It's easy to imagine elderly people clinging desperately to what little resistance to change they have power over. It's motivated by a mix of fear and spite for a world they no longer understand. They may not be able to prevent other races from moving in next door, but remove that mat from the handrail, and stay off the lawn!
Old people are frail. The world appears frail to them. And as you age, the flaws of the world become more apparent, and the world appears even more like it is hanging on an edge.
Of course most people also have rosy glasses about their good old days, where people followed the law and things just worked.
So old people think adhering to rules and avoiding chaos is what kept everything from falling apart.
Also, as you get older, your routine becomes everything, as your neuroplasticity decreases and ability to deal with change. Rules keep things the same.
EDIT:
Also, one of my favorite explanations of popular vs nerd people in high school: popular kids spend all their free time being popular. Nerds work on school and other things.
In that vein, old people don't really have anything to do other than be nosy. They sleep less, are retired, and living off social security means "hanging around where you're at and not doing much".
They are perversely like teenagers.
It should also be noted that you don't notice the nice old people who leave you alone because they're not in your face complaining. (A type of availability bias?)
Older people probably have an expectation that you have read and understood the rules as well
I don't see them fighting for the right to hang laundry. No action has been taken against the woman, and the man was fined by an association (I don't like associations, but they have tons of restrictions that he voluntarily entered into).
If you look at that picture, it seems the woman is hanging her laundry in the front yard. It seems the article is all her side of the story without talking to others. There's a very real possibility the neighbors leaving notes may just want her to dry the laundry in the back yard, which is the normal thing to do.
You have every right to do things that are atypical or even antisocial so long as it's not illegal. That doesn't mean other people can't ask you to stop or ridicule you.
Flagging this because it's a click bait headline with substandard content that seems to be misrepresenting the situation.
Since when does this need to be a national issue anyways - "U.S. residents fight..."
> 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.
Millions of Americans live under covenants that prevent them from doing their laundry outside, lest their neighbors see. That should strike you as at least a little ridiculous. It also goes beyond the normal “just live somewhere else” mantra: you can’t relocate 60 million Americans.
Yes, the evaporating cools down the room, though I can't say I ever noticed it. In terms of energy efficiency compared to a dryer, it's much better in summer, and not much better in winter, though you get a humidifier as a freeby.
Yes, it's a chore, a full load takes about ten minutes to hang, and it's real boring work.
There are a lot of different buildings and climates where you will have problems hanging laundry indoors. It definitely can cause mould, it definitely is a health risk without paying extra for dehumidifiers. And dehumidifiers are not great for the environment either as well as costing extra.
So two good reasons to hang out rather than in.
Plus hanging laundry outdoors dries them much, much quicker too. They can be dry in 2 hours most of the time, compared to up to 2 days inside.
That being said : I see what you mean. I grew up in France ( dryer don’t exists ) and it’s easy to dry stuff there. Except maybe in winter.
Now I’m in Louisiana… yeah, it’s humid. But if you put things in the sun it does dry super quick too.
Definitely not possible in the flat we live in during the winter unless we run a dehumidifier.
The dryer wears down clothing very quickly with friction.
Cannot imagine additional longevity would be worth all the work of manually doing it.
You can simply delete them.
I think this is either irrelevant, or inconsiderate if the point was to suggest "They should just be ok with this other thing I was ok with instead of what they want to do." without the excuse that what they want is somehow bad for everyone else. She's not raising chickens, and even the bit about the horrors of seeing "unmentionables" is ridiculous and deserves no consideration at all.
Just another n=1 anecdote.
Then again, if I had the space, I would definitely dry them outside. Nothing beats the smell of clothes hung outside in the sun.
How does adding latent heat reduce the sensible heat? Are the clothes washed in very cold water?
It relies on the air not being saturated (and for real effectiveness, requires relatively low humidity). It's quite popular in dry climates in the form of a "swamp cooler".
You're not adding latent heat to a room, you're adding water, which when evaporating uses up the heat energy in the room which cools it down.
Look into how swamp chillers work.
That's a huge amount! I didn't realize it was so much!
Residential use is 39% of all electrical generation.
So driers are 2.3%.
That number doesn't surprise me in the least. Residential electrical consumption is trivial if you don't include heating. So having an appliance use 5% of all home electricity seems pretty low?
I've yet to have ever been to a location in the US where a dryer was not directly adjacent to the washing machine.
Much more common in the south and the desert where the weather is almost always sunny.
So all our appliances are gas.
- The article is from 2009. Surely there's some more recent update to the situation described, which also offers context?
