The "Right to Dry” ....... Make hanging legal

[RedEarth]

Make hanging legal

Bill Denneen




My Mom was so proud of her laundry hanging in the backyard. She always bragged that her clothesline was so much better than Mrs. Murphy’s who lived nearby; I couldn’t tell the difference and thought “So what?” but as a good little boy, kept quiet.

The instant city, Woodlands, has absolutely no clotheslines. I will give $10 to the first person that can show me laundry hanging in the sun in Woodlands. My next bike-tour there will be Labor Day, Sept. 1, meeting at the junction of Willow and Albert Way at 9:30 a.m. Join us.ÜAbout 10 percent of all energy used in California is used to dry laundry. In my opinion, we wouldn’t need Diablo if everyone in our state dried in the sun.

California receives a lot of sun; I love it. However, this state has more than 35,000 developments that have outlawedÜline drying. Why?ÜBoth Florida and Utah have “Right to Dry” laws, and legislation is pending in other states to do the same. I thought California was a “leader” state.

A group has formed called Project Laundry List (PLL) which is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, started in 1995, whose goal is to demonstrate that personal choices can make a difference for the Earth and its people. The focus of this group is on North America’s over-dependence on nuclear power, Hydro-Quebec’s large dams, and other unsustainable forms of energy. PLL advocates for the “Right to Dry” laws. www.laundrylist.org.

A few reasons to hang laundry:

1. Save money ($100 to $300 per year on electric bills for most households).

2. Conserve energy, the environment, and reduce global warming.

3. Clothes and sheets smell better.

4. Clothes last longer. Where do you think lint comes from?

5. It is outside physical activity and in the sun.

6. Clotheslines send a cultural message: “We’re rural and love it.”

7. The sun will naturally disinfect with ultraviolet rays.

8. Clothes dryer fires account for about 15,600 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 400 injuries annually. The yearly national fire loss for clothes dryer fires in structures is estimated at $99 million.

Hanging laundry is a symbolic gesture promoting a sustainable future, rather than the terminal one to which we seem to be headed.

http://www.newtimesslo.com/letters-to-the-editor/674/make-hanging-legal/



The simple answer is blowing in the wind
Paul Hanley, The StarPhoenix
Published: Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Sometimes the best solutions to problems are the simplest.

In 1995, student environmentalist Alexander Lee was concerned about the ecological effect of Vermont's two main electrical sources, Hydro-Quebec's dams and the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. He invited anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott to speak on the topic at his school. Her solution was a simple one: If every person did simple things like hang out their clothes to dry, we wouldn't need nuclear reactors.

Inspired by the idea, Lee started an organization called Project Laundry List (www.laundrylist.org) to educate people about how simple lifestyle modifications, including air-drying one's clothes, can reduce dependence on environmentally unfriendly and costly energy sources.

It may seem overly simple, but North America's tens of millions of electric clothes dryers use five to 10 per cent of residential electricity, second only to refrigerators, and the equivalent of 30 million tonnes of coal or the output of 15 nuclear reactors. If everyone went back to clothes drying, used cold water for laundry, and turned down their air conditioners, among other things, we could avoid a lot of high cost, capital intensive and environmentally damaging power production.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/arts/story.html?id=5d832c27-4d4e-41f4-8b49-6e4190832c31

Alexander Lee of Project Laundry List will be on ABC News with Charles Gibson Friday night. Below is his website promoting the "right to dry". A few months ago, we bought an umbrella clothes dryer from from his site and it works great. There are many other sites you can buy clotheslines as well as many retail stores, but we liked what he was promoting(the right to dry) so we went with one of his clotheslines.

http://www.laundrylist.org/

[stevedeshazer]

1. Recommended.

I love the smell.

[Catch22Dem]

2. "clothes smell better" is entirely dependent on where you live

I can think of a few areas where I've live that would NOT make my clothes smell good.

