There are small, odd shapes and there are a ton of them!
My kids could make a load of laundry a day if I let them! Jackson has an obsession with wearing at least two layers of clothes every day regardless of the weather!! If it's cold he wears shorts under his pants. If it's hot he wears his long sleeve shirt under his t-shirt.
Brooklynn would love to change her outfits 4 times a day. And she has plenty to choose from: shirts, skirts, shorts, dresses. Dresses that look like shirts. Shirts that look like dresses. Not to mention leggings. Oh the leggings!!
Evalynn's favorite places to play are the sand box and the kiddie pool. Usually a combination of both. If she can create a kind of sand-mud-soup that is her favorite! And so she goes through at least two outfits a day.
Having washed and hung a bazillion (Okay...maybe only a million) little articles of child clothing, I have discovered methods to keep Hanging Kid's Laundry a simple and easy task.
See my post about the Proper Tools to hang laundry here.
As always I sort the clothes into small piles in clothes basket (laundry hamper) I'm using.
This helps with hanging the clothes more efficiently and quickens folding when I take them down.
A win, win!! *smile*
Shirts: Are easy and straight forward. The best way to hang shirt is upside down. The reason is two fold. First it eliminates stretching and clothes pin marks at the collar/shoulders of the garment. Being that the stretching happens at the neckline of the garment, it is very noticeable. Once a shirt is stretched and dries in that manner it is hard to shrink it back into shape. Pinning the shirt at the bottom is the solution to this problem. Secondly it prevents colour fading. Should the overhead sun fade the garment it will fade it at the bottom only. I have never noticed fading at the bottom of a shirt but I certainly notice it when it fades at the top!
To conserve clothespins I slightly overlap shirts at the corners and use one pin. When you have a long line of tiny kids' clothes you'll want to conserve as many pins as you can! I have never had a problem with the corners of the clothes not drying. They always dry evenly.
Pants: Children's pants are also very easy. Most of their pants are cotton (or cotton blend) with an elastic waist. I simply fold the elastic waist portion over the line and stick on with one clothespin. Elastic-waisted pants are the fastest items to get on the line! I hang underpants the same way but I didn't not photograph my children's underwear. (I just didn't think that was a good idea.) For thicker pants, such as jeans or khakis, the pants need to be opened and the clothespins clipped inside the pants along the waist band. The picture below illustrates this perfectly!! A picture is worth a thousand words! *grin* Drying the pants in an open-manner like this allows them to dry more quickly. It always bothers me when everything is dry on my clothesline at the end of the day except the pants. 
Socks: Little socks are always a trial. They are tiny and my fingers are not! They are finicky little things but I've discovered the secret of getting them to dry fully and not be misshapen from being hung to dry. The secret is simple! Hang the socks together!! Pinch the inside top of the pair together, sandwiching the clothesline between them, and secure with on clothespin! *yes, yes, yes! Punching the air with my fists!* Can you tell I'm excited about this discovery!? Again a picture is worth a thousand words. See below to understand to action I'm trying to put into words. Hanging the socks like this allows them to dry straight (without crinkles!) and makes folding them a breeze!
Dresses and skirts: I hang skirts in the same manner as pants. If the skirt has an elastic waist I simple hang the waist over the line and clip with one clothespin. If the skirt is of a thicker material, like a pleated wool skirt, I open it up and clip the inside back waist band with two clothespins.
Dresses I hang by the top seem as close to the shoulder as possible. I hang the top of the dress slightly over the line. Really just the back of the collar. This prevents the "pinch" that the clothespins can leave behind. The photo below helps to show what I'm trying to explain.
Baby Items: The trickiest clothing items by far! The quickest and easiest method is simply to hang them by the top seem as close to the shoulder as you can (in the same manner as dresses above). I hang sleepers and onsies with buttons or zippers undone. I hang mine this way because that is how I fold them. When I pull one out of the drawer I want to quickly put the baby in and not bother undoing all those buttons or zippers I'd done up during folding. Bibs I hang by their clasps.
When the clothes are dry I fold them as I take them off the line.
I love the starched quality line-dried clothes have.
It makes folding so easy! (More on folding soon!!)
I wish you much success and ease
line-drying your children's clothes!!!
I also have my sweet Brooklynn as a helper from time to time. I am blessed!
Until next time!
Happy thoughts,
Andrea
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