There is nothing more satisfying than getting your laundry out on the washing line on a warm and breezy day. It drys in no time at all, allowing multiple loads to be processed on the same day. Then there is the smell when you bring it in, fresh air trapped within the fibres of the fabric. It’s satisfying and comforting, a bit like freshly mown grass or newly baled hay (something were helping with not so long ago).
For the past 18-24 months, or possibly longer, I have had no washing line. The rotary line
Portable rotary washing line
/whirly gig was located at the bottom of a hill in our garden beside the stream. There was a washing line there when we moved into the house so we just adopted the location. It was never really the best place to put a washing line. The ground is soft, even in summer, due to the stream, so the winter months were pretty much a no go for washing. The hole the washing line was sunk into became wider and deeper and despite my best efforts to refill and pack it out eventually I had to admit defeat. I think the day I found the washing line on its side on the edge of the stream with what was my clean laundry on it was the icing on the cake.
Ever since that day I have managed, or perhaps struggled along, with portable indoor clothes airers and clothes rails weighed down with bricks to stop them tipping over in the wind. They are all now broken so I have just been hanging the clothes over the garden furniture. Definitely not an ideal situation for a family of four with two young children, horses and the newest addition, ducks!
When we returned home from our summer holiday in Corfu earlier this year I was longing for my big rotary washing line to enable me to get the towels and holiday washing out and dry. I wondered if I could put the washing line into a garden parasol stand? I wasn’t sure that would be heavy enough for a full line of washing especially if it was windy. I did a bit of Google research to see if anyone was selling something suitable. I found nothing. Then I stumbled upon a forum discussing the topic. There were people with small gardens and no lawn area who didn’t want a washing line up all the time and no one to dig a hole and fill it with concrete for them. Several people had tried the garden parasol idea, with limited success. There was one lady who said her husband had filled an old car tyre with concrete leaving a suitably sized hole in the centre for her line pole to go. She claimed to never have had any trouble with it blowing over and it allowed her to located her line in different areas of the garden if necessary.
Parasol base come washing line base
So, I set about recreating this idea for myself. We have several old car tyres lying around (always good for making a cross country fence). As I was searching around to see if we had a bag of ready made concrete I came upon another garden parasol stand. I’m not sure of the weight but there is a handle on either side indication it requires two people to carry it, so I enlisted the help of my husband.
Voila, my portable rotary washing line, can be situated anywhere in the garden and neatly put away when not required, or through the winter months. I tested it with a load of clothes initially, then I added some bedding. It stayed standing. There was a fairly gently warm breeze that day so maybe I will need to keep a close eye in stronger winds. By the end of the day I had done two loads of bedding and two loads of clothes, all washed and dried.
Line loaded with clothes and bedding.
I can’t tell you how happy I am, like a pig in muck. I am now able to sit in at my garden table without having to fight for space around the washing. The only downside is I now have a mountain of ironing!
