The Clothesline [Hardcover]

Andrea VanSteenhouse (Author), Irene Rawlings (Author), David Foxhoven (Photographer), Jason McConathy (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

The Clothesline is a nostalgic yet practical guide to a less complicated time, when women shared household secrets, recipes and remedies over the back fence. Filled with historic and contemporary photographs and illustrations, the book includes tips on creating a fun yet functional laundry room, information on laundry collectibles, hints for easy care of heirloom linens, and traditional wash-day recipes like lavender ironing water and verbena soap. Visit the Clothesline website for helpful tips, excerpts from the book, and author tour information.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

With tips for creating a fabulous laundry room, information on laundry collectibles, hints for easy care of heirloom linens, and traditional wash-day recipes like lavender ironing water and verbena soap, The Clothesline will put a positive spin in anyone's rinse cycle.

From the Inside Flap

Remember the scent and feel of line-dried linens? They reflect a soulful task--a labor of love that connects mothers and grandmothers to the simpler times spent sharing household secrets, recipes, and remedies over the back fence. With tips for creating a fabulous laundry room, information on laundry collectibles, hints for easy car of heirloom linens, and traditional wash-day recipes like lavender ironing water and verbena soap, The Clothesline will put a positive spin in anyone's rinse cycle.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; 1 edition (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586851438
• ISBN-13: 978-1586851439
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author, editor, and art curator Irene Rawlings hosts an award-winning radio show syndicated throughout the Rocky Mountain West. She is also the author of Portable Houses and The Clothesline.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring look at laundry, October 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Clothesline (Hardcover)

The photographs are wonderfuland capture the spirit of the clothesline. Every so often I return to it's pages to be inspired. It takes ordinary laundry and makes it an art form--mainly forgotten. It includes laundry tips as well as laundry collectibles. Once you try line drying or some of the other tips you'll be hooked!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little treasure, April 11, 2005

By 

carmenmiranda - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Clothesline (Hardcover)

This is a real glimpse of another era, but one not so intangible as we might think....we can definitely enjoy it, too. Some of the sweetest things in life are the simplest pleasures, and a sniff of our bedsheets after drying in the sun, or drying off with a towel that did the same is a perfect example. Since our olfactory sense is the one most tied to memories, this book would be a great one for those new to housekeeping or new mothers. I can remember running through the sheets on my mother's clothesline, smelling my clean clothes as we brought them in and folded them. I do the same for my family when I have the time, and my 78 year-old mother recently expressed a desire to start hanging out her wash again. So since April 19th (yes, it's a Monday--traditional washday for years and years and years in our country) is National Hang Out Your Wash Day; I got the book for my mom and will pair it with a clothesline and clothespins. It's a wonderful little book, and even has a recipe for lye soap that we used to make as kids. It was pretty gross but those farm women were strong and even though I'll bet it took the skin right off their hands, they used it. We could learn a thing or two from them, I'm sure.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, creative, original and nostalgic, May 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Clothesline (Hardcover)

I guess I hadn't thought about it till I read this book, but the simple act of doing the laundry can generate an almost Zen like satisfaction. We wash our clothes almost every week, and it seems like a chore... or is it? Take a walk back in time and even through today and look at the way we do wash and how. This book brought back the smells I remember of my Mother over the enamelled steel tub rinsing and scrubbing. Me and my sisters had endless fun running between the sheets and clothes hung from the seemingly endless lines of drying laundry in our back yard playing hide and go seek. For any of you who remember when simple pleasures were derived from simple tasks, and satisfaction from a job well done wasn't pushing a button on a TV remote you ought to give this a read.