How to Clean Your Clothesline: Step-By-Step Tutorial

It’s spring, and when you go out to hang your clothes on the outside line for the first time this season, you might find that your clothesline doesn’t look like it’s been sitting in a fresh mountain breeze all these months, but that it’s been sitting in mud and other strange things the whole time. You don’t want to put your freshly washed clothes on that dirty clothesline, do you?

What You Need to Clean Your Clothesline

• 1 small bucket of hot soapy water
• 1 C vinegar
• 8 drops Tea Tree oil*
• Rags

Step-By-Step Tutorial on Cleaning Your Clothesline

Mix your ingredients and soak your rag in it, then run it a few times over your line. You’ll be cleaning off dust and grime carried by air as well as any inset ‘leavings’ where they have tried to attach egg bags, etc. I can usually do 2 lines at a time on my rectangular clothesline, and I overlap as I go – so each line gets done 2 times. Because it is plastic coated, it does stain, but I don’t care about the stain left behind, I just want to be sure nothing is actually on the line that will transfer to my clothes.

If you choose, you can actually remove your cloth/rope line from your traditional clothesline and soak it in a bucket of hot soapy water + vinegar to clean it (or even put it in a mesh bag or clothes pillowcase to run through your washing machine before hanging back on the line to dry.

This is also a good time to check to make sure you have tight screws/bolts, that any hinges are oiled for foldable clotheslines, and check for any signs of rusting that need to be repaired.

Alternative of Cleaning Your Clothesline

*You don’t have to use tea tree oil, and can replace it with  2-3 TB of household bleach, but I rarely use bleach, and I don’t want it affecting the ground below (nor get it on myself as you might get a bit wet from the water running down your arms if you’re like me! Tea Tree oil acts as a disinfectant, and I use it for a lot of my household cleaning.

Emily Mendel

Emily as an MFA in creative writing and a strong passion for cooking! She started trying out her mother’s recipes from a very young age, turning the time she spent in the kitchen into a career. She will soon publish her very first cookbook, and in her free time, Emily contributes to our blog with resources for all our readers, whether beginners or advanced chefs.