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I've just moved to an apartment complex that has a rule about not hanging out wash. I guess I can understand as it would look kind of ugly. We have balconies that would be ideal.
But I still hang clothing inside on racks. Before that, I would put the racks out on the deck. We lived right next to the ocean and you can't get cleaner or better air than that! And sun bleached clean too.
I fail to understand why people want rules about hanging clothes out in your own backyard. It's so much easier on the clothing and it's not wasteful of our natural resources.
When I moved in here I washed two large - really large - pink bathmats that my stepmother had left and tossed them over the fence to dry. I started to wonder what the neighbors would think, which is kind of funny because when I lived in Manhattan in the Financial District, I thought nothing of hanging things out on the balcony. My husband is a swim instructor and I would clothes-pin his wet suit and cap onto a hanger when he got home and it would be dry and ready for the next day before bed. I guess being on the 26th floor gave us some measure of privacy from anyone walking by.
Since the hillbillies next door have an easy chair on the front porch and burn green yard trimmings during the burning ban months, I wonder why I should care what I hang outside.
When I bought my house in 2003, I didn't have a dryer, so I ended up getting a large, foldable clothes rack that I would put my clothes on to dry. The only problem is, the wind would always knock it over.
My mom and her sister still hang clothes out to dry every day in the summer. I think I would too, especially sheets and pillowcases (no, I wouldn't iron them). There is absolutely nothing that smells so good as air dried clothes. The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact my black stretch pants faded to dark brown!
I, by choice, don't have dryer. All my clothes are dried in the backyard, or in my covered porch. In winter I dry them in the heated sunroom.
I would never buy a dryer. It damage fabrics, and I can do very well without it.
That other thread about repairing underwear got me to reminiscing a little about childhood in the 50s and brought to mind "wash day." Ma would do the laundry with an electric machine that would agitate the wash, then drain it and rinse it twice, but she had to take each item and run it thru the wringer individually. My bride, at age 5 got her hair caught in that menacing device once. Luckily, her ma was on the spot and yanked her out before she got trapped. No damage done. Severe injuries were not uncommon from an adventure like that-- crushed fingers & hands or hair caught so deep the only remedy was to cut it off.
Then Ma had to lug the wet, heavy laundry out to the back yard and hang it with wooden clothes pins (also made good toy soldiers or two crossed together as a war plane) on the clothes lines. The lines, sagging with the heavy load, were then propped up with notched clothes poles. Playing with those polls and leaving them in outlying hiding spots was a capital offense, as I recall.
As an adult I lived for more than a decade in a ritzy neighborhood where hanging your wash outside to dry was actually outlawed!
Anybody here using "solar power" the old fashioned way and hanging your laundry out to dry? Nothing like that crisp, clean feeling of fresh clothes & linens treated that way.
The HOA here only allows a clothesline if it is hidden by shrubbery! As a kid my mom always hung the laundry outside to dry. Loved the smell!
I grew up on Long Island in the 70's, and most people I knew, even middle class, didn't have a dryer. Electricity was very expensive and most houses didn't have gas lines. I went to private school but my parents thought having a dryer in the house was a bridge too far Same for not having a dishwasher. We had a very large basement with separate laundry room where we had 5 or 6 cotton clothes lines and pins. Since the boiler was down there, the clothes got dry pretty much overnight. If you needed to rush dry something like a wet pair of mittens or long johns they went directly into the boiler room. It was heaven putting those items on during the winter. Toasty.
Now I live in Las Vegas in an HOA community. I'd love to make use of the dry and hot climate but alas, no clotheslines allowed in the backyard, although we do have a side yard we could probably have used if it weren't being utilized as the dogs run. My 2 able-bodied school-aged kids would probably faint from all the perceived hard work it takes to put up and take down a load of wash!
I love hanging clothes out to dry! And in winter, I have a drying rack in a bathroom, where I hang items to dry. In the Southwest, clothes actually dry faster outside than they do in the dryer. That tends to be true in the winter, as well, even in the cold temps, due to the lack of humidity in the air.
You mean towels that are stiff as sandpaper! I guess it's good for smoothing the callouses off our feet. This is one where the romance of the idea is better than the harsh reality, for me.
...Anybody here using "solar power" the old fashioned way and hanging your laundry out to dry? Nothing like that crisp, clean feeling of fresh clothes & linens treated that way.
Sure, I live in Portugal, and don't own a dryer. Most people where I live don't.
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Same for not having a dishwasher. We had a very large basement with separate laundry room where we had 5 or 6 cotton clothes lines and pins. Since the boiler was down there, the clothes got dry pretty much overnight. If you needed to rush dry something like a wet pair of mittens or long johns they went directly into the boiler room. It was heaven putting those items on during the winter. Toasty.