- The laundry was being hung in the front yard. This is really rare. While probably not entirely without precedent, it's certainly a significant and rational weighing factor.
- The owner of the laundry said she hung her underclothes/unmentionables inside the house, so essentially the neighbors complained about a feared outcome, rather than making a 100% evidentiary complaint. This is often a bad idea, no matter how good one's laundry prediction skills may be.
- The condominium resident thought other residents would be OK with their personal laundry hanging in a "common area"...this seems pretty cringe. Did he ask beforehand? Maybe we'll never know. After all, 2009.
There's the step of moving the clothes from the spin dryer to the drying rack, but that's really the only extra effort, and they dry nearly as quickly (~1 hour), either in the sun when it's warm or in front of my house's propane heating unit when it's cold. The drying rack I use doesn't require clips or anything, so hanging clothes is really fast.
I do need to steam certain fabrics to make sure they're not all wrinkly, but people with heat dryers have to iron certain things too.
I'm in coastal New England, so it's not like this is an especially warm or dry climate.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07TDP2MMQ [1] https://www.bestdryingrack.com/
This breaks the oils/soap that have remaining in the woven fabric, that sometimes harden to encourage a wrinkle pattern. I think…
The water has to go somewhere, and if it's not going down the drain or out the dryer exhaust, it's going into the air. (This may be desirable in some cases to balance humidity).
Same reason that storing wet wood in the basement can lead to water issues in the walls.
The complaining party simply thinks (correctly) that they will get more traction from their neighbors/public/city council/HoA if they wail about that vs. general clothes line drying they find distasteful.
I have nothing good to say about people like this, other than to say they are a large and growing segment of the US population.
It's basically someone realising one of the clauses in their deed is worded perhaps a bit too broadly and are worried if it will be enforced. As a result, they are asking for legal advice on an internet forum and various randos are chipping in with half stories.
"Ah, what fine weather! Spot prices must be low... we should do a load of laundry!"
In essence, anything your neighbors can see is highly restricted in what you can do.
And of course, many places don't have this and people have small properties so they park on the slim slice of property in front of their home.
[0] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12658715/prince-charles-bans-w... (I'm very very sorry that all I could find was a Sun article.)
I lived in Europe for a time where it was common to have a washer and no dryer, because the electrical grid couldn't support it (old buildings retrofitted with power with only 60A service were commonplace in two of the European countries I lived in). But even in this case, mostly people had brackets on a window that pushed out to make a clothesline towards a center common courtyard for a blockhouse/flats, not out into the street (or if it was street-facing it was well above street level). This is different than in this article where someone is hanging clothes out at street level in their front yard, rather than the back, which is considered a private space.
If you don't want an HOA, don't buy a house in an HOA area. I certainly got tired of HOA bullshit, which is why I bought a non-HOA house.
I guess it falls in the free speech category. I don't like what you say but I support your right to do it.
HOA residents also have the right to make binging agreements, for better or worse.
I don't get it; why do you care?
To the extent I care, it is a mater of aesthetics. I enjoy seeing a less cluttered and more maintained environment. Because they are my neighbor, I see their front yard frequently, as do my visitors.
This is basically the same reason that I don't like it when people litter and leave their garbage in the street, or I don't leave dirty dishes around my house.
Whether that preference is made through laws (mandatory mowing regulations), HOAs, community shaming, etc, is another question entirely.
Those who really don't care often end up moving to rural areas anyway, where the nearest neighbor is acres or miles away.
The opposite is true for many other places I've spent time in.
With not much money at all, you can live in the wilds of Wyoming and nobody may even know you exist.
That said, I also feel like that's a poor choice considering you can now get a A+++ heat pump dryer that's very economical and works quite fast (slightly more time than with a convention dryer, but your clothes will last much longer) anytime (as long as it's not stuck in a icy cold basement) regardless the weather.
Another mistake some people make is using an all-in-one washer/dryer: they are the worst option ever. Terrible at everything by design.
The main problem is creepy older men stealing ladies’ undergarments. It’s become such a problem that you can buy gadgets that secure your clothes to the line such that they can’t be pulled off by thieves using “grabbers” on long sticks.
Sure, if you're a hip cool 20-something who does a load of laundry per week air-drying is fine.
Try being a household with a couple kids and a baby under 2 and hanging your laundry everyday. It's a waste of time and frankly sucks. I've done it.
The machine was a pain in the ass. I had to check it so the clothes didn't get too hot or go too long. Once done, you have to fold or hang immediately or you get wrinkles.
