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My condo association specifically forbids using cloths lines because they "look poverty". I sometimes dry small stuff on a folding rack on my deck just for spite.
I do both but the only things that will dry here are smaller things. Florida has such a high humidity that something will mildew before it drys properly.
It's the same way here where I live. You really need full sun and a breeze to get them to dry, otherwise they will sometimes have a sour smell. If it's the least bit cloudy I don't waste my time.
Dryer. I haven't seen a clothesline at any house in my neck of the woods (metaphorically speaking) in 20 years at least. They're not verboten, it's just that no one uses them anymore. I haven't used one since the 1970s. Also, everyone in my area has landscapers (all using those high powered leaf blowers, etc) who are there at any given day of the week, so the clothes would probably come in from a clothesline dirtier than when they were hung out! We're in a high wind area and everything gets blown around. I redid my house 5 years ago in a light colored siding and white trim, and both were filthy in less than two years. Bad mistake!
My condo association specifically forbids using cloths lines because they "look poverty". I sometimes dry small stuff on a folding rack on my deck just for spite.
My condo association specifically forbids using cloths lines because they "look poverty". I sometimes dry small stuff on a folding rack on my deck just for spite.
Wow ! drying clothes "looks poverty" ! Well I guess that explains why I hardly ever see clothes air drying in the US !
That sounds pretty "fascist". Who died and made the condo association dictator ? I thought America was land of the Free and brave ? ( you count as the Brave obviously Greg , defying them !!!)
I cannot believe something as natural and common sensical as drying your clothes outside by the natural light and heat of our very natural Sun has such negative connotations....
Does this mean a dryer is a status symbol in the US ?
Ya, they are supposed to use less water, but they are considerably more expensive. Also, since they use less water, does that mean that the cleaning may not be as effective. .
My front loader gets my clothes far, far cleaner than my top loader ever did--with much less water.
But it is certainly true that the initial cost was is a bit of an investment--which I do hope will eventually pay for itself.
The front loader wrings out the clothes so well that it does not take very long for them to dry no matter which method I use.
I agree that on high humidity days it can be an exercise in frustration, but living on the coast, we do seem to have a bit of a breeze most of the time.
As for the clothesline ban, it is indeed silly, and I wonder if The Powers That Be might re-think this as our economy becomes more and more wretched, and energy costs go higher and higher.
Moosketeer - The association rules were set up by the initial developer in the early 1960's. I signed up when I moved in 1982. Agreeing to the rules was part of the deal. At the time I could not afford anything more expensive and did not want to move out of the condo I was renting. Hence, I put up with the "no clothesline" nonsense.
As far as the association being run by a little tin dictator, I spent 5 years on the elected Board of Directors. Our condominium operates as a small representative democracy with an annual town meeting for election of directors and setting the budget and condo fee. We hire our own maintenance crew and pay for all of our own work. This alone saves us a huge amount of money over hiring outside contractors for the work. As an example, we had a bid of $100,000 for snow removal last year. That was almost three time what we paid to do it ourselves.
Anyway, I mostly follow the rules most of the time. That applies to the rest of my life as well.
It concerns what GregW and others have mentioned about homeowners' associations and rules about clotheslines. Gives one hope that common sense is not a thing of the past.
Who died and made the condo association dictator ? I thought America was land of the Free and brave ?
Many, perhaps most, Homeowners Associations have this and other rules; not only for condos but for large developments of single-family homes. It doesn't matter that these homes may be on 1/3 or 1/2 or even larger lots, and thus not on top of each other like condos are.
Personally I could never tolerate the list of Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots that come with HOAs, which is why I would never live in one even if they offered the house to me for free! People who live in Associations usually do so by choice, and many actually prefer this kind of situation because it guarantees homogeneity and that the home next to theirs will never become an eyesore, etc. This is not my philosophy but as long as I am free to AVOID living in a HOA, I'm happy to let everyone else choose their own preference between 'controlled' and 'not controlled'. Or in the case at hand, between clothesline and dryer.
Moosketeer - The association rules were set up by the initial developer in the early 1960's. I signed up when I moved in 1982. Agreeing to the rules was part of the deal. At the time I could not afford anything more expensive and did not want to move out of the condo I was renting. Hence, I put up with the "no clothesline" nonsense.
As far as the association being run by a little tin dictator, I spent 5 years on the elected Board of Directors. Our condominium operates as a small representative democracy with an annual town meeting for election of directors and setting the budget and condo fee. We hire our own maintenance crew and pay for all of our own work. This alone saves us a huge amount of money over hiring outside contractors for the work. As an example, we had a bid of $100,000 for snow removal last year. That was almost three time what we paid to do it ourselves.
Anyway, I mostly follow the rules most of the time. That applies to the rest of my life as well.
I understand the idea of a condo association and in essence it is great, I like the idea of the almost co-op concept , but that particular rule seems to me utterly bizarre and not very helpful at a time when we are trying to save natural resources and energy.
Who decides what poverty looks like and who cares in the end what people might think when they see some fresh laundry on a line ? What is so offensive about people's clothes hanging on lines ?
It really seems bizarre. I have heard of places where you cannot paint your house such and such colours or where you can't have BBQs and it never makes sense to me.
I remember seeing a programme on that gated town built by Disney in Florida ( celebration ?) and it sounded like something out of the Stepford wives.
I am a neat freak and have a developed sense of esthetics but drying clothes seems a strange thing to ban !
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Yeah!
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