Some time ago I listened to Jane Horrocks on Desert Island Discs talk about the joys of "pegging out."
If you are a Southerner, you may not be familiar with this term, or indeed with the whole concept of pegging out. But being of Scottish stock and married to a Yorkshire man, in our house we are very fond of proclaiming on a sunny day 'Its a grand drying day.'
Jane Horrocks sentiments mirrored my own, when she waxed lyrical about the intense satisfaction achieved by drying your clothes outside on a line. Hence the term pegging out!
When pegging out, there certain rules one must observe to achieve maximum effect and domestic satisfaction. It must be a proper washing line, no whirly things or strange plastic contraptions. If you must use a clothes hanger, it should be wooden and old fashioned. The pegs must also be wooden, nothing plastic or coloured and preferably stored in a peg bag. The peg bag should be suitably sentimental, either your grandmas or one you have made yourself. Although we are loving the bright check one from Toast
Pegging out has many advantages for both the environment and your clothes. Apparently if all households with a tumble dryer, dried one laundry load on a washing line each week instead of by machine, they would save over 750,000 tonnes of CO2 in a year!
Not only will you save money and energy, but clothes will actually last longer, as tumble driers can damage the fibres in your clothes (what do you think all that stuff is, that's left behind in the drier)
Good drying days are really more about wind than hot sunshine, so the British weather is not a good enough excuse not to. If you have no outside space, why not invest in an ceiling airer?
Pegging out is a very simple pleasure that turns a boring domestic chore into an opportunity to connect with your environment and enjoy the smell of fresh line dried laundry, something that Lenor can never re-create!
