Using the clothesline in conjunction with your clothes dryer

If the area you live in tells you that you can't dry your laundry outside, just do what some homeowners have done and declare it a "solar powered clothes dryer". Chances are they will have to let you hang your laundry if you want.

Incidentally, most of the places that ban clotheslines are HOA's. And, if your state is a right to dry state or a state where solar power is encouraged, you can overturn your HOA's rules by citing state law.
So a clothes-line is technically solar power?
 
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I live in a gated community... I could never get away with a clothesline... we have no fences just common ground between the houses... some cabins here sell for a million bucks and those folks would raise hell over it I'm sure....
 
I posted about this before but I continue to do mix and match experiments with energy saving activities. Look at it however you want It saves money for one thing and if you're a climate warrior it satisfies that aspect too. The sun has been unusually bright and hot this year Make of that whatever you want to. When I do loads of towels and they end up on spin dry ready to go to the dryer I first move them to the clothesline. My clothesline is about 75 ft of span between two very strong pulleys about 25 ft high at the back of my house which is more than one story. It gets good sunlight in the morning and in the afternoon. A normal load of towels say 20 lb worth usually takes up to an hour to dry completely in an electric dryer.
I have found that hanging them out on the line brings them almost fully dry within 25 minutes in direct sunlight.

After that 5 to 10 minutes in the electric dryer finishes the job rather nicely. I try to do the same with anything that's a heavy fabric like blue jeans or sweaters and sweatshirts.

The sun is amazingly powerful for this particular application.I have also noticed a distinct fresh smell when I sun-dry the clothing... I'm thinking besides the fresh air the ultraviolet rays probably do a great job of disinfecting the cloth.

Jo

I use them some when the weather is favorable for towels, blankets and sheets. They make the clothes kind of stiff IMO. My house is in a neighborhood that technically has a restriction that clothes line cannot be in view of the street but I also own adjoining land that is not in my subdivision and not subject to the restriction, so I have a short three strand line right behind the house and a long 4 strand line outside the restriction. Don't use them in the spring though because everything gets saturated with pollen. I don't usually think that much about the sun. I am more wind motivated. When I get up at 4 and there is a breeze, I will crank out as much laundry as I can and get it out there and let it flap all day.
 
I live in a gated community... I could never get away with a clothesline... we have no fences just common ground between the houses... some cabins here sell for a million bucks and those folks would raise hell over it I'm sure....

Hahaha......yeah....I can see it now. Me in my boxers and sandals at noontime hanging up the laundry....lol
 
There's life at 4 AM?

Yes. One of the perks of working mostly remotely is that I can be extremely productive from about 4 to 8am and then dick around other than afternoon appearances in the workplace. We have to get up early anyway. I just do it when the GD Effing train starts clanging up the grade into the city with its MFing whistle blowing getting all the critters stirred up inside and outside. My wife works at a hospital about 75 miles away so she has to set out early when she has shifts and 2 of the kids go to school out of district so they have to be semi-dressed and out the door between 6:15 and 6:30. The school system they attend has this weird 7:10 am extra class time that they force kids into if they want to be in the honors program (that is when the foreign languages get taught) or need tutoring.
 
---Clothesline ban Sparks Debate On Poverty, Appearance, Energy---

:auiqs.jpg:

I haven't seen one of those in years! My neighbor has one, but it's just a line.

Not the spinning tree you can almost swing around on until you can't and then it collapses. Oops!
 
I built myself one of those sun powered clothes dryers and it works great. I use it about 7 months out of the year. It's an amazing device. I bought my plans off the internet for only $49.95!
 
I built myself one of those sun powered clothes dryers and it works great. I use it about 7 months out of the year. It's an amazing device. I bought my plans off the internet for only $49.95!
.

I sense there's a joke in there somewhere.

It's okay. We love you anyway.

.
 
So a clothes-line is technically solar power?

Yes. It uses the sun's energy to dry the clothes, so it is a solar powered device (technically anyway), and you can use that argument in court against whoever is trying to stop you from hanging your laundry to dry.
 
Yes. It uses the sun's energy to dry the clothes, so it is a solar powered device (technically anyway), and you can use that argument in court against whoever is trying to stop you from hanging your laundry to dry.
Cue the "Authority Song."

It might be cheaper to buy one of these:

clothes-drying-rack.jpeg
 
Yes. It uses the sun's energy to dry the clothes, so it is a solar powered device (technically anyway), and you can use that argument in court against whoever is trying to stop you from hanging your laundry to dry.
Nice
 
I’m of two minds about this.

Yes, the no clothes line rule is snobbish and priggish. And anyone who is upset by their neighbors having one is a ridiculous human being.

On the other hand, no one is forced to live in a housing development with a HOA. We all know they are 100% snobs with stupid rules, so why would you choose to live there if you don’t like their rules?
 
I’m of two minds about this.

Yes, the no clothes line rule is snobbish and priggish. And anyone who is upset by their neighbors having one is a ridiculous human being.

On the other hand, no one is forced to live in a housing development with a HOA. We all know they are 100% snobs with stupid rules, so why would you choose to live there if you don’t like their rules?
It would make an interesting court battle though....HOA versus the green new deal.
 

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