Susan Taylor, 55-year-old mother and part-time nurse, had just done something that people had been doing for decades: hang her clothes to dry. But with that, she became a renegade:
The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development's managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains.
"This bombards the senses," interior designer Joan Grundeman says of her neighbor's clothesline. "It can't possibly increase property values and make people think this is a nice neighborhood."
But Susan's fighting back - in fact, she's laying it all on the line:
Ms. Taylor and her supporters argue that clotheslines are one way to fight climate change, using the sun and wind instead of electricity. "Days like this, I can do multiple loads, and within two hours, it's done," said Ms. Taylor. "It smells good, and it feels different than when it comes out of the dryer."
The battle of Awbrey Butte is an unanticipated consequence of increasing environmental consciousness, pitting the burgeoning right-to-dry movement against community standards across the country.
In the opening ceremony at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney they had in the parade a cavalcade of Hills hoists and Victa mowers in with the Surf boards, kangaroos and more widely noted Australiana.
The HH is a joyful bit of design, built to last it can hang two 8 year olds from each of it's 4 sparsa and makes a great impromptu carousel for the little nippers.
More to the point you crank the buger up into the air and bingo your dacks and grundies are dry as a bone in jig time.
Oz is far from the most enviromentally friendly place, they never signed the Kyoto protocol, but they don't have much truck with blatant stupididty about hanging your frigging washing out.
Hills Hoists, Victa Mowers, Holden Cars Meat Pies, footy.
God I miss Australia.
dryer is more offensive because it wastes energy.
We have a similar by-law in our area - it's all about property values, and how your neighbour's unmentionables might bring values down.
It's not something I'd want to see every day, but it's silly not to let people hang their laundry out. If you're that worried about seeing someone's panties, build a fence.
As for the environment, just buy a clothes rack that you can bring inside when you're done. It's what I did, and works just fine.
Don't live in a restrictive housing division and agree to comply with the rules if you intend to break them.
Then go back and take all your idioms with you.
It is ridiculous that they are completely banning hanging laundry outside to dry. I can understand limiting where it is hung, even the hours it can be hung, even saying no undergarments, but to force someone to burn energy to dry clothes is ridiculous.
I have a friend who's condo association only allows white curtains in the windows and no window air conditioners or fans, although there is no built-in air conditioning in the buildings. She's on the third floor and is miserable in the summer. Personally, I would have warned the homeowner's association of the dangers of the health risks they are inflicting on people by not allowing window fans or air conditioners and light blocking curtains. Some of these rules are completely ridiculous.
http://www.usstore.ecodri.com/images/EcoDRI_PR.jpg
only a fifth of the price, when it's wet or too cold.
To get a good breeze we've a desk fan screwed upside down to the ceiling. Dries a full load of washing in about two hours at 15 Watts.
Banning outdoor drying is for snobs.
I like the idea of someone taking one look at a dizzying array of cardigans from my clothesline and just vomiting all over the sidewalk from the over-stimulation.
I could never live in a place with restrictions: telling me what kind of mailbox I can have, what shade of ecru I'm allowed to paint my house, how many centimeters I'm allowed to grow my fuckin' grass. It's depressing.
Got my vote! She could use the clothesline to strangle them all. That would be poetic justice if I ever saw it.
"It’s just common sense…
Don’t live in a restrictive housing division and agree to comply with the rules if you intend to break them."
It's FAR from common sense. Simply more liberals looney ideas to turn everyone into little robots. As someone said not everyone knows about these rules until after they move in. It's nothing more than people doing such a fabulous job of running their own lives deciding they have the right to rule someone elses life too. Nothing more than a power trip.
One community sued a WWII veteran for having the audacity to attach a short flagpole to his home and fly Old Glory. It was against the "rules" of course.
If seeing someones skivvies on the line is so disturbing I suggest they avert their eyes, dash quickly home and close all their blinds.
They'd look smashing.
Gotta agree with may that interior designers come over all queezy when confronted with a line full of wooly's.Perhaps if the hanger learned to colour co-ordinate or make a feature out of her old socks or something....