Every once in awhile I get blindsided by some incredibly obvious piece of information that was at arms length for my life but was never grasped. Typically it’s because of an assumption made on my part either relating to words or designs.
One such case popped up for me just this past weekend relating to the clothes pin.
The two holes in the clamping part of the clothes pin? THOSE ARE DESIGNED TO GO AROUND THE CLOTHESLINE! That way the pin will pinch the clothes and not the line!!!
BRILLIANT!
I never started using clothes pins until now because we’re hanging up J.Atlas’ clothes to dry. And despite being Extremely familiar with the design of a clothes pin (ever since making clothes pin reindeer in 2nd grade) I never thought to question its design.
I love revelations like this.
I use clothespins at work! (spoiler alert: I quit my engineering job a year ago)
I work for a company that produces trail running races, and one of my tasks is to ensure that people don’t get lost, so I mark the course with arrow signs (at junctions), surveyor pin flags indicating upcoming turns, and things we call “confidence streamers”, which are just foot-long ribbons of orange streamer-tape tied to clothespins.
I clip these onto small tree branches along the sides of the trail at regular intervals between trail junctions so that people know they are on the right course. Those same holes are useful in going around thin branches.
Also, I carry the clothespins on a rope around my chest, and the holes are definitely convenient for going around the rope. When I leave from the trailhead, the rope full of clothespins with streamers looks kinda like I’m wearing a flashy bandoleer from a child’s imagination.