Where Laundry is Garden Art

As reported here a few years back, a group called Project Laundry List is hard at work defending our  Right to Dry.  And since most of us grew up with indoor drying, they have to start with some public education - like their Top Ten Reasons to Line-Dry.

Project Laundry List would surely love my newly adopted town, a planned community built by the federal government in the '30s.  Clothes lines were installed here before the first buyers ever moved in, and from what I can tell, most residents take advantage of them.  Proudly.

I've discovered a couple of interesting limitations on line-drying in the town's history, though.  Originally, line-drying wasn't alowed on Sundays.  (Remember blue laws?  Reading up on them, I'm shocked to discover how many are still in effect.  Wikipedia contributors also can't agree on the origin of the term.)

Another local law that's long gone is that laundry had to be taken in before dinnertime, which long-time residents tell me had to do with making the home look nice for the return of the breadwinner.  We can imagine the little woman putting on her nicest housedress around that time, too, a la June Cleaver.

Today, with those silly restrictions gone and energy conservation a big concern, my neighbors proudly adorn their gardens with laundry and some have even asked - where's MINE?  I guiltily confess to removing the poles to make room for more plants.

My plant-stuffed but laundry-free garden seems a bit out of step in a town where the Sun-Drying Garmenture Society Drill Team struts its stuff every year in the Labor Day Parade.

So I'm curious.  Readers, do YOU line-dry?  Do your neighbors?  Or has line-drying gone the way of party lines and black and white TVs?

Comments

[Riva]

I think I want to move to Green Belt, just so I can join the GSGS!!

[Elsa]

Line dry and LOVE IT, except when Japanese Beetles affix themselves to my sheets... totally gross!

[Mary Gray]

Love it!!! I'm way too lazy to line dry, but I certainly support my sun-dried garmenture society comrades! Would looooove to see my neighbors' reaction if I stuck a clothesline in my side yard and festooned it with my husband's Homer Simpson boxers.

[Barbara]

problem....the only good spot in the yard is where the bird feeders are. Dilemma-birds, line dry, birds, line dry

[Susan]

I live in France and we and many of the people we know dry our clothes on folding racks in the house (or outside if it's really nice). When I lived in the US I line dried a bit, but the towels and shirts got too stiff, but on the racks here everything stays pretty soft and the racks just go next to the ironing board quite easily.

[Sandra Knauf]

I regret taking out one of our laundry poles when we moved in our home 17 years ago (I did not even think of it back then). So now I have to figure out where to attach the line from the remaining one. Line drying is definitely on my list of projects. Even doing one or two loads a week would make a difference. I think the GSGS is terrific!

On the negatives. Our neighbor used theirs regularly and Colorado is a dry, dusty and windy state (and one of the reasons I haven't done it yet). It is sort of gross when clothes are left on for days, the dust blows in, and you know the clothes on the line are dirty. I'd wager that a few of those limitations have good reasons behind them.

[Idyllhaven.blogspot.com]

My dryer died in late fall two years ago. I had no set up outside to dry so I used a line in the basement and draped wet laundry all over the house. It worked OK (except towels unless you like a loofah feel) until humidity levels started to rise again in the spring and I broke down and got the dryer fixed. If I could find a spot in the garden to place a line I would dry outside but as far as I can see no such place exists.

[Cindy S.]

Weather permitting, I line dry my sheets and towels. They do stiffen up, but will soften after one use.
The way they smell is divine. Even after being in the closet for awhile they smell like sunshine and fresh air.
The towels dry better also. They really soak up a lot of moisture after a line dry.

[MiSchelle]

We look forward to line-drying weather! Some of my neighbors up here in Northeast PA line dry year-round - I guess freeze drying works? - but we only put our laundry out from Spring to Fall. Nothing beats snuggling into fresh sheets that have been gently dried in the sunny breeze. Yes, the clothes can get a bit stiff in humid weather, but a quick (5-minute) tumble in the dryer softens them right up. I love the lower electric bills, too.

[Earth Girl]

The buyer of my house stipulated that I leave the clothesline! That was fine with me because it is a circular clothesline. Those don't dry as well as the straight lines, which I am putting up at our new house. Both properties are in the country though, so we don't have to worry about zoning and neighbors.

