Banning Your Clothesline?

As a small business owner who operates a clothesline website, I frequently speak to customers who tell me the reasons why they enjoy hanging out their laundry. Unfortunately we also get several calls each month from people who are not allowed to put up a clothesline due to some kind of ordinance in their housing community. Such rules have forced more then a few of our customers into becoming "underground" solar violators. As it turns out, there are millions of people in the United States who are prohibited from hanging their laundry outside. They are also told such things as the maximum allowable height of their lawns and that toys must not be left laying around in their own front yard. No doubt many of us can relate to these rules because communities simply want their streets to look nice. Making a neighborhood look appealing to the eye is certainly understandable, but do clothes hanging in privacy of someone's back yard really take way from household aesthetics? Many people would disagree. In fact, one common opinion is that a house with a clothesline in the backyard looks more like a home.

We certainly have a strange way of looking at this topic. For example; It is a forgone conclusion that television shows have dramatically increased the amount of skin they display on our screens with each passing year. If many of today’s TV shows were aired back in the 70’s, network sensors would have a field day cutting and edititing. Yet one argument for banishing clotheslines is, “We don’t want to see our neighbors underwear flying in the back yard.” We like watching skin on our idiot boxes, yet dislike seeing undergarments on the line.

It’s time for housing communities to take a realistic look at the pros and cons of clothesline usage. In fact, prohibiting the use of free solar energy should be illegal. It doesn’t take a “tree hugger” to realize that using a clothesline is one of the easiest, most effective ways to help decrease particulate matter in the air thereby decreasing global warming. Perhaps it is time to generate a pros and cons list that everyone can participate in. Let's hear from some of these naysayers. Do having clotheslines in your neighborhood seem unsightly? Do they bring down your property values? Does a laundry revealing clothesline give your dinner guests an upset stomach? Several articles discussing this very topic have surfaced in the news as of late, however there is very little data on why community leaders prohibit the practice. It is time to begin collecting some answers. The Clothesline Shop LLC has already supplied the web space for a "pros vs. cons" list. If you would like to add your points, please visit the Pros & Cons page and email us your opinion. If you have a new reason, we will add it for you. Who knows, perhaps the naysayers will contribute legitimate reasons that have not occurred to us. Or maybe the list of pros will get so large that we can lobby Congress to pass a law guaranteeing a person’s “right to dry.”