Oh Dry Up!
...
Do you support the Right to Dry? Or are laundry lines an affront to polite society?
When Robb and I first started seriously house-hunting, one of our rules was "no home owners' associations." I didn't want anyone telling me what kind of garden I could plant, or what sort of front door I was allowed to have. And I particularly didn't want anyone forbidding my use of a laundry line.
As an environmentalist, European traveler, and urban pioneer, I love the use of a clothes line. I'm totally flummoxed by the people who are horrified by the humble, thrifty laundry line.
Here's a pretty typical article on the subject, containing this bit of hysterical hyperbole:
While I couldn't pretend to understand every aspect of the current financial crisis, I'm pretty certain that the mortgage meltdown was not, in fact, caused by people eschewing the use of indoor clothes dryers.
The house we're hoping to buy has one of those laundry lines that looks like a naked square umbrella. I'll be happy when I can hang my laundry out to dry without climbing out my living room window.
Do you support the Right to Dry? Or are laundry lines an affront to polite society?
When Robb and I first started seriously house-hunting, one of our rules was "no home owners' associations." I didn't want anyone telling me what kind of garden I could plant, or what sort of front door I was allowed to have. And I particularly didn't want anyone forbidding my use of a laundry line.
As an environmentalist, European traveler, and urban pioneer, I love the use of a clothes line. I'm totally flummoxed by the people who are horrified by the humble, thrifty laundry line.
Here's a pretty typical article on the subject, containing this bit of hysterical hyperbole:
"They're unsightly by most people's standards," said Jeanne Bridgforth, a Realtor with Long & Foster in Richmond. "It gives an atmosphere of decline. You don't sense you're in a well-heeled neighborhood when you see people hanging their laundry out to dry."
Bridgforth recently showed a beautifully restored historic property on Church Hill that was listed in the $700,000 price range. "I had such a hard time selling it because the people next door always had laundry hanging from their second-story back porch," she said. "It was just an eyesore." The house went to foreclosure and eventually to auction, Bridgforth thinks, because of the negative appearance around the house.
While I couldn't pretend to understand every aspect of the current financial crisis, I'm pretty certain that the mortgage meltdown was not, in fact, caused by people eschewing the use of indoor clothes dryers.
The house we're hoping to buy has one of those laundry lines that looks like a naked square umbrella. I'll be happy when I can hang my laundry out to dry without climbing out my living room window.
Comments
Clearly the owner of this $700,000 house was so traumatized by the exposure to their neighbor's unmentionables that they had a total breakdown and stopped paying their bills.
See? The laundry was to blame.
We live in a community where the CC and Rs forbid clotheslines. In this era of energy saving and recycling, I pity the person who tries to enforce this rule on me!
~~Doublesaj~~
-D
zoemomma
Grumpy
Her response: I didn't know if you spoke English.
What a BeeeIItch. Stuff like that makes me WANT to go hang my panties from my front porch....
I like the smell of hung laundry-but not the crunchiness of it. I put it in the dryer to soften it up...which kind of defeats the purpose. :)
I had a half-second flashback to the Rashneeshees living in OR, in their 'any color as long as it's red' outfits.
Let it all 'hang' out, baby!
Once I had some next door neighbors who I absolutely LOATHED. I took old bedsheets and painted big fake menstral blood stains on those same sheets and made sure they hung out on the line right by their back yard for a long, long time. Eventually they stopped having their drunken backyard parties right there which ended their throwing numerous booze bottles onto my lawn.
Lets hear it for line drying!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!!
I'm all about non-violent psychological confrontation that works... I knew having my period would pay off one day!
Annalisa
I don't think that putting laundry out to dry on the line is a sign of lower income or unsightliness. My mom, who is in the definite upper middle class, still hangs her clothes out to dry on the line. She's been doing this since she was a little girl, and enjoys the smell of the clothes when they are dried outside.
I, unfortunately, have gotten out of the habit of putting my clothes to dry on a line, just because our condo association doesn't allow clothes lines of any form. However, I definitely am thinking about putting in a long clothes line from the house to the treeline in the new house!
There is something cellular in the happiness I feel when I see clothes drying in a wind. I have two lines in the backyard that easily hold a washerfull. There is nothing nicer than whites that have just come off the line. I can somewhat empathize with the naysayers, though. At our studio apartment, we have a neighbor who puts her laundry on the bushes outside the doors. I have to admit, I think that looks a little tacky.
I grew up in a home with laundry lines in the basement and when I finally had my own home, the FIRST thing that went up was the clothesline in the laundry room! :)