But then, I had a dream. Sorta like Martin Luther King, but about laundry and not civil rights. I dreamed that Barry installed a line for me on the back deck. When I woke up, I told him about it…..exactly how I had seen it. And ya know what? He said it was a good idea! I know!!! Pass out, right? Usually he’s saying “Oh honey, that will never work.” Usually my dreams are about cake disasters and freak diseases that make my hair fall out on my pillow, but not this one! And so Barry set to work. Here are his tools…..which I don’t play with. They are expensive. They are heavy…..and if I learn how to use them, I might have to. No thanks.

Annie loves to play on the back deck, so she thought this was a play date designed just for her. At one point, I barely caught her before she threw Barry’s hammer down below on his truck. Oops. We went inside after that…for a few minutes. And there were bees out there. I hate bees. They make me scream like a little girl and run away.

I had shelving in the corner of the deck that Barry had to take out. He had put them there so I could grow plants…..yeah, right. Me? Grow plants? BHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I have the Black Thumb of Death. I have it in my mind to grow herbs this year, so y’all just say a little prayer for them in advance.

Annie had to help. She drew us little pictures on the rails….and yes, we let her. Life is too short to be wound tight about certain things. It wasn’t like we let her draw all over them with Sharpie markers. Those are mine.

He installed something like this on each side. They are low because we don’t have a wall on the other side of our deck. We live on an end unit so only one side of our deck has a wall. I just needed it high enough so that when I hung a pair of jeans on it that they wouldn’t scrape the ground. Perfect! I think these are called eye hooks…..not sure why because they’re in an O shape. A woman did not name them. Barry inserted the clothes line wire and pulled it tight on each end, using some special little doohickey on one end. I had to help pull it tight at this point. I pulled and he tightened. We’re a good team…..except when we’re playing Scrabble against each other.

And there it is! Isn’t it beautiful!!! I love it! Sometimes I get up and just stand there looking at it. It’s a work of art. We’ve had to tighten it up, because it does get loose after the first few loads. But we should be good now! And guess what? It only cost us about $10.

Here’s my first load drying. I’m so excited! The benefits of line drying are many. God created sunlight to do so many awesome things. Not only does it dry the clothes, but it also bleaches some stains right out. Try it! If you can’t get a stain out, let it dry in the sun. You’ll be impressed. If you can dry your clothes outside, you’re saving a bundle by not running the dryer. If stiff clothes bother you, just throw your dry clothes into the dryer for five minutes and they’ll get soft…..especially if you have a dryer ball (That’s on my list to buy from Swagbucks. A reader also reminded me that if your clothes are TOO stiff, then you might be using too much laundry detergent. Try using less detergent. Sun is also great for just getting rid of germs in general. My friend Brandy told me about letting certain dishes dry in the sun to get rid of germs.

So, if you think you cannot dry clothes outside were you live you might want to re-think that. I worked around our rules and came up with something that works. And we’re reaping the benefits! Now if I can just figure out the chickens wandering the streets thing…