The Clothesline (Hardcover)

~ Andrea VanSteenhouse (Author), (Author), David Foxhoven (Photographer), Jason McConathy (Photographer) "For thousands of years, people hauled their laundry to the river, pounded the clothes on rocks, and spread them out on bushes to dry..." (more)
Key Phrases: laborsaving devices, laundry bags

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

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.

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: 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #342,787 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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

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!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	carmenmiranda - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.