Clotheslines in America: The Right to Dry
September 19th, 2007
The Farmlet is far, far away from Irvine, California
Via: Wall Street Journal
It was a sunny, 70-degree day here in Awbrey Butte, an exclusive neighborhood of big, modern houses surrounded by native pines.
To Susan Taylor, it was a perfect time to hang her laundry out to dry. The 55-year-old mother and part-time nurse strung a clothesline to a tree in her backyard, pinned up some freshly washed flannel sheets — and, with that, became a renegade.
The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development’s managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains.
“This bombards the senses,” interior designer Joan Grundeman says of her neighbor’s clothesline. “It can’t possibly increase property values and make people think this is a nice neighborhood.”
Ms. Taylor and her supporters argue that clotheslines are one way to fight climate change, using the sun and wind instead of electricity. “Days like this, I can do multiple loads, and within two hours, it’s done,” said Ms. Taylor. “It smells good, and it feels different than when it comes out of the dryer.”
The battle of Awbrey Butte is an unanticipated consequence of increasing environmental consciousness, pitting the burgeoning right-to-dry movement against community standards across the country.
Related: Building a Clothesline and Other Subversive Behaviour
Question 1 – where do I get one of those t shirts?
Question 2 – uh, how dumb can people be? Hey Joan, uh, if you live on planet earth USA your property value USA is like a turd that has just been flushed down the toilet, so what the fluck are you talking about re clotheslines you idiot?
Drying racks and clotheslines are the BEST possible ways to dry clothes. This is a freakin no brainer. I bought the Staber washer last year and this is an incredible machine.
My family has been proud to hang laundry on a clothesline since 1950 or so. There’s nothing better.
Allegies? Put the almost damp clothes in the dryer. They come out soft. In about 10 minutes. We only use the thick towels on days when we can hang them out to pre dry.
In my apartment here in the city, I inherited a basement where the previous renters had strung a multi-stranded clothesline in the basement. I hang the laundry on it, and put it the drier sometimes a long time after I’ve washed it. I decided a long time ago that I didn’t want to iron anything for wrinkles. Putting the clothes in a dryer for a little bit before hanging them on the line is my method for no ironing.
My parents trained me as a kid to turn out the lights when I left a room. We don’t “have stock in the electric company.” Makes no sense to penalize people for saving energy. EVERYONE has laundry. I guess some of us don’t give two shits about what anyone else thinks about hanging it out to dry.
Cannot believe this news.
People are so much caught in their own imagination – and even if they achieve their fantasy world still they will not be happy.
I hope for some reality wake up call soon
Always amazed me when I lived in the US how hanging clothes out to dry was just not done, or thought of as being very low class or something.
I lived in LA for many years and our yard had a clothes line. I used it occasionally for towels and sheets,. but those I shared the house with never went near it and no neighbouring yard ever had clothes out.
You couldn’t imagine a better climate for drying clothes quickly than Southern California.
I’ll second Eileen’s 1st question. That’s pretty sweet. As for American’s aversion to clotheslines, eyelight, I think it’s just another sorry example of how fundamentaly diconnected from the natural world most people in this country are. Why on earth would you let the air dry your clothes when there are machines for that. We’re so hopelessly addicted to the cult of technology that we can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge the elegant simplicity and efficiancy of something as low-tech as a clothesline.
– Mike Lorenz
If I sold those shirts, how much time would pass before someone would wear one to an airport?
A) Days
B) Weeks
C) Months
She should pack up and move out here to flyover country. Then her “neighbors” can pitch in to make those house payments and keep their property values elevated. The ‘treaty’ clause strikes again.
Wal Mart has iron on letters and t-shirts. Express yourself. Can you be waterboarded into telling where you read it?
This is something that always made me laugh. I am a contractor who used to do subcontract work in the many new subdivisions around here. In order to get permitted for construction the builder would have to submit energy use analysis which would include product data on doors, windows, insulation, etc. It probably cost a bundle to gather and submit the info. Then the homeowners association wouldn’t allow a clothesline in the yard. What a bunch of morons.
On a good day the clothesline dries clothes faster than a dryer anyhow. Here’s a tip from my experience. Jeans dry better laid out on something flat in the sun, rather than hanging on a line.
And to Joan Grundeman, if you happen to be reading I would like to officially offer you a job of hanging my laundry out once this whole system falls apart and people will no longer be worried about such things as interior decorating, oh and clean the poop out of the stalls (where you can experience some real sensory bombardment) while you’re at it. Chop Chop.
This is an abuse of the same laws or planned neighborhood regulations that prevent people from allowing their property to deteriorate to the point of becoming fire hazards or from allowing their yards to become safety hazards filled with dead automobiles, broken glass, rusty appliances, or even carcasses of goats and pigs. The community generally benefits from these laws and regulations. Abuses of these laws and regulations by anal neighbors and planned neighborhood councils is crap, but they generally work out their differences amicably after the issue leaves the headlines. Let’s not knee-jerk label every headline as yet another sign of impending doom. There are enough real ones of those already.
That is a stupid rule, but the lady in the article did (I’m assuming of her own free will) buy into a housing area with stupid rules like that.
I think these stupid “neighborhood covenants” are far too restrictive. They dictate everything from color and material of facing on the residence to clotheslines and sq. footage of domiciles. They seek to normalize every little tiny bit of your property ownership with your neighbors.
That sucks, but… if you buy into it, you’re getting what you pay for. Move into suburban hell, live in suburban hell. Move out into the boondocks and live as you damn well please. If the neighbors put in a house trailer on stilts and you don’t like it, you go hang your clothes on your clothesline and mind your own damn business!
These neighborhood associations (and landowners’ associations) and their covenants are a regular curse.
The associations and their covenants came into existence when the developer filed the plat with the county government. I have been told that a buyer’s agreement to abide by the covenants is supposed to be part of every deed. I don’t know if that’s true; in actual practice, it’s not part of every deed.
I have also been told that there are many communities throughout the country that have been at their wits’ end trying to figure out some way to legally do away with their neighborhood association or landowners’ association and the covenants. I have been told that it’s virtually impossible to do so, no matter how many attorneys you hire.
Now, this is just gossip I heard from a guy who is in the know about this kind of thing.
Maybe there’s somebody out there who knows an attorney (or who is an attorney) who could offer some more authoritative enlightenment on this subject.
Most of the communities that have such associations seem to be deeply desirous of getting rid of them. There are a number of reasons for this. One of them is that you have to pay assessments to them, on top of your regular property taxes–which you would not mind so much, if you could see that the money was used for improvements to the community (parks, playgrounds, putting down sand on the swimming beach, if you have one). Strangely such improvements are rarely in evidence.
In my area, our city government wanted a new city hall built. They were tired of doing business in a shabby double-wide mobile home. This project was put to a vote, and the people of the city rejected the building of a new city hall. (Piss on ’em–what did they ever do for the residents!)
BUT–turns out that the new city hall was built anyway. The landowners’ association built it. The landowners’ association is not required to put its capital improvement projects to a public vote.
While the membership of the landowners’ association is elected, they aren’t accountable to the people they tax for the use of the funds.
In our little town, we have TWO taxing entities (besides the county)–that is, we pay property taxes to the city and assessments to the landowners’ association. We are at considerable pains to figure out what these folks do with the money–though, most recently, it appears they hoarded up enough to make a down payment on a debt for a building project–after the voters had rejected the project.