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- Aug 20, 2007
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Dunno why I'm posting this other than to vent!
My dryer is temporarily down so believe it or not I went on the Internet to learn how to dry clothes without a dryer! LOL. Then the instructions remind me of the old days when I was a kid when my mother would hang clothes up on a line using clothespins, either in the cellar, or even better, outside in the nice fresh air and sunshine.
In fact, a couple of sites actually recommend doing this NOW instead of using a dryer, if you want your clothes to smell and feel great. I wear a lot of exercise stuff since I work casual and one site strongly recommends outside drying for cotton gear like t-shirts, workout shorts, etc.
What the heck!? But I don't have a line and clothespins. So I go down to the local dollar store, and sure enough, they carry them. For a buck I get a length of what appears to be nylon cord, and a bag with about 24 plastic what appear to be clothespins. Not what I remember from childhood---those were wood and tough as shit. Hell, we'd play with them, make toys out of them and when done throw them back in Mom's laundry bag none the worse for wear...
So OK I put up a couple of toggle screws on the top part of window frames in a back room which has an overhead fan and I can open the windows full blast without driving anyone nuts. (I'm not about yet to try to set up an outside drying line unless I end up committing to this whole hog!)
I unravel the nylon cord and start to string it up when I notice the most evil-smelling odor coming from it... something between petroleum and other nasty chemicals. No way I'm putting my clothes onto this! Fortunately I have a length of good old-fashioning rope in the basement so I cut a hunk off that and run it. Dunno if even the rope was made in America but it seems to be of healthy origin and doesn't smell at all.
Then I start hanging my duds using these plastic laundry pins. They're in 4 different colors. But boy they do look cheap. They're basically two small pieces of plastic with a cheap piece of wire bent and inserted between them to provide the tension. I remember my Mom's laundry pins were wooden and had a strong piece of wire with a loop in the center and you could bend those things forever and they'd last.
Of the 24 pins I bought at least 8 of them broke as I started to hang up laundry. Fortunately, this is a test run and I had enough "survivors" to hang up the wet clothes I did run thru the wash.
What's my gripe? "Made in China" is synonymous with "poorly made" but you can't find "Made in America" anymore. I went to two stores before the dollar store looking for wooden laundry pins and they barely knew what I was talking about.
What a country where we transfer our national treasure to an enemy nation and get badly-made trinkets, toys and junk in return!
My dryer is temporarily down so believe it or not I went on the Internet to learn how to dry clothes without a dryer! LOL. Then the instructions remind me of the old days when I was a kid when my mother would hang clothes up on a line using clothespins, either in the cellar, or even better, outside in the nice fresh air and sunshine.
In fact, a couple of sites actually recommend doing this NOW instead of using a dryer, if you want your clothes to smell and feel great. I wear a lot of exercise stuff since I work casual and one site strongly recommends outside drying for cotton gear like t-shirts, workout shorts, etc.
What the heck!? But I don't have a line and clothespins. So I go down to the local dollar store, and sure enough, they carry them. For a buck I get a length of what appears to be nylon cord, and a bag with about 24 plastic what appear to be clothespins. Not what I remember from childhood---those were wood and tough as shit. Hell, we'd play with them, make toys out of them and when done throw them back in Mom's laundry bag none the worse for wear...
So OK I put up a couple of toggle screws on the top part of window frames in a back room which has an overhead fan and I can open the windows full blast without driving anyone nuts. (I'm not about yet to try to set up an outside drying line unless I end up committing to this whole hog!)
I unravel the nylon cord and start to string it up when I notice the most evil-smelling odor coming from it... something between petroleum and other nasty chemicals. No way I'm putting my clothes onto this! Fortunately I have a length of good old-fashioning rope in the basement so I cut a hunk off that and run it. Dunno if even the rope was made in America but it seems to be of healthy origin and doesn't smell at all.
Then I start hanging my duds using these plastic laundry pins. They're in 4 different colors. But boy they do look cheap. They're basically two small pieces of plastic with a cheap piece of wire bent and inserted between them to provide the tension. I remember my Mom's laundry pins were wooden and had a strong piece of wire with a loop in the center and you could bend those things forever and they'd last.
Of the 24 pins I bought at least 8 of them broke as I started to hang up laundry. Fortunately, this is a test run and I had enough "survivors" to hang up the wet clothes I did run thru the wash.
What's my gripe? "Made in China" is synonymous with "poorly made" but you can't find "Made in America" anymore. I went to two stores before the dollar store looking for wooden laundry pins and they barely knew what I was talking about.
What a country where we transfer our national treasure to an enemy nation and get badly-made trinkets, toys and junk in return!