Now that the weather is nice… well, mostly nice, anyway, I’ve been thinking about putting up a clothesline in my backyard. I love the smell of clothes that have dried out in the sun.
I haven’t quite figured out how to go about putting up a clothesline though. I like the idea of something portable – or at least semi-portable. Rather than sinking a base into concrete in the ground, I’m thinking I would like to find a weighted base, like the ones used under patio umbrellas. I’m not sure if this actually makes sense or if the whole thing will just tip over. So far, I haven’t found anything I like in a reasonable price range.
Of course, this also means more doing laundry on the weekend. I just don’t have time during the week to do a load of laundry and then hang it up before I head off to work.
Also, while I live in a nice neighborhood, it’s a neighborhood filled with kids who perhaps aren’t as well behaved as I would like them to be. Even though my backyard is fenced off, I don’t know that I trust them to stay out of my laundry if I happen to be gone while it’s out drying. And I really don’t need the neighbor kids using my bedsheets as capes.
I’m just going to keep my eyes out for a clothesline that fits my pick requirements. And I should probably check the city regulations and make sure they’re allowed. I live in a very green, crunchy, earthy city, so I can’t imagine it would be a problem. Any city that gives out free compost bins has to be pro-clothesline, right?
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
In our area clotheslines are governed by local HOAs. So, if you have an HOA with the new house — start there. Good luck.
I very purposefully bought in a neighborhood with no HOAs. But very good advice for others pondering this addition!