As An Energy-Saver, the Clothesline Makes a Comeback (Right to Dry)

[RamboLiberal]

It started out innocently enough. Concerned about global warming and her family's energy consumption, Michelle Baker wanted to hang her wash outside. She scoured stores for a clothesline durable enough to withstand Vermont winters and classy enough for her Waterbury backyard. She came back empty-handed every time.

So Baker and her husband made their own -- a few lines of pristine white rope hung between two Vermont cedar poles. Soon, friends and neighbors were enviously asking where they got it. Born of enterprise, enthusiasm, and wet shirts flapping in the breeze, the Vermont Clothesline Co. debuted in April.

And just in time, as a national clothesline -- or "Right to Dry" -- movement escalates. In fact, Vermont is the latest state to introduce a bill that would override clothesline bans, which are often instituted by community associations loath to air laundry even when it's clean. Now, clothesline restrictions may be headed the way of bans on parking pickup trucks in front of homes, or growing grass too long -- all vestiges of trim and tidy hopes that may not fit with the renewed emphasis on going green.

"This trend ... is about people making a little change to help the environment as opposed to something like solar panels which is much more of an investment," Baker says.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/CSM/story?id=3523847&page=1

And I love it when some of the prissy-assed rules of HMOs are struck down. Good for people like Baker. There's nothing wrong with clothes hung to dry as long as they are taken down when dry. And what's the big deal about a clothesline between a couple of poles?

[porphyrian]

1. I've been using collapsable wooden drying racks inside.

That way, the neighbors can't bitch, and I don't have to schedule it around the weather.

[eridani]

23. In the Pacific NW, it's not like we have a choice

--for 9 months out of a year, anyway.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. What is the big deal? I'll tell you what is the big deal

Clotheslines look so... so... working class. We just can't' have working class in our neighborhood; it will drag down the property values!

(:sarcasm:, in case it wasn't obvious. :hi:)

[Cha]

9. It was!

:hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

3. I'm a big fan of the clothesline.

Been hanging my laundry out to dry for years - and if the weather doesn't permit, I have a stand in the basement that works nearly as well. I'd like to see the trend spread. Nice to read this article!

[SeattleGirl]

4. Sweet! I've been scoping out my back yard for a good place to

put a clothes line in. (It doesn't ALWAYS rain in Seattle, you know! :) )

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. True

We get sun occasionally; a few days here, a few days there... :toast:

[meow2u3]

5. I use clotheslines to dry my clothes

It smells better than machine drying--that fresh-air fragrance has no peer!

[Cobalt-60]

11. absolutely

When I moved into my new old trailer one of the dirty jobs I put off was clearing the solid packed lint from the dryer exhaust.
I hung the clothes out instead.
It was a year ago and I haven't thought about the dryer since, even in the winter.
I hang mine under the awning to escape the bird poo, so I can hang them even in the rain.
One storm did blast rainwater horizontally through the wash for a few hours. My clothes have never been as clean.
Even Paris Hilton's laundry doesn't get a two hour distilled water rinse.

[wildhorses]

6. i give up...i am completely out of step with this world --

i happen to love the look of a clothesline, especially when clothes are on it. though, it is kinda melancholy when not....see what i mean

[Cha]

7. Necessity is THE MOTHER OF INVENTION!

The first thing I thought of when I read the first part was the silly thing the so-called classy communities have on keeping their clean linen inside the buildings.

Gotta do it for Mother Earth~ I can't wait to get to Kauai B-) and hang my clothes outside AND wash my clothes at home. I live in an apartment now and must go to laundermat..boring.

[Canuckistanian]

8. We've never owned a dryer

We have two clotheslines and a drying room in our basement.

On a hot, dry, windy day the clothes are ready in about an hour or so.

[Cha]

10. Saves a lot!

Now people will be going your way.

[orleans]

27. same here. i grew up without a dryer in the house. we used the

clothesline outside and one in the laundry room in winter

about ten years ago i contemplated getting a dryer, then decided against it.

the other night my daughter, who has taken clothes to the laundromat to dry (a few times) tells me she loves the way the dryer makes everything so soft.

i suspect she'll run off and get herself a dryer the first chance she gets. my guess is that, in her case, softness trumps environment.

we'll see.

[PearliePoo2]

13. I just bought a clothesline!

I strung it out between two trees. Right now my bedspread is hanging there. It's almost dry.
And this is in the Pacific Northwest!
I love the smell of clothes dried on a line.

[glowing]

14. Your kidding right? My parents have made their own clothes line

and its lasted forever... my dad made the wooden frame... and every so often they re-string the rope. This isn't a new novelty. My parents barely ever use their dryer.. in the summer its only for underware and socks. Everything else is hung.. they have lived in vt all their lives. Its called saving money and the way things are done. They must be implanted Vermonters... Anyone who lives in VT and is a true Vermonter already has a clothesline.

