ReNe: the clothesline ban

Ontario will soon overrule the current regulation that outlaw clotheslines because they're considered unsightly.

Personally, I've always thought the ban ridiculous. When I first moved to St Louis, I didn't know that most places in North America, apparently, have such regulations. My apartment had a balcony and St Louis was hot and dry. Wet laundry hung out, especially at the height of summer, dried in less than two hours. Even the heavy cottons. Stepping out onto the balcony was like stepping out into a furnace; summer temperatures in St Louis were sometimes over 40C (100F)!

'Perfect for laundry', I thought. 'Strange. I wonder why nobody else is drying their clothes out and saving money?'

Much, much later, I found out that you're not supposed to do it. And it's not like, oh, you shouldn't pick your nose in public because it's unsightly but nobody will catch and fine you if you do. There's actually a law in place forbidding clotheslines for purely aesthetic reasons. I guess I was lucky nobody reported me? And I meant that sarcastically.

I wonder if the clothesline ban applies to drying racks as well?

Dryers account for 5 to 6 per cent of Ontario's household electricity demand. An average machine consumes about 900 kilowatt-hours of energy each year and results in the discharge of up to 840 kilograms of air pollution and greenhouse gases. Each dryer adds about $90 a year to a household's electricity bill. [from the same article]

Mike and I approximate 2 laundry loads a week, that's $3 saved by not using the coin dryer. This works out to $144 a year. And that's just the monetary cost. Clothes also last longer when air-dried. Most importantly, it's more environmentally friendly, and you can't put a price tag to that. (Well, I know people do try, but quantifying unquantifiables seems silly to me.)

I wonder what North Americans think of the laundry bamboo poles that are ubiquitous over many parts of Asia? While searching for such an image, I came across the following in an article, and it's about Singapore. Nice!


Yes, that photo above (on the left) looks just like our first flat. It's not too ugly, is it? Charming, in a ugly-but-full-of -character way. I used to hang out bamboo poles like that; really worked out my deltoids. I'm proud to say I can carry a pole with a wet quilt cover on it, from only one end, and stick it out of the window into the little bamboo pole holder. Sometimes it's pretty windy but I've never dropped a pole, which is good, because dropping a pole of wet laundry from the 14th floor is Not Done.

But there were problems too. Inconsiderate people hanging out dripping clothing... dripping mops, even buckets... killer litter... often, flats were so tiny people 'extended' their storage space outside and hung everything from cleaning equipment to plants. I even had curry on my clothes before. A neighbor opposite my place set up an awning (like those shop awnings) to protect their laundry, an obviously home-made structure hanging out of their window on the fourteenth floor. People below yelling obscenities at the people living above. Still, like most events past, selective amnesia sets in and you tend to look back at such memories with considerably more fondness than they warranted. Ah, nostalgia.

Note: April 19 is apparently National Hanging Out Day in North America. Because hanging clothes out to dry is so amazing.