We looked at some of the ones you can buy to attach to the back of your camper from CW and other stores but many needed a 4″ square bumper to mount on or a ladder, neither of which I have. My bumper is flat “C” channel plate steel that basically caps the I-beams frame on both ends and runs the width of the camper.

I’m a big believer in working smart, not hard and wanted something that was quick and easy to setup but sturdy enough that I would not be messing with it during the trip until it’s time to pack up.

I saw a couple DIY mods that used the adjustable flag pole mounts for this type of mod or others such as awnings, flags, light poles, etc. and thought those would be the best mounting bases for what I was trying to do.

Next I thought about the poles and initially was going to go with PVC but had some of the adjustable shower rods with the spring tensioners inside. They just twist to make them longer or shorter, whatever you need. They were free and gave me a little flexibility if I wanted to adjust the angle of the flag pole mounts and needed to make the poles longer or shorter based on whats behing the camper at any given campsite.

Had a couple of eyehooks so I screwed those down into the center of the larger end of the pole which had a little plastic insert that acts as a spring stop for the internal spring. Hollow down the center so it worked beautifully and keeps the eyehook shank from wobbling around in the pole.

Next thought was did I want to use clothes line or rope or something else. With those two, you have the often inherent sag and if they are cotten, the chance you will have wet rope to roll up and store in your storage compartment or trailer. I had an old 2 man tent that was ready for the trash can and it had one busted and one working colapsable shock corded pole. I put it together and it was just longer than the width of the camper and gave me about 18″ extending through both eyehooks. PERFECT!

It seems much stronger than the rope method would be and should not pull the two rods towards each other like rope would. There is a little sag as those shock corded poles are made to bend slightly but by putting clothes on the outside of the poles as well as the inside, it minimized sag and stayed pretty straight. I tested it with 2 heavy canvas painters drop cloths and a couple wet bath towels I had from morning showers and it did very well.

The main thing as I stated at the beginning is that it is strong and can be assembled and disenbled in about 30 seconds and I won’t be tweaking it all weekend every time the wind blows or someone needs to hang some wet, heavy clothes or beach towels up to wind dry. I’ll update after we have used it plenty this summer if it don’t work out and needs modification.

Donna and Denise helping hang up diapers on my new clothesline… (there’s another line going diagonally the other direction also)

Then the wind picked up and down they came

The diapers were like a sail when the wind caught them! It was crazy! I called Dennis and asked him if he wanted the good new or the bad news – bad news was the clothesline just bent beyond repair, but hey, his cement job held! He finally caved and we bought some heavy duty poles at Lowes and reinstalled it this weekend. Today is even windier than when the above pics were taken and I have dried heavier stuff like towels, a sheet, etc. and even though the line has stretched, the pole is holding strong, yay! I need to buy some more line though b/c with all the give the other pole had the front (left) line was too short to stretch back. At least I have one in use though – it’s the perfect length for one load of clothes so it should work well this summer to just alternate back and forth.

I love the chiffon fabric and knife pleating as a fresh design element. And all of today’s deals feature colors that call to mind creamy Easter eggs. Fresh pleating and sweet hues are among my favorite things for spring and summer.

Here are some of the disadvantages of line drying and recommends ways to get around them:

* Bad weather. On windy or rainy days, you can drape your clothes on racks and let them dry off indoors.

* It takes a long time. It can take several hours for clothes to line dry, so you’re best off hanging them in the afternoon, when the temperature is usually the highest. Leave space between clothes in order to expose as much surface area as possible to the air.

* It’s a lot of work. Streamline the process by keeping your supplies nearby and placing your clothesline in an easily accessible location.

I often line-dry clothing indoors (particularly jeans – which seem to last longer without the extra wear that comes from tumble drying). The air movement that comes from running a small fan in the room makes a big difference in the dry time.

I have not owned a dryer for the past 4 years- mainly because I have an old Federal Pacific screw in glass fuse box and connot plug one in (at least not without burning the house down) ….I could get a D box but that comes at a cost of about $5M (lowest estimate I’ve received so far)

I have noticed however that line drying whites outside keeps them brighter as the sun has a natural bleaching affect on them, my sweaters, knit items, and jeans last longer because they do not endure the wear of a dryer-

Huge downside is of course the time involved in drying them inside when the weather is not ideal to put outside, I have pets that shed and I do not get the benefit of having their fur removed via a dryer, and last but not least! LINT on my darks…. It does not matter how I wash them or what I wash them with there is always some amount of lint left behind that a dryer would normally remove…. and lint does not shake off like pet hair…. I go through tons of lint rollers and lint combs.

I grew up in small town where we used to air dry our clothes all the time. The clothes lasted longer and smelled great. Sometimes the jeans would dry a bit stiff but otherwise I think air-drying is better than tumble-drying in the machine.

