Does Anyone Still....

Updated on March 02, 2012
T.N. asks from Saratoga Springs, NY
35 answers

Hang their clothes out on the line, weather permitting? Incredibly, our HOA forbids it.

How 'bout you?

(There's NOTHING like crisp cool bedsheets dried outside in the breeze, you know?)

:)

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So What Happened?

Hmmm, I hadn't even thought of the Green Factor in hanging clothes out. Perhaps we should all bring that up at the next HOA meeting?

Featured Answers

⊱.H.

answers from Spokane on

Yes, I do! I don't have a line, but I take my drying rack outside when it's nice and let my stuff dry in the sunshine.

3 moms found this helpful

M..

answers from Appleton on

I only do blankets and sheets. For some reason I was noticing that the sun was fading some of my clothes...

3 moms found this helpful
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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

Not here!!! We only have 2 or 3 weeks max where it would work.

In other climates? Absolutely. Have. Probably will again sometime.

1 mom found this helpful

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L.A.

answers from Austin on

Ha, I am emptying out a house for an estate sale right now. The woman NEVER owned a dryer.

I always wash all of the linens and clothing before I sell them and so I have done so many loads of laundry and been hanging them outside to dry! Sge still has the original spinning Contraption out there.

Of course this is an older neighborhood.

It has been fun meeting her neighbors while out there, but It will only hold so many items at one time. Lots of running in and out of the house all of this week.

The sheets are fine.. it is the bath towels I would have a problem with they are not getting all of the lint sucked out of them like in a dryer.

I really have a problem with HOA's, I could never live under their rules.

4 moms found this helpful
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A.S.

answers from Boca Raton on

For some reason I don't like the smell that comes with doing that . . .

???

4 moms found this helpful
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J.S.

answers from Minneapolis on

I do - but I live in the suburbs with a big back yard. Now today it's -10 below zero so I'll be doing it in the laundry room :)

3 moms found this helpful
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☆.A.

answers from Pittsburgh on

I suppose I could (no HOA for us)....
Hmmm......maybe I should start!?

3 moms found this helpful
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✩.!.

answers from Denver on

My Inlaws do and we would if our HOA allowed us... So we hang them in the basement and weather permiting open the windows to allow the breeze thru!

3 moms found this helpful

S.L.

answers from Kansas City on

I loved hanging out all my diapers and sheets and everything BUT only in warm weather. I remember bringing is stiff clothes from the cold and freezing out there. I love the fresh smell and the whites are so much whiter. I wouldn't mind getting a line out as we are rural and neighbors down the road have one. If in a subdivision they frown on it and some have rules against it. Sad though as it should be a choice. I guess some leave them out and it looks bad then.

2 moms found this helpful

Y.C.

answers from New York on

I didn't have a washer and dryer until I was married for second time, before that I use to wash clothes by hand and hang them (jeans, sheets, towels where the worst!), then add to a few of mysteriously lost items on our building, grrrr (if only they stole them before I went through the trouble of washing them!)
So I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my dryer.
But you are right, now I have to add more smelly things because is not compare, however, the bright colors keep the color longer when not in the sun AND my electric bill was noticeable lower back then.
So I am back and forward in this one.
Good thing husband uses a lot suits that go right to the dry cleaner
=*)

2 moms found this helpful

E.A.

answers from Erie on

Yes. I'd never live anywhere that forbade it. That's just bizarre to me.

2 moms found this helpful

C.O.

answers from Washington DC on

nope. can't our HOA is like yours. God forbid we have a clothes line - that's SOOOO country-ish. Poor form!! :) You wouldn't believe the snobs we have living around here!

I miss hanging stuff like bed linens out to dry...but with my allergies now? Nope, couldn't do it.

2 moms found this helpful

C.T.

answers from Santa Fe on

Yes we do...I love my clothes line. It is out on our porch and can either be put out or it snaps back into it's original spot. NM is so dry it is easy here. When we lived in southeast Alaska we once had an avalanche take out the town's electricity lines. We had a month of having all our power supplied by diesel which was 5x as much cost wise. Imagine your electric bill (heating in Alaska!) being 5x higher every month. It is terribly humid there but we hung all our clothes in our laundry room and all over our house for the whole time. We made it our goal to not use hardly ANY electricity and actually it was fun. We only heated with wood, we unplugged everything, we only used or grill or a camp stove to cook. Anyway, it made me hooked on using a line to dry. It's nicer somehow.

2 moms found this helpful

J.P.

answers from Lakeland on

It's been a while since I have been able to hang stuff outside. My HOA forbids it too. I miss the crispness (not sure if thats a word, lol) of the clothes and the suns natural bleaching of the whites.