[TahitiNut]

27. Agreed. I've been downwind of pulp mills.

:puke:

[Ian David]

3. I hate the way clothes dried in the sun smell and feel.

But I think that this summer, I will at least try it for our bath towels.

[underseasurveyor]

18. Then what you do is

after your laundry is dry on the line put them in the dryer for 5 or 10 minutes and no more hard crispy laundry. I didn't like it at first either but I soon came to like the smell and feel of sun dried laundry. Now I'm back in California and I miss it.

[Ian David]

30. Ooh, that's a great idea! Thanks! I'm gonna try that! n/t

[kestrel91316]

4. K&R. When I was growing up, Mom only used the dryer in

inclement weather and to fluff towels.

I use a dryer rack in my bathtub for most of my drying (bird poo can be an issue on my balcony, lol). I hand launder a lot of stuff in my kitchen sink with homemade laundry soap, too. I use the washer and dryer in the laundry room of my building only occasionally.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. The saddest thing is that even in California...

...the state known for its sunshine, homeowners associations prevent people from taking advantage of all that sunshine.

Oh, and one more reason:

For the lazy, half the ironing is done.

[csziggy]

6. Some seasons here in north Florida, if you dry your clothes outside

They will come in yellow with pollen. That is why I use a dryer - to reduce the allergens. This past spring, there was as much as a 1/4" layer of pollen on everything - a mix of oak, pine, cedar and other kinds. Guaranteed allergy attack for those who are susceptible.

[cobalt1999]

11. Then there are the love bugs that swarm onto anything white.

Still, it's a something everyone did here for years.

[csziggy]

15. Yeah, but al least they don't make me wheeze.

[LeftyMom]

16. That's why I can't dry anything outside

Otherwise I could at least put a drying rack on my porch, but with my allergies most of the year it would be an invitation to misery.

[pitohui]

31. we have yellow pollen rain in spring (this in louisiana)

my car turns yellow pretty reliably ea. spring!

also humorous is when the mulberries are out and the mockingbirds are leaving purple crap everywhere

still it would be nice to be allowed to have a clothesline and save the $$$ other times of the year

[Canuckistanian]

7. I've always thought this was insane

We've lived in the country for 8 years. We've never owned a dryer. Before that, I lived in a house in the city that had a clothesline.

But when I hear about these new, "gentrified" subdivisions that don't allow clotheslines, I just about go beserk.

Exactly WHAT is so culturally offensive about drying your clothes outside??? Is this some NEW TREND that's suddenly become accepted LAW?

My Gawd, 99% of us Baby Boomers were brought up in neighborhoods with laundry softly wafting in the back yard.

Why is this suddenly taboo?

[Hekate]

20. It's far from new. 35 years ago in HAWAII, home of constant trade winds, my condo association...

... had explicit restrictions on hanging laundry outside on our lanais and balconies. It made no sense to me then, and it makes no sense to me now. To the association's credit, however, we instituted such excellent water-saving policies that we got an award from the state legislature.

I think it's the same in my neighborhood here in California: when the tract was built 40+ years ago the CCRs restricted the use of clothes lines. It really seems archaic now, and I am 100% sure that no one would bother checking my back yard for laundry. Besides, this is a tract and there is no homeowner's association at all. Who the heck would a complainer report me to?

I like having a dryer. To be sure, I could do more outdoors, but gas powered dryers are terrific for midnight laundry, rainy days, heavy coastal fog days, and fire season. When the weather is right, however, there is absolutely nothing nicer than sheets that smell like sunshine and fresh air.

Hekate

[NMDemDist2]

8. winter and summer I can do it, spring brings wind and tons of desert dust

and pollen........

but I've got one going in this year.

[bvar22]

9. We installed our Solar Clothes Dryer in June.

* 100% Efficiency

* Energy costs per year = $0.00

* Carbon Footprint = 0

* Toxic Emissions = 0

* Bankrolling Corporate America = 0

* Sustainability = unlimited

We fall into the category of people that love the smell of line dried clothes.