Anyway, of course it didn’t take much to talk Boomhauer into a new project, but finding the time to fit it in was difficult, and because he is so incredibly awesome, he made sure it was done just in time

I was able to dry my first load of laundry yesterday and I was probably way too excited about it. We also decided to put a smaller line up so the girls could help out.

They love it and it really does help me a ton.

Mom might throw a scented sheet in with the clothes so they come out of the dryer smelling “outdoors fresh.”

That wasn’t always the case.

My wife is still a traditionalist in that during the spring, summer and fall seasons she still hangs wash out to dry on two lines we have strung in our back yard. Well, at least they were strung, until a visiting black bear came hunting for some food, got irritated that the clothes lines were in his way, and he decided to tear them down. So I have a job to do, restring the clothes line now that the nice weather is here and hope that the bear doesn’t return to forage again.

What got me thinking about clothes lines, of all things, is an email sent to me by a reader who took me back to the old days when every Monday, wash lines all over town would be filled to capacity. Monday was wash day, no exceptions. That was one rule that had to be followed, but there were other rules also. Read on.

1. You had to hang the socks by the toes… NOT the top.

2. You hung pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs… NOT the waistbands.

3. You had to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes – walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.

4. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang “whites” with “whites,” and hang them first.

5. You NEVER hung a shirt by the shoulders – always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?

6. Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, or on Sunday, for Heaven’s sake!

7. Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you could hide your “unmentionables” in the middle (perverts and busybodies, y’know!)

8. It didn’t matter if it was sub-zero weather… clothes would “freeze-dry.”

9. ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were “tacky”!

10. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.

11. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.

12. IRONED???!! Well, that’s a whole OTHER subject!

And, finally, if you have to ask what a clothes prop is, you’re probably too young. Everybody had them, and mom used them to elevate the clothes line so the clean sheets and dad’s work pants didn’t sag on the group when the clothesline was filled

The practice of hanging clothes outside to dry has pretty much gone by the wayside, but I still think there is nothing better than getting into bed at night with sheets that have been dried outside in the sun. They smell so fresh and that smell lulls a person to sleep.

Back in “the good old days,” clothes had to be put on the lines to dry in a certain order. Whites went on first, pants got hung together, shirts and the like. Clothing such as underwear was hung inside the other clothing so people could not gawk at your “unmentionables.”

You know, I never understood why they – whoever “they” are – call underwear “a pair.” It is, after all, one piece of clothing, is it not? Two is a pair. This is a burning question that keeps me awake at night.

Shirts are hung by the bottom on the cuff and not the shoulders and I found out why the hard way. One laundry day, I hung Mark’s T-shirts and work shirts by the shoulder. When he put one on the next day, it looked like he was shrugging his shoulders and the shirts had these little peaks in them where the clothes pins had been.

Laundry day was always the same day of the week. Folks never hung clothes out on Sunday, but I sure do. I pretty much do laundry when I get the chance, and sometimes that’s a load into the washer before I go to church Sunday morning.

My grandmother would haul a load of wet wash down her back steps and out to her laundry line. There, she would methodically hang it on a double clothesline that was far too high for me to reach. Most days, we’d bring the laundry in when it was perfectly damp for ironing dry. Other days, she’d be forced to snatch it away from the raindrops in that semi-tropical city.

On the days when water fell out of the sky, my grandmother would bring the laundry back into the house, and sadly stuff it into her tumble dryer. When my grandfather would return from his shift at Shell, she’d sadly shake her head at the need for the noisy contraption. She was not a fan.

Living in a tiny house, I keep my washer in the house, but the dryer is in our garage. Most of the year, the clothing never even makes it to the dryer, as I prefer to hang it on the line. Using my grandmother’s sturdy vintage clothespins, I hang out my wash nearly every day. It usually dries in a matter of hours.

I’ve casually mentioned my devotion to hanging out my wash to a number of my friends. Their usual reaction: telling me how much they’d love to be able to hang out their own laundry, but that their homeowner’s association prevents it. (Often, HOAs will fine residents for rule infractions.)

Most HOAs don’t allow line drying.

Prohibiting line drying is a really bad thing, especially as estimates indicate that tumble dryers consume 6 percent of an average home’s electricity-about the same as a refrigerator. In contrast, lighting uses around 8 percent of the average home’s energy.

Why on Earth should people in the State of Texas – be prevented from doing something that’s beneficial to the planet, harms no one, and provides a tiny dollop of exercise and fresh air?

This is especially problematic in the summer. During those months, even some people who might like to do otherwise are forced to dry their clothing by putting it in a heated metal box. In turn, this heated metal box is often located inside of the larger box that you are trying to cool: your house.

Tumble dryers first became prevalent after World War II when they became part of the postwar vision of “better living through electricity.” My mother recalled that in the late 1940s, when the first homemaker in her Pasadena neighborhood got a tumble dryer, the neighborhood kids were invited over to see the newfangled marvel of the wash tumbling dry behind a glass window.

