I used to hang all the washing out on the line… and promptly forget it was there! This would lead to a narrative around how I shouldn’t leave the washing out for days and also grateful that I actually remembered to hang it out in the first place. The whole process was something that I would often beat myself up about because it was all so hard.
I didn’t know about executive dysfunction at that time.
When we moved into this house, we didn’t have an outside washing line for over a year, so had to come up with another option to hang out the washing.
Thankfully, we have space in our laundry for a clothes rack and a hanging rack, so I hang any tops and dresses on clothes hangers and anything else on the clothes rack. I put sheets and towels in the dryer.
One thing I noticed with this process is that hanging the clothes directly from the washing machine has meant that things are put up right away. Removing the step of putting the wet clothes in the washing basket then taking them outside to hang has made the whole process so much easier! Not to mention that it doesn’t matter if the clothes are left there for days as they won’t get rained on.
Even after the landlord installed an outside washing line, I continue to hang the washing in the laundry. The process works much better for me and my brain, not to mention days when I am in pain, I don’t have to lift my arms above my head, causing more pain.
Currently, the only washing that tends to go on the line is when I wash things like the mattress protectors and dry them in the sun, partly because they don’t fit on the lines inside, also because they need airing outside.
As this is working so well, next time I move, I want somewhere that has a decent sized laundry so I can continue to hang clothes like this.
An added bonus is that I fold clothes directly from the rack and put it away in stages as I get around to it, so I rarely have baskets of clean washing that needs to be folded and put away!
Honestly, I wish I had thought of this sooner.
This is one of the little things I’ve been doing to change the way things happen so it suits me, not some notion of how things ‘should’ be done.
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