When did clotheslines become ILLEGAL??

I've heard that they're illegal in many suburbs because of their 'low class' associations. In Portland they're actively encouraged as 'green'.
 
When we moved to this northern NJ community about 33 years ago we were told by several neighbors that we could not hang laundry outside, as I had been accustomed to doing at our last home--and all my life. I was told that the reason was that it is unslightly and I since learned that there was an historic precedent for a great many restrictions. The founder of the community would not allow front-facing garages, for example, although that had been widely ignored since about the 1930s.

Last month I read a letter to the editor of our local paper, in which the author espoused the green practice of hanging your laundry outside. I contacted the letter writer to say the practice was banned here and she called back to say she had heard that, too, but after she went to town hall and asked the administration about it, they were unable to find anything in writing about it.

Sigh...all those years wasted.
 
In many new-housing developments, it is in the covenants & restrictions that you can't hang laundry out on clotheslines. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of, but there it is. It does not contribute to the "upscale" (or, shall I say, faux-upscale) look that developers & builders want to present.

Lynne, I think you should hang out every scrap of laundry you do, in as visible a spot as you can so your neighbors can be "horrified" at it. If they give you a hard time, you can tell them to "show it to me in writing that it's banned." Unless your development has it in the C & R's, in which case that trumps your municipality's ordinances. However, I doubt it, given the age of your neighborhood. I have never owned or sold to a client a home in neighborhoods the age of yours that had such a restriction. My house in PA is in a 30+ year-old neighborhood, about the same age as yours, and there's no such restriction. I could hang laundry out here but our yard is so shady it would never dry....
 
Oh yes, many neighborhoods have covenants that prohibit clotheslines, among other things. My grandmother lives in one of them.

My stepbrother built a house in a new neighborhood and later bought a Rubbermaid storage building. He had to get rid of it because the covenants in his neighborhood say that any outbuildings must have MATCHING siding - the exact same as the house - or the outbuilding is prohibited.

Frankly, I don't understand why anyone buys houses in places like that. I think a lot of people don't even read the covenants & restrictions. When we were house shopping, we saw a couple of places that had restrictive covenants, and we flat-out refused to even look at them. One had minimum sq footage of the house to be built, prohibited all kinds of farm animals (on 3-7 acre lots in the country!!), etc. It was ridiculous, and it took forever for those lots to sell. One of them is now dirt cheap and STILL hasn't sold.

Laura, who hangs laundry out to dry all summer long
 
Originally posted by vintagebaubles
Lynne, I think you should hang out every scrap of laundry you do, in as visible a spot as you can so your neighbors can be "horrified" at it.
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I agree. In fact, hang it in the front yard!! :headbang:

Janine
 
I heard about this a while ago and was amazed: so glad to hear that it's not every where in the US - such a ridiculous law. I have a dryer but it's never used: certainly never for my vintage. I wonder if the laws were encouraged by dryer manufacturers/retailers?

If we're going to ban things for being "low class" or ugly can we start with ugg boots and tracksuits anywhere apart from the gym?

Nicole
 
I for one WISH I had a clothesline. Many fond childhood memories exist in those hangings, not to mention the expense saved and the benefit of the sun!
 
I love to see my laundry drying on the line outside. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction (should get out more I know)! :lol: I haven't used my dryer for a couple of years due to environmental issues and to try to keep our energy bills down. :) Laundry always smells so much nicer when it's been blowing outside in the elements.
 
I'd never heard of such restrictions, and with environmental concerns becoming even more urgent, it sounds crazy!

I wish I had a clothesline too but we don't have any 'outside' right now. But I do use a folding drying rack all the time.
 
More stupid laws.
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Actually, it's the opposite. In most (maybe all) cases, the regulations banning clotheslines are private community bans, not municipal, ones--those stipulated by the property devlopers or the condo or community associations. They aren't government laws. In fact, I've never, in 25 years of selling real estate, run across a municipal law forbidding clotheslines, and the article cited, I believe, only private-community regs. Local governments would have to pass laws forbidding community associations from banning clotheslines.

A case in which a law would be a very good thing.... It's just too bad one is even needed, since I fail to see how a community association or a developer even has the right to tell somebody they can't hang laundry outside on their own property.... It's not like it's a structure or something that permanently alters the face of the development.

As far as people "thinking" that hanging out laundry denotes one being too poor to afford a dryer, that's the biggest crock of crap I've ever heard! When I was a kid, everybody had a clothes dryer, but in the nice weather, everyone hung their laundry outside. What it is, IMHO, the the ridiculous Puritan attitude that underwear hanging outside is indecent or unsightly.....
 
Thanks Anne - that makes sense.

I always hang my knickers and undies on the inside line, where you can't see them because they're hidden by the rest of the washing. That's my modesty...no one needs to see my knickers, although it's all black so not terribly unsightly anyway.

Nicole
 
I have always had and used my clothesline. I love clothes dried in the fresh air and sunshine. When we were looking for a house there were many places with crazy restrictions like no clotheslines and a limit on pets even if they are indoor. It would have to be a major nice GATED community before I would bow to these rules. So now I sit on my back porch with my kitties and watch my laundry dry. LOL

chris
 
I had no idea either! How silly! My mom has a clothespin in the front yard, which she uses whenever she can. It's how she's always done it and I'd do it like that too if I could.

I always hang my knickers and undies on the inside line, where you can't see them because they're hidden by the rest of the washing.
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Just my thoughts! I have a teensy little balcony out by the kitchen, no way to hang any clothing outside, but most of what I have is not dryer-proof, so I put it on foldable racks in my bedroom or living room. Strictly speaking, it's forbidden to hang damp clothing for drying inside the apartment (I guess they fear the rooms getting damp in the winter), but I always air my apartment well and have a small meter to measure humidity in my rooms. There is a "drying room" next to the communal laundry downstairs, but I definitely don't want to hang up my clothes there - besides, it's too damp - nothing ever would dry there!

If we're going to ban things for being "low class" or ugly can we start with ugg boots and tracksuits anywhere apart from the gym?
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Definitely! To go slightly OT - I remember two ladies standing on an escalator before me at the airport - wearing Juicy Couture tracksuits and Ugg boots, all of which probably cost quite a lot, and their handbags weren't the cheap variety either, but all in all it looked so horrible - and cheap! :headbang:

Karin
 
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