Fight for Your Right to Dry: Line-Drying Laundry

The battle over laundry and common-sense energy conservation.

By Roxanne Hawn
September/October 2009
clotheslines
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Freshen up fabrics by hanging them on a clothesline.
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Cost of convenience

Clothes dryers account for about 6 percent of your home electricity use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

On the line

You could keep about 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year out of the atmosphere if you air-dried half your laundry loads.

Anti-clothesline contingent

Legislators, homeowners associations and landlords often forbid clotheslines, arguing they’re injury liabilities, a visual scourge and can lower property values.

Right to dry

Some states have passed “right to dry” laws. In Florida, no one can ban clotheslines. Colorado law protects retractable, but not permanent, clotheslines. In 2008, Hawaii’s governor vetoed a “right to dry” bill.

Right to try

The nonprofit organization Project Laundry List fights to make air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple, effective way to save energy.

Hanging offense

Susan Taylor of Bend, Oregon, just wants a clothesline. Susan made the front page of The Wall Street Journal in 2007 when she went public with her fight to overturn her community’s clothesline ban. Her battle continues today. Recently, she sent President Obama a clothesline and clothespins. “I told him we need federal legislation because each state should not have to fight for the right to use sensible ways to conserve energy.” He hasn’t responded.

Did you know?

Laundry hung outside in winter will freeze, but it will also dry. That’s thanks to sublimation, the process in which a solid converts to vapor without going through the intermediate liquid phase.

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Archived Comments

  • Linda Dicks 7/22/2011 12:10:05 PM

    I have used clothes line (umbrella type) for 12 years. Love it. Towels turn out fine. Add some vinegar to your final wash to soften up things. Save me $ and sheets smell so good.

  • Christine Hache 7/21/2011 9:49:00 AM

    I have to add something about drying towel on a line. I dry all my towel on the line until they are fully dry. They do feel a bit hard on the skin but it's not so bad. I usully use my towel more than once before I wash them again (I wait until the towel smell a bit before washing them again and we all have our own) and after you dry yourself with it one time, it doesn't feel hard anymore on the skin. Another way to avoid the hard feeling of the towel is to put it in the dryer for about 10 minutes after it has been dryed on the line and there you go with soft towel again!

  • Helen_2 8/5/2010 10:05:34 PM

    My what is wrong with your country, for a place that all consider the crown of society, you have a long way to go. Here in Australia, the clothesline is an icon, dual flush toilets have been around for so long I at forty can barely remember the other full flush only toilets. Get with it we all wear underwear or hope most do, so what is the problem?

  • AJ Good 8/5/2010 2:20:12 PM

    I have air dried for about 5 years. only towels go in the dryer. my association bans clothes lines. i get around it by utilizing drying racks. easy to put up/take down. there are some portable dryer lines that unfold like an umbrella on the internet. worth looking into.

  • Marcy Tate 9/16/2009 7:00:02 AM

    I hang at least one load of laundry a week. A word of caution for all you beginner laundry hangers- when it comes to towels, either hang them until they are half dry or use your dryer because they will crisp up and feel really hard against your skin. Also, there are some great drying racks on the market so you don't necessarily have to hang a line up outside.

  • Marcy Tate 9/16/2009 6:59:47 AM

    I hang at least one load of laundry a week. A word of caution for all you beginner laundry hangers- when it comes to towels, either hang them until they are half dry or use your dryer because they will crisp up and feel really hard against your skin. Also, there are some great drying racks on the market so you don't necessarily have to hang a line up outside.

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