[Mary W]

I live in Columbia, MD--in a pre-Columbian outparcel, so I'm allowed to line dry. We do it mainly because it's better for the clothes. I've noticed that hanging even a couple of loads a weekend really cuts down on the electric bill, which is a nice side effect. Unfortunately, summers are so humid here that it takes almost all day for the clothes to dry. I know of two other neighbors that use their clothes lines, including one that's regularly loaded with diapers. Thought I'd hate hanging wash, but I really love it and my husband's become a convert.

[Kate in Vermont]

All year round, weather permitting (cold is not an exclusion, but precipitation for days on end is)

We can usually wait to do laundry until the forecast is favorable.

[Heather MacDermid]

If I use the electric clothes dryer in southern Alberta, I might be using wind energy, but am probably burning coal. With line drying I know it's wind and solar power at work. That really leaves me no choice in the matter and I don't mind that our bath towels can stand up by themselves.

[Rochelle]

Would love to line dry, but can't . Our son has asthma and is severlh allergic to line dried clothes. ~ We found out the hard way. I'd try indoors but with no garage, 1200 sq ft of living space, and a family of seven; it just doesn't work out. Maybe I'll try again when nubby and I are empty nesters.

[Frank Hyman]

When I built a sculptural clothesline for one of my garden clients, my wife asked "when are you going to build one for us?" She was taking flamenco lessons at the time, so the posts I built have a flamenco-flair and I call them Spanish Dancers.

I have since built another sculptural clothesline for another client and used those glass insulators from old electric poles--I call that one Sunshine Power Line and my client loves it. You can see a pick of the clothesline I built for me and my wife (it gets regular use, year-round) at my blog:

http://www.liberatedgardener.net/liberated-gardener/2011/01/clothes-line-posts-garden-sculpture.html

[Ayse]

I grew up line-drying and kept it up where possible until I went to see an allergist about the allergies that had plagued me my whole life. Turned out that I was basically coating my clothes and sheets in allergens, which made everything much worse. So now I use the dryer or an inside drying rack with the windows closed. But we have no prohibition on clotheslines in our neighborhood, and when we had a roommate he dried his clothes outside all the time. I do miss the smell of line-dried sheets.

[emily]

I do have a drying rack which I use.
I'd like to line dry. All I have to do is put a line on the pulleys on my house and a nearby tree. The problem? The house is built on the side of a hill and the pulley on the tree is at least 20 feet off the ground. I haven't been adequately motivated to climb up there yet.

[Thad]

Lived for years in the UK without a dryer and so we hung everything to dry, either on a rack or outside on the line. Now, we don't have a line but one will be going into the new yard, once we have decided on positioning.

Cheers!

[Linda in Anacortes]

Yesterday, I used the post hole digger, the prybar; mixed concrete and set my new clothes line. If the sun is going to shine in the Pacific NW, I am going to make use of it!

[UrsulaV]

The local humidity is so incredible that I can't imagine line drying anything--I'd expect it to mold on the line!

Mind you, I loved living in Arizona, because you could step out of the shower, LOOK at the towel, and you'd be dry. Not really an option here.

[Laura Bell]

I've wanted a clothesline since I moved out of my parents' home. Unfortunately, 20 years & two homes later, I still put my clothes in the dryer. Why ? Because with a 40+ hour workweek & 8-10 hours of commuting, tending the gardens & volunteering at the kids' school, attending their extracurriculars & providing homework guidance ... there's no time left to hang laundry. My mom hung our laundry out (3+ loads a day !) & I wanted to do the same. I miss that sun-fresh smell so much, especially on bedsheets.

[Laura Bell]

@ Frank H - I LOVE those clotheslines you built ! You've moved the utilitarian into fine art !

[Deirdre]

Outside drying is very bad for people with pollen allergies. The clothes get covered with pollen.

[Robin Ripley]

How interesting that so many commenters line dry--at least sometimes! It is rare that I see it here in Southern Maryland. I suspect that when there are two breadwinners in the house hanging clothes out on days off is not high on the priority list. Most likely laundry gets done after dinner and before bed. Or stretched over multiple days. It's too bad, really. Aside from saving energy (and money), line dried clothes really do smell better--as long as you avoid high pollen count days. And if you don't like stiff towels? After line drying just toss them into the dryer with the air setting for five minutes and they are nice and fluffy. (Not a full cycle, mind you!)

[maggie]

I line dry everything, and use drying racks inside when it's raining or too atmospherically damp.
Main reasons: it's free.