Clothes pegs, who would have thought that there would be so many different kinds of wooden clothes pegs? In my experience, there are well engineered pegs and some that won’t even last their first hanging. I’ve had some of each and others that fall in the range between, but believe it or not, there is a Ferrari of clothes pegs.
I was transferring my clothes pegs from the old peg bag to my new waitress apron and it struck me that I had quite a varied selection of peg types. I’ve put up a few pictures of the best and the worst just to show you what I mean. It seems to me that the bigger the curl is on the spring the better the peg holds the clothes on the line and the more it resists skewing to the side and falling apart. Luckily for me, I found some of the Ferrari types at Lee Valley Tools. I ordered some earlier this winter along with an indoor clothes line but the pegs were back-ordered. Honestly, who is hanging out so many clothes in the middle of winter that there would be a run on clothes pegs? Oh, maybe people like me.
I really try to cut down on our electricity bill as much as possible because we heat our house with an electric boiler. We built a R2000 home, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to try and save as much electricity as possible. With Hubby coming home with wet boots and clothing after working outside all day and needing them for work the next day, the drier has to be running along with a heater on the boots to dry them out. He does have two pairs of boots in rotation but they still take time to dry out. Wet feet make for a very unhappy Hubby! Using the clothes line, either the one inside or the one outside, reduces our need to run the electric appliances.
These clothes pegs do withstand the wind, which saves money because they don’t twist apart and fly all over the acreage. We don’t want to be chopping up clothes pegs with the lawn tractor and we really don’t want to be chasing clothes down the hill, so it is worth the few pennies extra to buy Ferrari quality pegs if we can find them.
Our mantra is “don’t buy cheap goods, buy goods, cheap”. Clothes pegs, included!
6 comments:
What a fun post!! Here in the States we call them "clothes-pins" but whatever name you know them as, you are right there are the Ferrari's among them! I've got some "vintage ones" from the 50's I believe, but they are useless, because they have no spring on them, but they work in a pinch!! I love hanging clothes outside--especially sheets!! You don't get that outdoor fresh smell from a dryer sheet that's for sure!!
Hope you're having an enjoyable weekend!!
The Ferrari's of the pegs, they used to be made in Quebec. Are they still? I can't wait to hang clothes out and not have the dog try to pull them down!
You know..you really have an eye for detail! I would have not noticed this at all. I also get tired of buying clothes pegs....and now I'm going to look for the funny curled ones!!! I always hang dry-we don't own a dryer and never will-so, clothes pegs are an important necessity for me!!
Thanks for all the comments, I really enjoyed doing this post and will have a following related post next week.
Sam, I was a little disappointed because Lee Valley use to say they where made in Canada. When they arrived they had a nice note explaining that they may twist and the quality may not be as good because they are now made in China.
I felt cheated and will be E-Mailing them as to this problem. Maybe the company went out of business but they should have up dated their catalog.
I have the same pegs, didn't buy them from Lee Valley though. Some came over with me from Britain.
I just ordered some catalogs from Lee Valley, they came last week. Dh sort of works close to their store, so it saves on shipping charges.
I hang out as much laundry as possible, the rest I hang on the clothes horse inside of the house.
Great post,
Gill
P.S. that was a really cute link you sent me.
I've never seen a bag like that!!! Cool!
I call them clothes-pins too! Right now I'm using plastic ones from the Dollar Store!! I don't like the wooden ones as much cuz I find they can leave spots on lighter material especially...
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