A Canadian writer's life: clotheslines

Sunday, October 20, 2019

There is nothing like the fresh smell of sunshine-dried clothing!

Laundry day

Driving around Isla Mujeres on a sunny day, you may notice many houses have a clothesline strung across the front, festooned with brightly coloured clothing snapping in the Caribbean breeze. It’s a custom that is acceptable in many European, Mexican, and Latin American countries, where clothes drying from rooftops and balconies is an art form. Yet, in other countries, it is considered to be vulgar, or low-class, to hang your laundry on the line.

Venice Italy

How odd that standards have changed so dramatically since I was an elementary-aged kid, tasked with hanging the sheets, pillowcases, and garments on our backyard clothesline.

In the warmer months, it was a pleasant task, but in the winter months, we also had below-freezing temperatures that created havoc with wash day.

I remember laboriously hanging the laundry on the line and then, a few hours later, being directed by Mom to remove the stiff, frozen items as the temperature rapidly plummeted.

Isla - solar-drying

Here in Mexico, islanders who use a clothesline also learn to keep an experienced eye on the weather. A sudden squall off the ocean can ruin a day’s work in a few minutes – soaking the clothes, delaying the drying time, or entirely shutting down washday if the rain settles in for a few hours.

When we first moved to Isla in 2007, I was entranced by the idea of line-drying our sheets and towels. I asked our builder, Patricio Yam, to install a rooftop line for me. Then for the next six months, I trundled up to the roof, carting my freshly washed linens, happily pinning them to the line.

Venice Italy

Ah, fresh sun-dried sheets! An hour later, I would return to remove the laundry…to find everything wrapped like fat sausages around the line, over and over and over again. Still wet. The Caribbean breezes had been playing games.

Eventually, after fighting the wind and rusty clothes pegs that left indelible marks on everything white or light-coloured, I gave up. I now use our propane-fired dryer. It’s not the healthiest option for the environment, but on the windy side of the island, it’s the one that works best for me.

Environmentally friendly solar-drying

Solar drying – yes, that’s the new socially-acceptable name for airing your gonchies in public – has many environmental and financial benefits.

Of all common household appliances, electric clothes dryers are second only to refrigerators in energy consumption.

France - not in the snooty neighbourhoods.

A natural gas or propane dryer is cheaper to operate, but electricity is still required to rotate the drum.

So, why have some communities or individual strata developments banned line-drying?

The most widely quoted reason is “to ensure aesthetics and make sure that the common areas and look of the building are kept neat and clean at all times.”

There’s no arguing with tastes, but clotheslines can be beautiful. They are flags of freedom; freedom from dirty energy and expensive power bills.

Hopefully, the colourful clotheslines on Isla Mujeres won’t disappear entirely. They are so much a part of Isla’s character.

Cheers from paradise, Lynda and Sparky

Murder and mayhem
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Friday, October 5, 2012

Scrub a dub dub. The colourful clotheslines of Mexico!

Everyone needs clean clothes - especially in a hot and humid climate.

Driving around the island on a sunny day, you may notice many houses have a clothesline strung across the front, festooned with brightly coloured clothing snapping in the Caribbean breeze.

There is nothing like the fresh, clean smell of sunshine-dried clothing!

But sometimes doing your own laundry isn’t an option. On Isla Mujeres, the average house tends to be quite small, about the size of a one-bedroom apartment with no room inside for a washing machine. The machines are costly, and the repairs can be never-ending with the high humidity and salt content of the ocean air. Even if an islander has the space for a washing machine, buying one on credit is not a good option. In Mexico, credit card interest rates are prohibitive, ranging from 3 to 4 times higher than in the USA or Canada. Forbes Magazine listed a sample of the rates in an article published in April 2012: American Express 42%, HSBC 48%, BanCoppel 88% and the Azteca Bank/Electra Centers, higher still, but unwilling to disclose their actual rates. Electra is one of the many companies in Mexico that specialize in selling appliances, from a toaster to a refrigerator or a motorbike, with extremely low monthly payments that bring the final purchase price to three or four times the original cost.

So what do people do? Improvise!

There are a few commercially run businesses on the island that, for ten pesos per kilo (about fifty cents per pound), will wash and dry your laundry, folding it neatly into plastic bags ready for pick-up the following day. A number of our Canadian and American friends use these services, wisely preferring to spend their time enjoying the island rather than dealing with smelly clothes. And several local ladies are fortunate enough to own a washing machine, and will take in washing for friends and neighbours for a similar fee. But the greater number of people on the island hand-wash and hang to dry on a daily basis, decorating houses, fences, and yards with clothing and bedding. It adds a bit of local colour to the island. (Just ask any photo-nut, like myself, how many photographs he or she has of colourful clotheslines on Isla!)

In Canada and many other countries, the solution is commercial businesses offering coin-operated laundries or laundromats. They are generally located in every city or town near where apartment dwellers have easy access to the facility. A number of the coin-operated businesses offer assistance, for a fee, allowing the customer to leave their washing with the attendant, retrieving it after work or after shopping.

When we first moved to Isla, a few years ago, I was entranced by the idea of line-drying our sheets and towels. I asked Patricio to install a rooftop line for me. Then for the next six months, I trundled up to the roof, carting my freshly washed linens, carefully pinning them to the line. Ah, fresh, clean sheets! An hour later, I would return to remove the fresh, clean sheets … to find them wrapped like large white sausages around the line, over and over and over again. Still wet. The Caribbean breezes had been playing games. Eventually, after fighting the wind and rusty clothes pegs that left non-removal marks on everything white or light coloured, I gave up.

I now use our propane-fired dryer. I don’t mind doing the laundry. I can do it when I please, stuffing a load into the washer while I wander around in the morning with my first cup of coffee.

The folks who do use a clothesline learn to keep an experienced eye on the weather. A sudden squall off the ocean can ruin a day’s work in a few minutes – soaking the clothes, delaying the drying time, or shutting down the operation for the entire day if the rain settles in for a few hours.