2 moms found this helpful
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A.B.

answers from Naples on

Funny that you should ask! I just decided I want to start doing this for the first time ever, because I am so sick of new clothes getting so worn-out looking so fast. I actually posted on here asking for advice about it and a lot of people told me to start line drying. We might get a complaint from our HOA too if it is visible from the street, but we have a big screened lanai in the back so I'm going to hang them there. I told my husband about it and to my surprise he seemed very keen on the idea, and offered to go to Home Depot to buy the supplies! I'm excited to start line drying clothes! :)

2 moms found this helpful

J.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

When we went to several open houses we noticed, in brand new homes, different devices for "line drying." I commented once and our home inspection guy was next to me. He said that lots of communities are promotong line drying in an effort to "go green." Even the one with HOA's.
I thought it was pretty insteresting, because in my mind I never thought a community would allow that sort of stuff, but then again ya never know what to expect in California.
In my own house, my boyfriend loves his shirts line dried. Most everything else goes to the dryer though. =)

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A.C.

answers from Cincinnati on

Ours forbids it too, but that doesn't stop me. I strung a line in my laundry room and in my bathroom, and I hang the clothes there. If the weather is nice, I open a window. I think it's really stupid that it's forbidden (so are compost piles) but it doesn't stop me.

2 moms found this helpful

R.B.

answers from La Crosse on

we don't have one.. I want a clothes line but not sure where to put it. Either the dog will have reach to it or it would be in the middle of where the kids play...

So I take our clothes over to my dad's house two blocks away and hang them up on his. I love the smell of the clothes and knowing that I just saved $$ for not using the dryer!

2 moms found this helpful
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T.F.

answers from San Francisco on

I do when the weather is warmer. Trying to save energy. I usually do sheets and large clothes. undies not so much. I've heard rumor that we aren't supposed to but our line is in the backyard. I suppose our neighbors know but with all the saving energy messages we get I don't think anyone would complain.

2 moms found this helpful

F.H.

answers from Phoenix on

Does hanging your wet bathing suits and towels on the pool fence every day during summer count?? =)

2 moms found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

my laundry is in the basement and i'm too lazy to haul it upstairs, but i do have a line down there for some items. our HOA also forbids clotheslines (hello? GREEN, anyone?????) but i want to hang 'em out just to be a PITA.
the neighborhood is very private, though, and just about everyone has little visible access into their yards due to trees. it's very unlikely the HOA would ever say anything. it just chaps my assessment that the dumb rule is even written.
:) khairete
S.

2 moms found this helpful

L.U.

answers from Seattle on

If we hung our clothes outside on the line...weather permitting...we would only hang our clothes about a month and a half out of the year. :) Seattle probably isn't the best area to do that since it seems to rain a lot here. Or not really get hot enough to dry anything.
L.

2 moms found this helpful

A.G.

answers from Dallas on

I do sometimes, but I live on a farm.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from Tyler on

Judging by the amount of dust on my window sills when I do occasionally open my windows, and the amount of dirt on my patio shortly after I clean it, I think I'll stick to my dryer.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.B.

answers from Charlotte on

My mom does it with sheets, but only with sheets. And she only puts the line out when she puts the sheets out. She pulls down the line after she takes down the sheets so that the back yard won't offend anyone.

Dawn

1 mom found this helpful

J.C.

answers from Columbus on

Our HOA doesn't allow us to "hang clothing where it is visible to the neighboring properties" BUT I do sometimes sneak and lay things out on my back porch ;) please don't tell, lol

1 mom found this helpful
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B..

answers from Dallas on

Since we have pretty mild weather most of the year, we take advantage of hanging our clothes!! I mean, it's going to be 75 tomorrow. Pretty good clothes hanging day!!

I do not live in an HOA, though. One of the many reasons!

1 mom found this helpful
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M.T.

answers from New York on

Nope, I've never done it.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.N.

answers from Chicago on

I do, but no intimates. And I avoid the high summer sun between 11 and 2 so my clothes do not get faded or burnt. There are a lot of suburbs that don't let people hang out clothes. A friend of mine got a ticket for having sheets on the line.

1 mom found this helpful
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C.J.

answers from Dallas on

Not typically - we only hang pool towels outside. The dog likes to eat things:)

1 mom found this helpful
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L.N.

answers from New York on

i used to. i hate drying clothes. but i have to.

1 mom found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

Our neighbors do year round.
I put beach towels out on the railing.
Mostly we like using the dryer.

1 mom found this helpful
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G.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

We have developed so many environmental allergies that hanging clothes outside is almost a thing of the past for us. If we lived out at the farm I am sure I would do towels and bedding but not our clothes.

I have too many issues with excess static and need my clothes dried in the dryer with several dryer sheets. I make flashes of lightening when I touch the shopping carts at Walmart...lol..

1 mom found this helpful

A.S.

answers from Iowa City on

I do in the spring/summer.

1 mom found this helpful

R.X.

answers from Houston on

You post the greatest questions! I also gather that you are my sister of nostalgia. My dad passed January 13, 2012. He was 89. My sister inherited USE of the home and she tore down the clothes line less than a month after he died.

The house is to remain to his girls (I am the youngest) until we are all 3 gone. If I ever get it---the clothes line goes back up!!!

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