Outdoor clotheslines

[eabcan]

Are you planning to buy a home? If you buy a house in a neighbourhood with a Home Owner's Association be sure to check the rules regarding clotheslines. We used to live with an HOA that specifically did NOT allow clotheslines.

[christiner81]

Originally Posted by eabcan

Are you planning to buy a home? If you buy a house in a neighbourhood with a Home Owner's Association be sure to check the rules regarding clotheslines. We used to live with an HOA that specifically did NOT allow clotheslines.

we're not buying for a while but yeah i'm aware of that issue. it's kinda funny because out here the clotheslines can dry clothes just as fast as a dryer, and soooo many neighborhoods are HOA and can't use them. i'm not an HOA kind of person.

[Nell Plotts]

"Back in the day" a home with central heating burned sawdust. The heated air was distributed through ducts that looked like an octopus. The drill was sawdust was blown into a room in the basement, then the sawdust was shoveled into a hopper attached to the furnace as needed. The sawdust room was a lot of fun for us kids, we could slide down the stack. As we got older shoveling sawdust was work and sometimes the sawdust delivered had fleas. When oil burners became available almost everyone converted to oil and the sawdust room converted to storage.

[When I was a kid we had "Ice Men" who delivered blocks of ice for the refrigerator. And, no, I am not older than dirt.]

Our basement was never damp or humid. That may be because my Father worked for the Corp of Engineers and was absolutely anal about moisture. I remember him digging along an outside wall of the basement, installing a French drain and sealing the outside wall. If your basement is damp you need to address that because dust & dampness grows mold, a de-humidifier is an option but it doesn't really address the root cause. However, this isn't central Oregon where humidifiers are often installed.

[oldtrader]

The availability of sawdust for burners, is not what it once was either and a lot more expensive than it used to be.

Back then they used to have wigwam burners (the shape) that they pumped the sawdust and scraps into and burned it away. No longer legal to use, and now the big profit from a mill is often what they used to burn. It is used in making particle boards, and compressed fireplace logs, etc. It is no longer wast material they often gave away just to get someone to haul it away.

[ramedud]

Originally Posted by christiner81

so be expecting some reallllllly dumb questions

There's no such thing.

[Nell Plotts]

oldtrader is spot on. Sawdust is now a valuable byproduct, not a waste product.

The basement of my parent's home was never damp but I think that the burning of sawdust produces moisture. Go figure.

My parents converted to eliminate storing the sawdust and loading the hopper. Oil was a lot more convenient.

[davemess10]

I can't imagine it being worth it for any time except July-Sept. We have clothes racks, but wouldn't even think about using them this time of year. Our towels don't even dry on the racks from one day's shower to the next. Your drying will also take a VERY long time getting thicker things dry. Just the price you pay for the humidity.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by davemess10

I can't imagine it being worth it for any time except July-Sept. We have clothes racks, but wouldn't even think about using them this time of year. Our towels don't even dry on the racks from one day's shower to the next. Your drying will also take a VERY long time getting thicker things dry. Just the price you pay for the humidity.

I'll say! I tried to save a little $$ by hanging some underwear, socks and sweats on clothes racks in my apartment and it took about three days for most to completely dry. And these are not thick things.

I had them hanging in the bathroom but fianlly moved the rack into the living room by the heater and it still took some of the socks another half day to dry. The dampness in the winter is pretty heavy.

[haggardhouseelf]

Look around online and you'll find all kinds of drying racks that you can set up indoors. That's what we do. Also, a shower curtain rod (or two) placed over bathtubs works well for things you can hang to dry. For things that lay flat to dry there are folding drying racks. Down to Earth has some, but you can also find them at Big Box stores and online.

We don't hang our clothes outdoors to dry anymore in summer because we live near a river and we noticed our clothes kind of smelling like it. Eeww.