[hfojvt]

25. I made mine

out of discarded Clausmas lights from work, strung between supports for my deck and my porch and the nearby swingset.

[Colorado Progressive]

15. clothes will eventually dry even at sub-zero temps

at least thats what my fav college prof said, he grew up on the Canada border in a poor family, and he still thought it was amazing even in his 60s.

[Canuckistanian]

16. Even at about -30 degrees, clothes dry just fine

It all has to do with the outside humidity. All that ice eventually sublimates off, especially when the sun is shining.

[Colorado Progressive]

17. thats awesome!!! and informative!!!

[Canuckistanian]

18. Surprised me, too

My wife first told me about it. Works like a charm.

One little tip - allow the underwear to warm up to room temperature FIRST before wearing.

[TalkingDog]

37. God Yes! Chilly butts are no way to start the day.

The hands do freeze when hanging them out too.....

And yet they are always dry, even when literally frozen stiff.



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Critters2]

24. I didn't know this until I lived in Amish country

The Amish would hang clothes out year-round which struck me as odd. Until I tried it. The worst part was the act of hanging 'em up. Hands get awfully cold handling wet clothes in those temps. But, if you can get past that, it works fine.

[misanthrope]

30. Considering the fact colder air holds less water...

...I would think it would be quicker than drying in warm temps.

[qdemn7]

19. Damn straight!!

And I love it when some of the prissy-assed rules of HMOs are struck down. Good for people like Baker. There's nothing wrong with clothes hung to dry as long as they are taken down when dry. And what's the big deal about a clothesline between a couple of poles?

I loathe those fascist little HOAs with a passion. Anytime someone gives them a knee in the nuts I let out a cheer!

[Phrogman]

20. Cracks me up when people advocating "solar power" still dry their clothes in an electric dryer...

the "clothesline" was the first use of it.

[progressoid]

21. My pants are drying outside right now!

[NanceGreggs]

22. I, for one, have always missed the look ...

... of a row of backyards, each with its own clothesline hung with laundry. There was something almost festive about all of those shapes and colours blowing in the breeze, and a great sense of community as neighbours gabbed to each other as they hung their clothes.

It was like that when I was growing up on Long Island in the 'fifties. But as people bought washers and dryers, the lines gradually disappeared.

I think they should have a comeback ...

[Pachamama]

26. I just ordered off of Ebay the Hotel-type "retractable" clotheslines!

I'm going to put one in our basement so I can dry things on the line there in the Winter, and the other I'm going to put outside where I can string it between the house and a little shed. It extends 10 ft (although there are longer extending ones I believe) and then hang things on it in the Sun and then put it away when I'm not using it. I'm excited! It will save energy and its true, nothing beats the smell of air-dried/sunshine-dried clothes!

[leftchick]

36. here is a good selection too!

http://housewares.hardwarestore.com/37-186-outdoor-clothes-dryers-.aspx

Hi there Pachamama! I hope you are well. :)

[StarryNite]

28. In Phoenix

most of the year the clothes dry much faster out on the line then they do in the dryer. I dry jeans on the line then toss them into the dryer, without heat, for a few minutes to soften them.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

29. Here in the UK

It's so prevalent and I hardly ever see dryers in small houses like mine (usually only room for the washer). I've got a dryer because I quite like the convenience but in the year since I've moved, I've leaned towards hanging my clothes outside.

I have a cool outdoor folding rotary airer (a posh way of saying laundry line) I got at B&Q, we also have a folding clothesline for in the house (we used it when the dryer was broken, but there wasn't much room in our house for it). Our LL has taken over our front garden so we really can't put our rotary airer out there.

Our new house, still awaiting the closing deal (come on bloody solicitors, it's been 3 MONTHS! Get on with it!!), has a backyard and we've installed our new rotary airer there. Our older folding clothesline will also fit in our new house as well. The cool thing about the folding rotary airer is the fact that we can just take it out, if we're going to have backyard BBQs.

There was a laundry line at our old house but I much preferred the rotary airer (I am 5'5" and it was hard to reach the laundry line!).

It's a good thing that the Americans are getting in the program of using clotheslines. My gran and grandpa in Northern Ireland had both a dryer and a rotary airer, using the dryer when the weather was horrible. I might do the same, but we'll have to figure out where to put our dryer (there's room in the kitchen for a washer, but nowhere for the dryer).