Now I just put them up and forget about it until later, often the next day when I want something
Not everybody on the planet (or in the US) has selection pressures that maximize convenience. We’d probably be worse off as a society if that was our only consideration.
Not a big deal at all.
Everyone has a dryer here, either in their place of residence or in the location they do their laundry. Washer and dryer are a set pair. They're either stacked on top of each for compactness (some apartments) or they're next to each other in the same room. I've never even heard of a place in the US that doesn't have dryers where they have washing machines. Even homeless people can use dryers, assuming they can afford to use the laundry in the first place. (And no the hot humid air doesn't dump into the house/apartment, it dumps to the outside.)
Yes I occasionally hang up laundry, but the dryers are always there. It's not an access issue.
This isn't something people complain about or even mention here. It's usually only recent immigrants to the country who hang up laundry like this however.
You aren't supposed to wait there for the clothes to dry. They can dry on their own ;)
I find this hard to believe; I can wash an 8kg load and it takes me perhaps 15 or 20 minutes to hang it, and much less to unhang once dry. Folding and putting away is the same regardless of drying method.
EDIT: "just such a chore" made me think it wasn't about the drying time.
Also, why did line drying improve your sleep and reduce fatigue? This post is delightfully full of mystery.
I’ve now heard of everything.
That said, if its not in the agreement you signed, or you live someplace without an HOA, I support peoples right do hang their laundry out to dry - shouldn't even be a question of being allowed or not.
To live peacefully in a society you have to compromise and you can’t just do as you please. Communities have certain standards and by-laws that should be respected. If you’re compelled then bring it up at the next town meeting and rally support for your cause.
What if someone decides they should park their car on the front lawn since the boat and camper take up the driveway? Or just set a couch up on the front lawn because I like to have a nap there?
That’s a very restrictive view of what a good neighbour should be. Those who are offended by the view of drying clothes and insist on dictating other people’s lifestyle are much worse neighbours than she is.
> To live peacefully in a society you have to compromise and you can’t just do as you please.
Exactly. Like accepting that some people hang their clothes to dry. That’s a step towards keeping a peaceful neighbourhood.
> What if someone decides they shiujd park their car on the front lawn since the boat and camper take up the driveway? Or just set a clinch up on the front lawn because I like to have a nap there?
Who the fuck cares? Whom would this hurt?
As to who it “would hurt” - it could very well hurt everyone’s property values and certainly hurts everyone’s eyes to have to see a car parked on the front lawn. Again, it’s antisocial behavior and inconsiderate of the vast majority of people in the area. It’s selfish.
We don't know if she has a backyard, so it may be just... the yard.
> What if someone decides they shiujd park their car on the front lawn since the boat and camper take up the driveway?
I don't understand. What then? Why shouldn't they?
I'm not sure what a clinch is or why it's not welcome on the front lawn...
“Clinch” was a typo; corrected to “couch”.
What if they put a lawn chair on the front lawn, and sat out to read or play on their tablet or whatever, and fell asleep? Is that so bad? Or are lawn chairs somehow better than couches, and that's what makes it OK? (Are they more expensive? Better upholstered? Comfier? If yes to any of the above - where do you buy your lawn chairs?)
People can survive without a couch on their lawn, and there are alternatives to couches on lawns that don't require the use of a particular technology. But people need dry clothes, and the only alternative to air drying is to use a particular kind of machine. It's some Black Mirror shit.
They should be able to bath themselves in the front yard by pouring water from they collected from a nearby creek over themselves because showers are slavery.
It's ok for people to tan animal hides in their front yard because the clothing store requires transportation which is just slavery.
I'm going to have torches inside and out because light bulbs enslave me.
I'm thinking about joining an Amish community because the machines I own have ended up owning me.
Can your neighbors also prevent you from putting your children sculpture or garden gnome in your garden because it's not up to their grand standards?
Neighborhood are often managed by a Home Owners Association (HOA). So, not codified laws, just a contract/rules you sign when you buy/rent in that area.
Outside an HOA (typically older or rural homes), you can often do what you want.
Inside an HOA (most suburban development since the 70s), you get rules that span from reasonable to crazy, but as a resident you know the rules up front.
Towns can have some of these rules too, but the detailed “don’t do X” that make the news are almost always HOA things.
In the primary example in the article, it sounds like there isn’t a rule, just neighbors complaining. The women correctly told them to piss off.
Wait, isn't America meant to be land of the free? Is it their front lawn, or is it not? I live in a much less "free" country according to any American, and yet neither thing would be a problem. It's your front lawn, want to a park a car there? That's your call.
What an incredibly weird argument that is.
You are possibly antisocial?
