Exercising my right to dry (clothesline liberation, FL)

[jpak]

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/Footnote/colFOOT110407.htm

It's time to air some laundry here, and that's my right. For it's a little-known fact that Florida is one of the nation's few right-to-dry states.

Tucked away under the heading "energy devices based on renewable resources" is Florida Statute 163.04. The Legislature passed the law in 1980 mainly to protect solar energy projects from the petty constraints of local ordinances, the objections of fussy homeowners' associations and the impediments of narrow-minded deed restrictions, but it also explicitly protects your right to put up a clothesline.

A right I celebrated recently by buying a pack of clothespins and stringing a nylon rope between the two laurel oak trees. None of those metal, antenna-looking contraptions. I'm doing this old-school style.

Yes, I've gone on-line.

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[fasttense]

1. It has gotten too cold to line dry here in east TN (finally).

My clothes freeze before they dry. I'm sure freezing is not good for the fabric. Not to mention that my hands get so raw from handling the wet clothes in the cold.

[CrispyQ]

2. I like seeing clothes drying on the line.

Although, like the author, I am not fond of those "antenna-looking contraptions."

snip...

I'm told there are some out there who object to clotheslines for aesthetic reasons. Personally, I don't see it. It's not like I'm putting up a pickup to rot and rust atop cinder blocks

more...

And when, exactly, did people start to think of their backyards as formal sitting rooms for company rather than a place to sprawl out, live, play and work?

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I have neighbors who leave their garbage bins out front. I find that more unappealing that clean clothes on the line.

[izquierdista]

3. Cultural differences

When I lived in the United States, I was an oddball for using the sun when I could and leaving the machine drying only for rainy days. Now living in Europe, I have yet to meet anyone who owns a clothes dryer. They are very hard to find, even in the appliance section of the big department stores. While even the low-rent government subsidized apartments all have a washing machine in the bathroom, no one uses a dryer and clothes are almost always put on a drying rack in a sunny area to dry.

[Heidi]

4. Excellent, I haven't owned a clothes dryer since I left the US.

In addition to the energy savings, our clothing and linens last longer and their colors stay brighter. :hi:

(In the winter, I hang wet laundry in the toasty warm basement, where our boiler is, to dry.)

[bumblebee1]

5. I like the smell of line dried clothes.

From spring to autumn, I'll use the clothesline to dry our laundry. Ours is a retractable line. The dryer is for towels and drying clothes in winter or a rainy day.