Laundry Anyone??

Much to the chagrin of parents, children often have more fun playing with the box than the item inside the box. I know as kids we could spend days with a giant box that held the new dishwasher or TV. We'd decorate the boxes with crayons, cut out windows and we'd beg to be allowed to sleep in our new fort. I'm experiencing something similar at the house in Maine. We have a clothes line!!

I've never had a clothes line in my forty plus years on this earth.  Growing up, my friend's mom used one regularly- even used one inside in the winter. Summer vacation rentals had the obligatory metal structure for wet suits and towels which we used. In Maine, our back deck anchors one end of a clothes line, which stretches across the yard to a tree. It was there when we bought the house and I never gave it a second thought. Friends commented on how helpful it would be to hang beach paraphernalia to dry. Whatever.  Then we had a week long heat wave and as you may recall, we don't have AC. I needed to do laundry but really didn't want to add a single degree to the already sweltering first floor. My husband suggested using the clothes line and it was life changing!!! I've always heard people talk about sheets fresh from the line but didn't get it. I do now! The first load dried in no time at all due to the outrageously high temps. I folded each article of clothing as it came off the line- no more laundry basket full of clothes to fold.  After posting my "discovery" on Facebook, friends sent me tips on the best types of clothes pins to get and how to put the clothes on hangers attached to the clothes pin for fewer wrinkles. I can't get enough! I had a blast working through the suitcase of vacation clothes, beach towels and some sheets this afternoon. I must have done four loads of laundry without thinking about it.  I completely understand that this new found laundry joy is going to be a fleeting obsession- I mean, it's laundry after all. By Sunday, I'm sure I'll be over my fascination but I'm going to strike while the irons hot (ironing is NOT life changing, by the way) and wash everything in sight.