Clothes Line

I was hanging out my laundry today on my clothes line and it occurred to me that I should write a blog about clothes lines.   Now aren't you excited?

Clothes line have come a long way from the pioneer day when Pioneer women laid their laundry out on the prairie grass to dry.   Or hung their laundry on a rope with sticks with splits in them  to hold the laundry on the line.  Clothes lines have gone from a family necessity to being forbidden.    Forbidden you say, yes,  60 million people who now live in America's 300,000  private communities are forbidden from using outdoor clothes line.    Why might you ask,   well one reason is because they think it is not ascetically pleasing to see ones laundry hanging on the line.  Two,  back when dryers were invented only the upper class families could afford them.   So having a clothes lines in use meant you were in a less affluent area.  
 

Now there are actually "right-to-dry" laws allowing the use of clothes lines in many states.  At least eight states restrict homeowners associations from forbidding the installation of clothes lines.   Now, this Nebraska Prairie Girls is very glad that she lives out in the middle of no where,  where there is not a soul who cares whether or not she hangs out her laundry.

So why the "right-to-dry" laws?   Well because everyone just realized it is a greener way of doing your laundry.  Well, duh!   

Advantages of clothes lines:  
  • Saves money
  • Zero greenhouse gas emissions per load
  • Laundry smell wonderful
  • less fabric wear and tear
  • laundry does not shrink
  • no static cling
  • less wrinkles (especially on a wind day, the wind beats out the wrinkles)
  • no airborne lint pollution 
  • clothes last longer
To line dry you clothes it cost about 2 cents per  load of laundry.  The cost is for the repair and replacement costs of  rope or wire line and clothes pins.  For mechanical dryers it cost about 20 cents per load for repairs replacement and labor costs.  This figure does not include the cost to run the dryer.   I do not know about you, but I am much better at tightening up line and replacing clothes pins, than I am at repairing a dryer.

So if you have a clothes line that has not been in use, wipe off the lines and reintroduce yourself to line drying.   If you do not have a clothes line consider putting one in, you will save money,  help the environment,  get to spend more time outdoors, and last but not least enjoy the wonderful scent of line dried laundry.  (Well of course your might have to check with you HOA to see if it is forbidden)

Well  the time has come for me to go hang out another load of laundry.

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