Clothespins

[buffster]

I need your help. I would like to find some quality wooden, spring loaded clothespins. It seems they're harder to find than I thought. And, those that I've found seem flimsy, not the quality of the clothespins I remember from my grandmother's house. Any suggestions on where to find some would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[58limited]

Try ebay, I found some searching "vintage clothespins"

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[maytagbear]

Another possible source:

These people ARE more expensive, but without the potential eBay headaches-

Lehman's Hardware.

Link included.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

Lehman's - Products For Simple Living

Live simply with the Lehman's online store. We sell oil lamps, wood cook stoves & more. Non-electric tools & homesteading supplies since 1955.

lehmans.com

 

[gansky1]

Do you need more than two? Hee hee hee.

Almost every estate sale I go to has a bag of these - the old fashioned clothes-peg and the spring-loaded type.  I once had a big bucket full of them but gave them all away when I was crossing the line into hoarding! 

 

I have seen them at hardware stores, Ace, Menards, etc. too so you might check there if looking for new ones.  A good homemaker will wash her clothespins at least once a season - or as needed so as not to leave dirty marks on the clothes.  I've used detergent and water and even a little splash of chlorine bleach keeps them fresh and clean.  Always bring them in when washday is over, rain and dust will make them dirty again.  This was our washday over New Years this year.

 

[dogboy44]

Are you in LA?

I got some good wooden clothes pins at Ralph's.

 

[westingman123]

Try Tru-Valu hardware stores. Our local one has the BEST clothespins.

 

[buffster]

Thank You

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. Funny Greg... smarty pants. Wish I posted this before you disposed of that bucket of clothespins...

Unfortunately, I'm not near a Ralph's. I used to live in LA, but am now in the Bay Area.

I will also try the links provided, but don't want to spend a mint on these either.

Keep the suggestions coming. And, thank you again.

 

[gmmcnair]

Just Avoid the Ones from Wal Mart

Nice heavy spring and durable at a good price, but every one of them left marks on my light colored clothing, and those marks are next to impossible to get out.

I switched to plastic after the last batch.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'll bet the Vermont Country Store has them. Does anyone have any of the clear, colored plastic ones from the 50s? A neighbor of ours kept her clothespins in a round vinyl Coppertone sun tan products tote bag and after her death, I got them and some of those plastic ones were in there. The bag and the pins are like new; she mostly used the dryer. I use the end of one side of the wooden spring type to hold in the door switch of my WP-made downward opening door dryers to keep the clothes tumbling in the cool down while I take them out and put them on hangers. It saves restarting the motor each time I take an item out.

 

[rp2813]

Mike, there are still a few Ralph's stores in the Bay Area.  I have been to the one in Dublin, but I think the one in Santa Cruz became a Whole Foods.

 

[sudsmaster]

Rather than go search all over the Bay Area for a Ralph's, just go over to Ralph's on a sunny day and have him hold his arms and one leg out and then drape any wet laundry you might have handy over any and all of his horizontally oriented limbs.

 

[jim]

Clothes pins

I remember my mom had some standard type clothes pins except for the part right above the two legs of the pin - there was a galvanized piece of wire that wrapped around the pin (and I think the ends were embeded into the wood on the inside of the slot) giving it more strength when used for heavier items. (I've found that those type of pins - i.e. the ones without the coil of wire for reinforcement -will split very easily if you push down too much on them. Also, when you pin two things together on the line with one pin, that spreads these pins too much and they split apart in two - I know it's pretty old fashioned but hey, I'm not a chicken anymore!) I have not seen any of those reinforced clothes pins at any store anywhere. The pinch type pins, wood or plastic, are only so good it seems. If the springs aren't thick enough you wind up with sheets blowing in the wind or over into the neighbors yard. I do love to hang out sheets - it's the dryer for the rest - I have done whole loads and hung all of it out to dry but pinning sock after sock was a pretty tedious process - but the sheets smell just wonderful when hung outside to dry. I guess I just like the smell of fresh air when I crawl into bed. I was told that drying outside in sunlight also bleaches the whites a bit. So my guess would be that estate sales and garage sales might be our best source. Any thoughts?

Jim

 

[rp2813]

Well, I actually have a retractable clothes line and a few old school wooden spring-loaded pins too!

 

The only things I hang on the line are bed linens.  I really like the smell and feel of line-dried sheets.

 

 

 

[sudsmaster]

I dimly remember those types of wire wound reinforced wooden clothes pins from the 50's and 60's.

I also prefer to line dry the bed linens - they come out with a nice finish and crispness, as well as the wonderful outdoor drying aroma.

 

[gadgetgary]

Towels on the line today

80 in Ct

 

Stiff towels

Exfoliation.......

 

[jim]

80 in CT

You're just lucky you can hang things out this early in the spring. It was 32 here this morning - still muddy and really wet too. At 3M (from all the plowing during the winter of all of the parking lots on their land) just north of I-94, you can still see two huge piles of snow, all covered in soot and dirt now, about one story high. When will spring come?