It’s time for us to step away from the magic of post-war appliances. We need to stop seeing baby blankets billowing in the breeze as a mark of not being able to afford a tumble dryer, and start seeing it as a way to ease the burden on our natural resources.

Money is an issue, too. While reports vary on the specific savings of a laundry line, nearly everyone agrees it’s cheaper than using a mechanical dryer.

I thought my devotion to line drying was a personal issue, so I was surprised to find there’s an international “Right to Dry” movement, fighting for the right of people to be able to legally line dry their clothing. A documentary on this issue called “Drying For Freedom” will premiere at the Eco Focus Film Festival in Athens, Ga., at the end of March.

Texas needs to join Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado and Hawaii in not letting housing groups prevent people from using clotheslines.

2. You can leave clothes hanging on a clothesline without worrying that they will get set in wrinkles. In fact, line drying often reduces wrinkles in clothes that would wrinkle anyway, reducing ironing time and improving the appearance of your clothes.

3. The heat from a dryer will set some stains permanently in your clothes, whereas the warmth of the sun and wind won’t, giving you another chance to remove the stain and preserve your clothes.

4. If you dry your clothes indoors in the winter, it helps humidify the house that day.

5. Sunlight bleaches, disinfects, and deodorizes your clothes better than any washer or dryer additive will.

Spacing: For faster drying, hang clothes separately with room between them and fully stretched out, using as many pins as needed to prevent sagging between the pins. If drying time isn’t an issue and line space is, you can pin the outside corners of 2 pieces of clothing together with one pin. Sheets can be folded in half over the line and pinned along the top, or they can be folded in half and the open edge pinned to the line. You can allow some sag between the pins so long as the item doesn’t touch the ground.

How to hang pants: Pants, shorts, capri pants – if it has legs, match the inner leg seams together and pin the hems of the legs to the line with the waist hanging down. If you have lots of line space, you can pin one leg to one line and the other leg to the adjacent line to speed drying time. Pin only the inner seam to the line, leave the legs open to speed drying. If you have lots of line space, you can pin each leg separately to a line or pin each leg to an adjacent line.

How to Hang Shirts and Tops: There are three ways to do this. One: you can pin the shirts by the bottom hem at the side seams (or where there would be side seams). Two, you can pin them by the shoulder seam near the arm. Three, you can hang them on wooden coathangers and pin the coathanger to the clothesline. The first and third method prevent the shoulders from getting stretched or wrinkled. The third method also takes up less space, so if you haven’t a lot of room, that’s a good choice.

How to Hang Socks and Stockings: Put the socks together in pairs, and catch one corner of the pair with a clothespin, letting the socks/stockings dangle open like you would if you were hanging your stocking by the chimney to be filled with fruit and nuts and candy.

How to Hang Pillowcases: I hang pillow cases the same way I do socks – in pairs with one clothespin.

How to hang bras: I hook the bra together around the clothesline. If the line is taut enough the line doesn’t sag, you don’t need a clothespin to anchor it in place. Otherwise, you need just one clothespin to hold it in place – clip it where the hooks are. If it’s a pull on sports bra, clip the straps to the line.

How to Hang Sheets/ blankets/comforters: If you don’t want a crease in the middle, fold the sheet/blanket/comforter in half and clip the corners of the open ends to the clothesline. You may want to use one or two extra clothespins in the middle portion if it sags a lot or is very windy. If you don’t mind a crease, you can drape the sheet/blanket/comforter over the line and pin it in place at the ends. You only need to pin the middle if it’s windy.

Before you hang each item, give it a good shake to shake out any wrinkles and once it’s hung, give the bottom corners a good tug to pull out more wrinkles. You’ll still have to iron your clothes when you bring them in, but then, you’d probably have to iron them after drying them in a dryer, too. This way you may have fewer wrinkles and an easier time ironing.

Pet Bedding: When you wash bed bedding, go ahead and dry it for 15-20 minutes in a dryer to pull off most of the pet hairs, then line dry it to a finished dry. Before you remove the bedding from the line, use a rug beater to knock more pet hairs out of the bedding. When you take the pet bedding off the line, give it a good shake to dislodge any remaining pet hairs.

To soften towels and jeans: If you dislike how stiff towels and jeans are when line dried, try drying them briefly (5 – 10 minutes) in the dryer with fabric softener, then line drying them the rest of the way.

Sun Bleaching: If you don’t want your clothes bleached by sunlight, hang them in a breezy shaded area. Conversely, if you are hoping to sun bleach your clothes make sure the clothes are exposed to as much sunlight as possible – run your line north/south so the maximum number of clothes are exposed to the sunlight. Hang the ones that need the bleaching on the outside lines if you have 4 or more lines.

For privacy, hang undergarments on the inside lines and sheets and blankets on the outside lines.