 

With the change of weather and cooler temperatures, I have had a little bit more time to be inside the home – a place I love! I decided, one Saturday, to refresh my laundry room. I’m so thankful for helpful sons – as my little guys helped me tear out some cupboards and replace them with these shelves.

Laundry chores to me are not mundane. I actually enjoy doing laundry! I love my laundry line and I love seeing clean piles of clothes ready for putting away. I love knowing everthing is washed and ready for the next day.

My husband helped switch up the clothesline for me a bit this fall, as the regular line was too long and in the way of farming and tractors. Now, it is a pleasure to hang laundry on such a pretty laundry line! I do think there is and charming romance in hanging the laundry outdoors. In fact, I have had people  take photos of my clothesline this fall, to prove to their off-island friends that the PEI folks still use laundry lines on a regular basis, despite cooler temperatures.

There is nothing sweeter than climbing into a bed with linens all dried outdoors in the crisp fresh air! What a luxury!

However, as the days cool down, it takes longer to dry clothes outdoors; we still manage but some days, we need to be creative.

During the rainy days or sun-less days, I love to hang dry our clothes overnight in the kitchen and laundry room area; I truly do not enjoy using the dryer. It is noisy and also hard on clothes; it also costs money!

And yet, we have a lot of laundry to dry overnight with a family of 12.

I have come up with a good system that helps dry our clothes during Fall and Winter, when the outdoor laundry line is not available.

Let me show you how it all works.

I found this little retractable clotheslines for the laundry room wall – we hang smaller items (such as rags and tea towels or socks) on this line, as it is a shorter line. It can be retracted and put away for daytime, which is a lovely option.

I also found this amazing vintage indoor clotheline at my favourite local antique store – I was thrilled to have it installed – a creamy, buttery yellow and also retractable … it was a perfect fit for my needs. It is hung in the corner of the kitchen, as the kitchen is bigger than the laundry room, therefore providing more drying space. I also use this at night and retract it during the daytime.

As a third option, we installed this absolutely lovely Victorian drying rack in the actual laundry room. Ladies, I must say, this item should be in everyone’s home, if you appreciate indoor drying lines! I adore it and it is so handy to use! It pulls up to the ceiling and dries clothes so quickly, as well as keeping it out of the way. I have had it for a year but we could not decide where to hang it – we finally decided to just hang it right in the laundry room – as the heat from the German woodstove (our kitchen Kachelofen) is still felt strongly in the laundry room.

 

 

 

Now for some photos of the little laundry … we found this antique butter crate at an estate sale. I love that is says “Canadian”  and “Prince Edward Island”. With the cupboards taken out, this stores all the items needed for my husband – some tools, the fireplace glass cleaner, matches, some paint, etc.

 

I still love my vintage sink – it is so deep and wonderful for buckets, and to use as a second sink for the kitchen during busy cooking times.

 

I found some fresh, white curtains with lovely crocheted edges; my daughter sewed some curtains for the washing machine area and we hung the matching pair in the window. 

This little enamel set is so handy … holding washing soda, epsom salts and laundry soap. And yes, I use them every day for laundry!

Another daughter sewed some sweet little lavender sachets to help keep the area smelling fresh and clean. I also always run a diffuser with essential oils; I love a good clean smelling area!

This handy stool also doubles as storage; it is also helpful as the shelves are quite high for the shorter members of the family – we also need step stools in every room, it seems.

 

And that is the refreshed laundry room! I am still debating using wallpaper on the walls, but for now, I am satisfied with a clean and organized laundry area …