Washing line props

[PlasticAcrobat]

I don't care if they make my washing dry any quicker or not. Everyone should use them because they make washing on a line look so much more lovely. A saggy sad line looks slatternly, but shove it up with a prop and it instantly looks like something from a Ladybird Book childhood.

It even reminds me of my own, actual childhood. My mother was, in fact, a slattern but she did an ace washing line, boosted with an old grey wooden prop which, in my memory, was about 20 feet tall.

YANBU: Yes, props should be mandatory

YABU: Saggy and proud

Wooden props that give splitters to the inexperienced peg-outer crafted by father in the outhouse. Metal ones came along and although they do the job, they lack authenticity.

Mine is a long, forked branch foraged from the woods at the back of my house. I sanded it down and waxed it and it gives me pleasure to see it propping up me line

Oh that sounds lovely @Gatekeeper . I might try that. I currently have an inauthentic (thanks @Newrumpus ) one from B&M but I love a good wood project and have woodland very close.

Your Ladybird book analogy brought a wonderfully vivid image to my mind!
Thanks for that 😊

One of my DDs (20s lives with us still) puts her washing out without the prop/s if she can get away with it and it dives me batty!

Just this morn i was in the deck chair side-eying her while she was hanging stuff out to see if she used a prop ... she was laughing and said i can feel you watching me 🤣

I feel like it supports the line better.

I’m hoping my 88 year old mother still has hers even though she is now too frail to prop. Hers dates to 1960 when it was sold to her by a man going door to door.

Wooden prop and matching pegs here!

I've just been googling for details of a lovely children's book that my mum read to us called Patsy Podger and the Chilly Scarecrow. I thought it might be the source of my idealised Ladybird Book mental image of a propped washing line, because it is about a little girl whose little blue vest blows away off the line. Patsy is very sad and later discovers that the vest has been appropriated by the chilly scarecrow.

I didn't find a picture of a washing line but I am now desperate to own and read that book. £25 on eBay!

I live in a city in the SW where everywhere there are double lines with the top one hoisted up on a pulley system, i was born in the NE and used a prop but prefer the hoist and my dear old mam was amazed by it the first time she came to visit me. Duvets sheets towels trousers hang on the top line, full length no folds and teeshirts socks and pants on the bottom.

It's very important to have one to tie the policeman to, if Jonny loses his marble down the drainpipe.
I learnt that at school.

Johnny's lost his marble, Johnny's lost his marble,
Johnny's lost his marble, Down in Granny's yard.

He lost it down the drainpipe, He lost it down the drainpipe,
He lost it down the drainpipe, Down in Granny's yard.

He went and got a clothes prop, He went and got a clothes prop,
He went and got a clothes prop, Down in Granny's yard.

He rammed it up the drainpipe, He rammed it up the drainpipe,
He rammed it up the drainpipe, Down in Granny's yard.

Still, he didn't find it, Still, he didn't find it,
Still, he didn't find it, Down in Granny's yard.

He went and got a broomstick, He went and got a broomstick,
He went and got a broomstick, Down in Granny's yard.

He rammed it up the drainpipe, He rammed it up the drainpipe,
He rammed it up the drainpipe, Down in Granny's yard.

Still, he didn't find it, Still, he didn't find it,
Still, he didn't find it, Down in Granny's yard.

He went for the policeman, He went for the policeman,
He went for the policeman, Down in Granny's yard.

He tied him to the clothes prop, He tied him to the clothes prop,
He tied him to the clothes prop, Down in Granny's yard.

He rammed him up the drainpipe, He rammed him up the drainpipe,
He rammed him up the drainpipe, Down in Granny's yard.

Still, he didn't find it, Still, he didn't find it,
Still, he didn't find it, Down in Granny's yard.

He went and got gunpowder, He went and got gunpowder,
He went and got gunpowder, Down in Granny's yard.

He tied it to the clothes prop, He tied it to the clothes prop,
He tied it to the clothes prop, Down in Granny's yard.

He rammed it up the drainpipe, He rammed it up the drainpipe,
He rammed it up the drainpipe, Now Granny's got no yard

Oh, Johnny's found his marble, Johnny's found his marble,
Johnny's found his marble, Down in Granny's yard.

He found it in his pocket, He found it in his pocket,
He found it in his pocket, Down in Granny's yard.

How strange to see this post today when I was just thinking yesterday how I miss the family prop which gave up the ghost a couple of years ago after about forty years of service. It finally bent under the weight of about three generations and snapped, well...splintered beyond repair.

I don't mind admitting I actually had a lump in my throat (over a PROP! I KNOW!) but I have so many memories of playing chase though the sheets and watching mum pegging everything out to billow in the breeze as a kid. Then, when I grew up it moved out with me when I got married and I had lovely thoughts every time I put stuff out.

There are few more lovely things than a line full of freshly washed things fluttering in the sun and breeze.

I'm sad. I know, but I don't care. I take my simple pleasures where I find them.

Said prop...

Verily it is the king of props, @Gatekeeper .

I am very much with @Newrumpus on the subject of wood versus metal and I am ashamed of my B&M prop. Was only £6, though, and does the job.

My prop is doing its job right now. It was made by my lovely DH years ago and will last for many more years. NDN doesn’t have a prop, her washing drags on the floor……

You could say that the acme, the ultimate supremo gold medal champion of clothes props is - the rotary drier.

There’s a young lad round me that started a business making and selling wooden props during Covid. I’d have thought it was a limited market but he’s flourishing.
I inherited mine with my house, it’s the highlight of my day seeing it in use it definitely makes the line look much better

Wooden prop here. Don't know where it came from, we've always had it. I suspect DH just cut a bit of a notch in a bit of old wood.

You definitely need one! It HOISTS the clothes right up into the breeze.

No! I had one for a while. Nothing ever dried. Just hung there limply.
I was looking at a long line of washing flapping in the breeze, hoisted high with my two (!) props the other day and I suddenly felt really happy. It was good for the soul and brought back childhood memories.

I don’t even have a washing line let alone a prop. I’d love a prop. My mum always had a wooden one and proper steel line holders and I can’t find anyone to put one in for me

Could you please post a photo oof the double line? Cannot imagine it cheers

Love a clothes prop, the instant you hang anything on the line it sags. I'd love a good wooden prop, got these supposedly extra strong ones from Amazon and they're rubbish.

@AnchorWHATThat’s one of the things I miss most from my mum’s house. I used to love hoisting the top line and the sheets drying in a sea breeze… but on really windy days we’d sometimes have to rescue the laundry from down the road as it would blow off quite easily 😂

Funny to read this today. Our prop was "inherited" - we bought our first home from a lady who was moving into supported accommodation and it was one of the many bits and bobs she left behind, by agreement. That was over 20 years ago. We've moved 3 times since, but the prop goes on.

My neighbours all have rotary lines. I secretly worry if they judge me hoisting my washing aloft.

I inherited my parents metal ones. However I tripped over one the other day and it snapped it half as it was so old. So now I’m embracing the 21st Century and buying a new pair. I’m very pro-prop!

Really need a pic of this!