I wouldn't call it an
art.
I've always used a clothesline, since a
dryer is not justified in our climate.
I've used different techniques, depending on the clothesline location and the available space. Normally we don't have our clothesline in plain sun, if we can avoid it. Sun is too hard for color clothes. The only exception is when your clothes smell of tabac smoke, then sun is great for dealing with the stink (follow Tereza advise here). Wind is constant here, not very strong but sufficient for throwing your unstickied clothes around. For rainy days, a roofed outdoors laundry room is perfect, otherwise we may use plastic covers.
One thing to consider is that my laudry is just moist after the centrifugate cycle of the washing machine, so it is not dripping
water. Here are my 'techniques':
1. As a general rule, I hang my clothes simetrically, in vertical position. Small things like panties might be hanged by the side if the space is too small, but I don't want to risk having one side bigger than the other.
2. The more straight the clothes hang in the line, the less wrinkles.
3. I like to shake and tighten the clothes before hanging, I think this prevents wrinkles too. Especially socks, they are easy to shake and shape when wet, not so much when dry.
4. If I don't have
enough space for everything, I fold the biggest clothes (bed sheets) vertically. When you fold a clothe it takes longer to dry out, but sometimes I have to.
5. I hang the clothes so that they are folded over the clothesline roughly at 1/3 of the clothes height. This way they hold over the line without the need for a clothes stick. Anyways, I use a couple of sticks in case the wind blows too hard, 3 or 4 for sheets. When it's dried I have to deal with the clothesline mark in the middle of the clothes, but it's easy to solve. Sometimes the mark fades by itself without ironing.
5. (Note). If I need the clothes to dry fast, I may hang the clothes just from the uppest part, avoiding any folding, but then I have to use more sticks to keep them straight.
6. I fold the shirts just where the sleeves end, so that the clothes stick marks aren't visible. In the case of trousers, I put the stick just where the legs meet.
7. I overlap the borders of a clothe with the next one, so that I can hold two clothes with the same stick.
8. I have two lines, one is thin metal, the other is a thicker string. The string leaves fewer marks on the clothes.
The Japanese technique of using a wooden bar inside the clothes seems to be a superior method for preventing wrinkles, but alas, it wouldn't fit in my small appartment. Maybe using wardrobe hangers would achieve a similar effect, but I've never tried.
6