[leftchick]

31. Lowe's carries the pulleys and laundry lines

I noticed it a few weeks ago. I am There! :)

[Yukari Yakumo]

32. Not into it for a good reason.

With the strong winds around here, my clothes would get blasted into the next neighborhood (which happens to be an Air Force base). Plus the last couple of weeks would have been terrible to clothesline dry. For about two weeks, the entire sky was blighted from the soot and ash from wildfires burning hundreds of miles away. The soot and ash made a nice film on everything (the feather duster got a lot of work lately).

[yasmina27]

33. Nothing smells or feels better

than crawling into bed at night into a bed made with sheets dried in the sun. I haven't done this for a few years though. Last time I did, some kind of small bugs decided to nest in the wet sheets. Of course, when they were dried, I didn't know they were there and put them on the beds. Ewwww! The bugs got in our house and we had to rip the sheets off the beds.

Think I'll try it again though. You've inspired me!

[Heidi]

34. We don't even own a dryer. We hang all of our stuff to dry.

It's not uncommon, even, to see drying racks on apartment balconies in Switzerland. :hi:

[TalkingDog]

35. I tell people we use a "Solar Powered Clothes Dryer"

and that it doesn't work well when it rains.

They are all impressed until it works through their heads. *lol*

People are always (shocked?) amazed at the fact that here are two employed people with Masters degrees and we while live in the South but don't have the "neccessities" like air conditioning (and MAN has this been a rough summer) a dish washer or central vac.

I tell people "I have a dishwasher." and point to the spousal unit. I like cooking, I hate washing. He likes washing, his cooking....eh. It works out.

Our lines will never be an issue based on our location. But I really do have a problem with seeing people's underwear flapping around in the breeze. TMI. Sorry, it's a personal bias. Nevertheless, I'll take that over global warming anyday.


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Le Taz Hot]

38. Oh, hell, I've been drying my clothes

outside for years (weather permitting). I bought two aluminum drying racks and I have several trees with low-hanging branches as well. Luckily I don't live in a McMansion-filled foo foo neighborhood that tells me what I can and can't do on MY property. Just another advantage of living in a working class neighborhood.

[bleedingheart]

39. My house came with a clothesline...made of steel..

a metal hook on the side of the house...and a pole at a distance away..

The pole is steel ..cuz in da Burgh...we made our clotheslines out of steel...no wimpy cedar for us...

[Javaman]

40. Oh how I hope to god this ends the era of the nazi like home owners associations...nt

[SouthPasadenaDem]

41. I've been hanging my laundry out for fifteen years,

but I'm lucky -- I have big old-fashioned steel frame clothslines right outside the kitchen door of my apartment. My building was built in the late 40's and no one ever thought to take them down.

I "got it" way back when that using a gas dryer in sunny Southern California is simply a crime against the environment. I would never consider living anywhere in SoCal that didn't let me hang out the laundry. Can you imagine anything more absurd?

As an added bonus, it makes your clothes last twice as long if you hang them to dry. (You know all that "lint" you pull out of the lint trap in the dryer? That's not lint. It's your clothes.)

[The Stranger]

42. K&R

[SmokingJacket]

43. My grandmother never owned a dryer, and she was too shy to

hang her undies on the line. So for fifty years she dried clothes on an indoor drying rack.

We take extraordinary convenience for granted, these days.

[MikeDuffy]

44. Now, what about replacing that Washing Machine as well...

?

[diane in sf]

50. washing machine is more economical of water than hand washing

[bikebloke]

45. Indoor Drying

I've been drying my clothes in the closet. I hang them on hangers and they dry overnight. Since I live in small studio, there unfortunately isn't room to dry bed clothes, so those go into the machine.

Also, the fabric lasts longer when it's line dried. If the people in my building ever bothered to clean the lint filter in the machine, they'd see what was coming off their clothes.

[AlCzervik]

46. clothes last long imo when they aren't put in a dryer. I hang dry almost everything

expect the unmentionable, actually just my husbands unmentionables but almost everything else gets put on a hanger and then on to the clothes rack i bought.

[tilsammans]

47. Martha Stewart even did a segment on air drying . . .

. . . on her show – as a “green” household tip. She claims to air dry all her clothes. (Don’t think she’s about to give up that Chevy Suburban, though. :eyes:)

I’ve never owned a dryer – EVER. I hang everything up to air dry, indoors or outdoors. I'm sure my yuppified neighbors find it hillbilly-esque, but I don't care.

Occasionally, in the summer when it’s humid or raining, I’ll go to a laundromat.

I'm delighted to see the clothesline making a comeback!

[itsrobert]

48. I hang my clothes on a line in doors

Then to get them dried faster I turn the thermostat to 95 Degrees F and aim several electric fans on them. I'm doing my part for the environment!

[lonestarnot]

49. Mine died over the weekend. Pole rusted. Have to rig up another.