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| Marian Dioguardi of Newton, Mass., hangs up her wash, much as she did as a child. Joanne Ciccarello – staff |
As an energy-saver, the clothesline makes a comeback
A 'Right to Dry' movement is growing, with some states introducing legislation to override clothesline bans.
from the August 24, 2007 edition
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Dryer data
At last count, in 2005, there were 88 million dryers in the US, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. Annually, these dryers consume 1,079 kilowatt hours of energy per household, creating 2,224 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions.
Besides the global-warming and cost-saving aspects of clotheslines, proponents say hanging out clothes requires exercise and time outside – elements that are missing from many Americans' lives. "So much of our lives have become automated," Mr. Wentzell says. Plus, using a clothesline makes "your clothes last longer and smell better."
Despite clotheslines' purported benefits – and a scent that can rival dryer sheets' "fresh rain" fragrance – "the overwhelming majority" of community associations regulate or ban them, says Frank Rathbun, vice president of communications for the Community Associations Institute in Virginia. Sixty million Americans belong to one of 300,000 homeowners' associations, according to the institute, a national organization of community association leaders and management firms.
The rules exist for aesthetics, residents' expectations, and property values, Mr. Rathbun says: Environmental leanings have to be balanced against the desires of those who find their neighbors' blue jeans, khakis, and the occasional flannel nightgown to be unseemly, unsightly, or both.
Senator McCormack dismisses such concerns. Amid growing concern about global warming, he says, governments have a responsibility to protect people's right to voluntarily conserve, if not actively support energy conservation.
Protesters and quilters
On Sept. 14, Project Laundry List will participate in an event at the energy company Hydro-Québec, protesting the diverting and damming of the Rupert River. Such damming would not have to occur, Lee says, if people adopted energy-saving methods like clotheslines. The group will display messages on T-shirts and sheets hung from – what else? – a 400-foot clothesline.
The group is getting the word out through other art forms, too. Several painters and quilters who specialize in depictions of clotheslines have donated work to Project Laundry List to be auctioned off, with proceeds going to the cause.
And, hoping for more, Wentzell is thinking outside the box and beyond the laundry room: "Hey, maybe we'll get some celebrities taking up the cause by hanging out their laundry behind their mansions!"
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