[Soul Creature Media]

10. Global Humidity

Don't you think that hanging cloths will add to global humidity which is as serious of a problem as global warming?

[GoneOffShore]

12. .....

:eyes:

[girl gone mad]

13. Wow, they're really coming out of the woodwork tonight.

DU must have gotten another mention in some shady corner.

[roguevalley]

14. one of my earliest memories

watching my mom hang starched blindingly white sheets. standing between them on a blazingly hot day and having them touch me as they ruffled. they were so cold compared to the air around me that it felt like a dagger. I have a rack for the indoors to hang clothes on and I am adding a line inside. If I hang things outside in the winter they freeze. :) I have a high efficiency dryer but like hanging clothes. Its the smart, right and economical thing to do.

[pepperbear]

19. oh, right, you're a skeptic. cute. n/t

[underseasurveyor]

21. Care to elaborate?

:popcorn: We're listening

[eppur_se_muova]

26. You forgot the "sarcasm" smilie.

I know it's sarcasm, because no one could be that stupid.

[Blue_Tires]

28. lol at that!

[Soul Creature Media]

34. Global Humidit y a scam?

Recent data from the national weather burrow suggests that global humidity is just a made up event used by politicians to mask real problems in the world. They will say anything to win. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-6yf2iVaWo

[baby_mouse]

35. Prrrrrrooooobably not. NT.

[baby_mouse]

36. oops, s/d

[Tindalos]

17. I had no idea they could outlaw hanging laundry

:wtf:

It's such a natural thing to do. That makes no sense.


It's too cold and wet here most of the year to hang washing outside. I usually stick it in the dryer for a few minutes to warm it up and hang it inside. Stops clothes from shrinking too - another bonus.

[proud patriot]

22. I use a clothesline I have 2 actually

:hi:

[Kitty Herder]

23. Wow. I never knew there were places where line-drying is illegal.

I also never knew that my state (Utah) is a "right-to-dry" state. Guess I always took line-drying for granted.

My grandma didn't own an electric clothes dryer until she was in her late seventies. And even after my uncle bought her one, she only used it during bad weather.

[Occulus]

24. God DAMN, I *hate* HOAs

Fucking fascist authoritarian bullshit.

Outlaw the lot of them and let us all hang our laundry, put up political signs, and have a garden in our FRONT yards if we want.

FUCK HOAs. When I go looking for a home (not bloody likely, given recent events), the presence of an HOA will be a dealbreaker.

We need to outlaw these organizations coast to coast.

[Blue_Tires]

29. +1

[pitohui]

32. and let us have our chickens too

at least they could let us have pullets/females if there is some noise pollution ordinance against the cocks

what's really annoying is when you move somewhere and THEN they change the ordinance, i actually moved here with chickens (females, to lay eggs) but they are not allowed now

[eppur_se_muova]

25. The death penalty does not solve anything.

Oh, wait ...

[InvisibleTouch]

33. I did so much laundry this year...

...because I'm raising a litter of puppies, and their bedding needs to be constantly washed. You bet I hang it all outside to dry. I cringe a bit at the water and gas bill that comes from actually washing so much, but at least I didn't add any more by using the dryer. If it rains, I have an indoor rack or hang large sheets over my shower rod. I'd actually like to be rid of my dryer, because the space is more valuable to me than the appliance that I only find myself using if I didn't plan ahead well enough.

I've always been of the mind that laundry fluttering in the breeze looks cheerful - and it makes me even happier knowing it's easy on the planet.

[baby_mouse]

37. HUH?

Clothes lines are outlawed?

Do we need any more evidence that the very concept of law has gone deeply wrong? Answer: NO. We do NOT.

[MH1]

38. Yep, clothes lines outlawed, putting poison on your lawn encouraged.

Crazy world, huh?