Life - recovery, recycling and washing

Why is the weekend always over in a flash and why does it always mean more work on a Monday. I feel like a laundry service today. I do try to be as "Green" as possible, from recycling to within an inch of our lives and we don't have a car so we walk everywhere. But when it comes to washing clothes and drying them I seem to fall down. Is there an etiquette to washing lines? Not that we have one, we have one of those clothes horses so when the weather is good it goes outside but I use the same principles as I would a washing line. I confess here and now I am a washing line snob (see below). This only applies of course to those clothes that actually get hung outside. These principles also extend to my airing cupboard. Especially if you know that you have people coming over. It's the "'good' clothes that get hung out to dry. The rest gets shoved in the tumble dryer or stuffed on the clothes horse in our bathroom. This only works if you have spare toilet which guests can use. It's kind of like showing the world that you do actually do something other than looking for shoes on the internet or eating biscuits and horror of horrors any traces of your family personality. But really you're only kidding yourself. So to the principles of Washing Line Etiquette.

1. Only put out clothes or bedsheets/pillow cases that look nice - when you look out of the window do you want to see skanky looking clothes or imagine that you are in rural idyll with sparkling sheets and clothes wafting gently in the wind?

2. Always put towels in the tumble dryer - nothing worse than a mildew towel and have you noticed that if you do air dry towels that when they get wet they smell of mildew and so do you. Nothing like eau d'mildewy for that sexy wanton smell for you and your other half.

3. Baby clothes and kids clothes other than underwear and socks (underwear see below and socks take up precious space on a clothes horse) generally do well hung out to dry. Mostly and especially with baby clothes they don't shrink so much.

3. NEVER EVER under any circumstances put underwear on your line - if I put mine on it would help the whole washing line take off as the wind caught hold of my bloomers - no embarrassing Bridgets on our washing line. Besides which, other than attracting the attention of the local peepers, is your underwear really worthy of hanging outside? And if it is are you really trying too hard to tell people that you have a fabulous figure, a fabulous sex life and are in fact all round fabulous. Or do I just sound just a teeny weeny incy wincy bit jealous or just practical. I'll advertise my wares to my husband and my husband alone. Thank you very much.

Oh my god I have turned into a closet prude. Next I'll be marching with a home made placard outside underwear shops and large adverts saying NO to frilly lacy underwear I have no hope in wearing and looking good in. Perhaps I should hang out my best knickers and actually feel good about seeing them flutter in the wind. Or perhaps not. My best ones are in fact The Bridgets. Ladies of a certain age will know what I am talking about.

Do comedy pyjama trousers qualify as not embarrassing clothing to put out and dry?

So in light of my apparent "Green-ness", I think that I emit a low carbon footprint as that smug feel good factor of air drying your laundry by Mother Nature herself cancels out my tumble dryer obsessive thing. Does that mean we have zero carbon footprint? However I am definitely not one of those Mums who finds total pride in being able to hang out her washing come rain or shine. And I absolutely am not aggrieved or feel my day is wasted if those sheets don't get hung out. I don't even have a wash day, every day is a wash day in my house. I even lie about it sometimes to my husband and tell him I haven't set that washing machine and tumble dryer going. But when you have a refluxy baby and a 4 year old you do end up washing. A lot.

Along those lines I had considered real nappies until I realised that we would definitely be needing to use a tumble dryer to dry all those nappies or employ one of those nappy washing services so the carbon footprint would be huge. So where possible we use environmentally friendly nappies. Doesn't always work and we don't always remember hence why we try so hard in other areas.

I also realised this morning that I have a plastic bag etiquette as well. I only keep the good ones even if they're used for rubbish bins in the bathroom. I am a closet recycling bag snob. What is going on............

Best get the farmers market food out and make a delicious and healthy lunch for my son and myself or better yet grab the peanuts and scoff the lot!