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Right To Let It Hang

USREPORT-US-USA-LAUNDRYI have recently shared a post with you about saving money on creative ways of taking care of your laundry.

One of the suggestions was to use an outdoor clothes line for drying your laundry.  I just located an article on the same subject, and want to share a short summary.

As I already mentioned previously, hanging out your laundry is not always welcomed by neighbors, or even against the rules in some neighborhoods.

The enclosed picture is by:

Reuters – Jon Hurdle – Wed Nov 18, 11:32 am ET – Carin Froehlich has help from her granddaughter Ava as they hang some laundry in the front yard of her …

Carin Froehlich, a resident of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, lives in an 18th century farmhouse and enjoys drying her clothing on outdoors clothes lines.

She even states that line-drying laundry for a family of  five, will save $83 on electric bills, per month!

Hanging out your laundry outdoors sounds like a normal thing to do for most of you, but not for Carin’s neighbors and many associations of communities in Pennsylvania and many other states.

There are actual rules made by these Home Owner Associations, which prevent their residents from hanging out laundry, and there are fines associated with it.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
“It made me angry and upset,” said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. “I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It’s something I have always done since I was a little kid.”

Many people feel that these type of restrictions violate their freedom,  and do not support the act of saving energy and protecting the environment.

If you are one of these residents who are facing these issues, but want to make a difference and need some support, please read this:

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group’s executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.

Who would have thought that such a simple task, as air-drying your laundry, could become an national dilemma.

TIP: Since the link to the original article has expired, I am pasting the full article below, if you are interested in reading it in its original form.

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
“They said it made the place look like trailer trash,” she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. “They said they didn’t want to look at my ‘unmentionables.'”
Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.
Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group’s executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
‘RIGHT TO HANG’
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have ‘no hanging’ rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities’ developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.
The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.
“The consensus in most communities is that people don’t want to see everybody else’s laundry.”
He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
“There is more awareness of impact on the environment,” he said. “I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions.”
For Froehlich, the “right to hang” is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.
“If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry,” said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.
Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.
Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
“It made me angry and upset,” said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. “I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It’s something I have always done since I was a little kid.”
(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)

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