For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 28, 2020

Looks like you need a new washer. It should spin your clothes much drier than that.

John, you lazy git! It takes only what, ten minutes more to hang the washing and it’s so much nicer when it’s dried outside. Or give Michael and Elizabeth a little money to do it. This strip makes me laugh, but it’s also sadly an example of how hard it is to get people to live more greenly – many who easily can simply cannot be bothered.

even my stepmother hangs the laundry outside once in a while (when weather is permissible)

I hang dry my shirts in the bedroom door frame.

Glad you volunteered for the job John.

Typical. It’s always a great idea until you can’t get someone else to implement it. All of a sudden using the dryer isn’t so bad after all.

I can’t stand the feel or smell of clothes and linens dried outside. Never could, even when it was all we had. New dryers are extremely efficient now sensing when dry, not over cooking. No more blaming the drier for shrinking clothes! (Now I know it was true before)

Did you try to hoodwink your wife into doing the clothesline? Of course she won’t. She is busy with April. Had you dropped the basket at her feet, she would just take it to the dryer and emptied it and pressed the button. THEN you will have more clothes to fold.

Remember hubby- do without being asked.

Oh come on John!! Hanging clothes isn’t THAT hard!!!! cue massive eye roll

Not only is the clothes line environmentally responsible and economical the sunshine is a very healthy way to dry the laundry.

They are lucky they don’t live in a condo community or homeowner association in Florida, where clotheslines are actually forbidden…

Save electricity or go easy and convenient. Not much choice there!

So you’ll only go green if Elly does it for you? Yep that’s lazy (and possibly sexist)

That’s just the first load of what – five loads? It will be a lot more than ten minutes. It will wind up being an all day job. And as nice smelling as that laundry will be after it comes inside, you couldn’t pay me to wear some of those stiff, scratchy things. No thank you.

Living in Florida (in a gated community), I am not allowed to have a clothes-line outside. That said, I love putting my laundry out in the sun on my patio furniture. Dries in a couple of hours and smells terrific. I rarely use my dryer.

John needs a new washing machine if his laundry is still dripping water as in panels 1-4. I can remember my mother using the clothes line to dry laundry. I can also remember her having to wash some items over again because a bird or two perched on the line and pooped on something. Now days, many Home Owner Associations do not allow clothes lines in the subdivisions.

I have a gas dryer. Doesn’t use that much electricity and dries the clothes fast. I couldn’t hang em on a line. Too too too many birds and squirrels.

When I was a kid, one of my neighborhood friends had a new stripe/welt under his nose one day from riding his bike across the back yards at dusk. He didn’t see the clothes line and it took him right off his bike.

One of my neighbors just put up a clothes line in her backyard and I noticed she hangs her laundry all the time. I love the smell of outside dried laundry, except towels and blue jeans…….unless you use a lot of fabric softener.

That’s some dry humor there.

Give em credit for not littering the landscape and clogging the landfills with disposable diapers

Is not time to start a #Usetheclothesline forum ?

That’s right, John. Keep your mouth close so not to put your foot in it again.

I love, and miss, the smell of things dried on the clothes line. Especially sheets!

Put up or shut up John.

Reminds me of a real news story where someone bought a “Solar Clothes Dryer” online for $50. And, you guessed it. She received a clothesline.

I absolutely love the way April is drawn here! She looks the perfect size and shape, and Elly even has her hand around April’s thigh. I’m not the best at visuals, but looking at this reminded me of carrying my own babies around.

Our eldest wore cloth diapers, mostly because we did not want to keep buying them. We were living in Phoenix, and had just a washing machine and a umbrella-type clothesline. Most times of the year, my wife could start hanging the diapers on one side of the line, and by the time she made it back around, she could start taking them down again!

There are pros & cons to each one. The pro to using a dryer is that is that it dries things quicker The con is that you have that you have to clean out the lint trap . The pro with hanging out the laundry is that it makes your laundry smell good in the nice weather. The con is the pollen . Another (as someone said ) The birds might fly by & leave a “gift” .

The biggest problem I had with hanging clothes outside was rain. Another problem that no one mentioned was if you lived in the country and lived on a non paved road, was the dust (that is if it didn’t rain.)

Our HOA banned clotheslines… makes the place look untidy…

One thing I learned as a child of the ’50’s is not to have a bonfire when the wind is blowing in the direction of the neighbors full clothes line less than 100 feet away.

Who says you can’t tech an old dog new tricks???

When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, we had only a wringer washer, no dryer. That was when everyone used coal fired furnaces to warm homes in winter (no air conditioning). When we took clothes and sheets down from the clothes line in the backyard, we had to wipe coal dust off them before we could bring them into the apartment…

Know your role and shut your hole.

looks like they need to have the washer checked out if they have that much water dripping from their clothes when the washing is finished; that’s why their electric bill is so high!

We? :-D

What’s the pollen count? Don’t want your towels full of pollen.

By the time my brother came along in 1980 I think my mother was DONE with cloth diapers.

Sure, Honey…go right ahead.

I have to admit I don’t understand those who say that clothes smell / feel nicer when hung outside. I split my time living in Peru or the US. In the US, I use a washer/ dryer. In Peru I use a washer and hang clothes outside. IMHO, clothes are nicer with the dryer. Towels are softer, for one. And things don’t need to be ironed. In Peru, I need to iron almost everything.

Love the smell of outside dried sheets. Sadly in Scotland the warmer days are seldom.