The Right to Dry - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

MTI · #1 10-13-2009, 11:13 PM

Give Me Sunshine Fresh Sheets or Give Me Death

“It seems like such a mundane thing, hanging laundry, and yet it draws in all these questions about individual rights, private property, class, aesthetics, the environment,” said Steven Lake, a British filmmaker who is releasing a documentary next May called “Drying for Freedom,” about the clothesline debate in the United States.

The film follows the actual case of feuding neighbors in Verona, Miss., where the police say one man shot and killed another last year because he was tired of telling the man to stop hanging his laundry outside.

cmac2012 · #2 10-14-2009, 01:19 AM

More proof, if any was needed, that people have lost their minds . . . in this, the greatest (consumer of energy) of all lands.

Skippy · #3 10-14-2009, 11:34 AM

I should no longer be surprised at displays of idiocy by petty tyrants, but this one got me. Laundry? Someone has a problem with people hanging up laundry? WTF?

Quote:

Richard Jacques, 63, president of the condominium’s board, said he moved to the community specifically for its strict regulations. “Those rules are why when I look out my window I now see birds, trees and flowers, not laundry,” he said.

This guy needs to get a life.

aklim · #4 10-14-2009, 12:20 PM

Quote:

because many people viewed it as an eyesore, not unlike storing junk cars in driveways, and a marker of poverty that lowers property values.

Think that might be a part of it? Especially in this economic season where it is harder to sell a house?

Crazy_Nate · #5 10-14-2009, 12:25 PM

I hang dry most of my laundry when I can...some people need to grow up...The sun's free, clean and it'll sanitize your clothes!

I'm sure people can find ways to discretely hang dry clothes if it's that much of a problem (for others...)

OT: dryer sheets (and other similarly smelling chemical scented things) give me a major headache.

aklim · #6 10-14-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy_Nate

I'm sure people can find ways to discretely hang dry clothes if it's that much of a problem (for others...)

Problem is that they might have seen how others abused privileges and rights in the past and are leery. When I worked 2nd shift, the 1st shift guy and I used to go down the road for lunch. Sure, it included a little beer but we kept it under control and life was good. Well, a 3rd shift guy came in and would reek of alcohol. He, of course, made mistakes and got into trouble and the alcohol thing came out. After that, it was a zero tolerance policy. Don't even come to work smelling of any form of beer or even coolers.

davidmash · #7 10-14-2009, 12:35 PM

I have a hard time believing that someone would not buy a house because an other wise nicely kept house in a nicely kept neighborhood has laundry hanging on a clothe line.

I like the idea of a cloth line. My mom always hung our laundry out side when we lived in Miami and Los Angeles. I had completely forgot about that till now. I think I might put up a line on the sie of the house when the weather clears up.

MTI · #8 10-14-2009, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmash

I have a hard time believing that someone would not buy a house because an other wise nicely kept house in a nicely kept neighborhood has laundry hanging on a clothe line.

Situations differ. For instance, we've all seen apartment buildings that have a few dozen residents with a weeks worth of apparel each drying on the patio, which is not the same as having a clothesline in the backyard. It's not uncommon here for folks to set up retractable lines in their carports and garages, to be used while the car is being used to drive somebody to work, which means that the garage doors have to be left open.

Mistress · #9 10-14-2009, 12:52 PM

For the longest time I wanted a small house (still do) and the only reason was so I could line dry my cloths. Use to do it when i was a kid and I loved nothing more than pulling the stiff sheets off the line and smelling that great clean line-dryed smell. Death to the energy sucking dryers of the universe......
Seriously, if I ever get a house it will be in a neighborhood where line-drying is permitted. I don't need to live someplace where the anal-retentives graze with rulers in their hands to measure the proper length of grass and whether or not you have a cloths line....

aklim · #10 10-14-2009, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmash

I have a hard time believing that someone would not buy a house because an other wise nicely kept house in a nicely kept neighborhood has laundry hanging on a clothe line.

Richard Jacques for one won't. Maybe you don't care one way or the other but when I am selling my house, I don't want anything to make the buyer think that another house has an edge over mine, no matter how slight. Especially now when it is a buyer's market.

One house might not be an issue. However, once one house is allowed, the question is whether you can contain it to only the few houses that will do it nicely. Can we be sure that others won't jump in on the bandwagon BUT do it in a mess? When it becomes a mess, how do you contain it then?