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THE RIGHT TO HANG UP LAUNDRY... IN DANGER IN UNITED STATES.
- Nov 19, 2009 at 12:52 PM
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Question: HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? WHAT WOULD YOU DO.. IF OTHERS WERE TELLING YOU HOW TO SPEND AND USE YOUR MONEY AND PROPERTY....
Total Votes: 8
U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry
Reuters - Carin Froehlich has help from her granddaughter Ava as they hang some laundry in the front yard of her ... PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"
Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.
Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
'RIGHT TO HANG'
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.
The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.
"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."
He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."
For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.
"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.
Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $183 a month in electric bills, she said.
Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."
(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)
Comments:
YA.. people thinking they should go green.. yet not realizing it means. EVERYONE...
Then when it makes things just a little less esthetically pleasing.. whammo THEY TRY TO CHANGE YOUR ABILITY TO DO IT..
We can't here in Nevada, by the time your clothes came in they would be covered in dust!! I kid you not! You would then have to WASH them ALL over again!!
My question is: Why not hang them in your BACKYARD? That's what we did growing up.......I'm not so sure I would want to see all of my neighbor's laundry in their front lawns either. People usually have a spot in their backyard where they can. Seems like she wants to start a fight.
Yes, I wonder why she isn't doing it in her BACK yard. If people are going into her backyard to "see" her clothes. Then she can get them for trespassing.
OMG! Who cares?! The link to this is so stupid. What's the big deal about hanging clothes? It looks like trailer trash. Why? Cause people associate trailer trash with being poor and unable to afford a dryer. In our society, poor is unattractive and lack of class. It's ridiculous. Everyone knows what underwear are. Everyone has seen a pair of underwear. We see and touch our own and our family's everyday. We see them in stores all the time. Yet when someone hang dries theirs, it's suddenly disturbing to just SEE them????? That's stupid. People need to let go of all this image crap. There's not a single negative thing about hang drying clothes yet people are getting themselves so upset over it. Why? Cause it "looks bad." Sheesh. Of all the things to make yourself angry about, people choose seeing clothes. I live in an apartment and our complex won't let use our own balconies to hang clothes either. They're happy to charge AT LEAST $1.25 JUST to WASH a SMALL load then more to dry at the laundromat though.
lol this is sort of funny for me.
The city I live in banned clothes lines in the 70s or 80s and now with the green movement they are considering allowing clothes lines again.
... not like the dumb bylaw is ever enforced anyway.
First of all, I'd hang my clothing in the back-yard....guess just because that's what everyone did when I was small. Next, this is one of the many reasons we live out in the "sticks". A homeowners association can tell you what you can and cannot do with/on your property and if you don't comply, they can fine you and worse. You really need to read the fine print when a homeowners assoc is involved. There are some around that forbid any car in your driveway older than a certain year, no kids can play in the front yards, grass can be only so high (if its higher, they'll have it cut and send you the bill), all curtains, blinds etc on windows facing the street all have to match ( so if your living room and bedroom both face the street and you want brown in your living room and blue in your bedroom, sorry, can't do that), they can even have rules about what color you paint your house, how often, and what types of plants you're allowed to have in your yard. I really can't understand how people can live in places where others decide what you can and can't do with/on your own property.
Wow I went to high school with that girl! Small world! I hang my laundry in my back yard when ever I want to in New Hampshire. Live free or die state!
Really it's a stupid and petty argument, however I thought most people hung their stuff in the backyard. I personally, wouldn't hang my underpants outside, but I have hung jeans, shirts, blankets, towels etc...things that take longer to dry in the dryer. Our neighbor next door hangs her stuff outside all the time in the summer. She is elderly. I don't really care that she does.
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That's insane! Everyone keeps saying we need to do more to "save the earth". Well, she is & so do I when I hang MY clothes on MY clothesline in MY yard!
- eeyoreplus4
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