I live near Tampa, Florida and my Dad built my clothesline for me. It's two wooden T 's strung with two heavy duty plastic clotheslines. It's right out in the sun and I haven't noticed any of our darks fading (and my husband is a "black t-shirt 7 days a week" guy).
My clothesline can hold two full loads of laundry.
In the summer, the rains come in the afternoons, so if I get up and get laundry going first thing in the morning, I'm usually ok bringing it in early afternoon. Sometimes it's just too muggy to dry clothes on the line, though. When it's really hot and dry, the clothes are dry in the same amount of time it takes to dry them in the dryer.
But when we have rainy spells I don't force myself to use the clothesline; I do have a dryer that works and I use it occasionally.
DO invest in good quality clothespins. The plastic ones become brittle in the sun and will fall apart in your hands. The cheap wooden ones are just as bad because they don't hold much weight. I would love to find some cypress clothes pins!
