AIBU to like seeing washing out on the line?

I always hang washing out if possible but I have an enclosed back garden. I must admit I had not considered how those without managed but I guess a rotary line is better than stringing out along a wall of the house. Flat dwellers miss out unless there is a communal garden but I suppose some would complaine if sitting out amongst your smalls!

Drying washing outside is the most environmentally sound way to do it depending on local weather conditions. For those who like sanitised and washing free views I would say get a life and welcome to the real world rather than a picture postcard or instagrammed world.

This is one of those occasions when I feel very fortunate to live in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours for half a mile so I can hang my washing out in any manner I see fit on any day of the week! In reality, I have a conventional whirligig line on which I hang everything bar towels (always tumble dry these for softness) and Sunday is always my bedding day. I love clean bed linen that's been line dried. I can't say the drying arrangement in Coryton looked very attractive but if that's the only facility available, what else can you do?

out the front??? why????

Because there's nowhere else to put it?

I live in sheltered housing where we have a big communal garden hardly used by the residents. I asked if we could have some rotary dryers put up discreetly so we could hang out our washing, but this was refused as it would be seen as 'unsightly'. Personally, I thought it would make the place seem more alive and homely.

I remember my childhood in Leeds when there were no cars and every Monday the back-to-back houses would see residents stringing their washing across the cobbled streets. What a sight it was!

Love to get the washing out to dry - got three loads on the line today double pegged so it doesn't blow away in the wind!! We have a rotary drying line but it doesn't hold enough washing so have added a line the length of the garden now as well.

Love the response from the locals.

We live in a small apartment in the town centre. When we bought our new build in this development our solicitor pointed out specific rules/regulations - no laundry to be dried on balconies, no pets etc. We were fine about it & signed up. That line of washing that caused offence does look pretty odd draped around the building like that! Imagine if other residents copied it - pretty unsightly!

I love to see a line of 'whites' flapping in the breeze on a sunny day. Though I must admit a line of washing draped around a building does look a little odd, but it's probably the only place she can dry it, she may not have a garden or a tumble drier. It used to be an everyday sight in London tenement flats when I was a child. Many people just have to make use of the space and facilities available to them.

I'm lucky to have a garden line and a tumble drier so I use both depending on the weather and what it is I'm drying.

Why should Brexit dictate how we do our laundry!! Sorry, no way am I going to be bossed about by Europe !

That’s not the actual line that caused the knicker-twisting, Umstongran, it’s one that a local has put up in support. Good for them, I say. What sort of person would expect a mother with three young boys to dry laundry indoors while the sun shines, to avoid offending their sensibilities? Perhaps she can’t afford or hasn’t room for a dryer. Surely hanging clothes indoors creates damp and mould, not an ideal environment for children?

Husband refuses to have anything line dried and I also despise it, so not done by us. But I am damned if I see why a poison pen letter should dictate what this person does legally on her own property.

I am just curious, muffinthemoo to know why you despise line dried washing?

I know of someone who refused to hang washing out in case the bees pooed on it.

I have to admit that we have a whirligig rotary type linen line and we’re overlooked by a couple of houses and I can’t bring myself to hang our ‘smalls’ on the outside lines. I make the excuse that it fits better - small stuff on the smaller lines, but in reality I don’t want the teenagers next door seeing my undies!

It’s crispy and also less convenient than doing a wash and dry overnight.

I don’t like the smell either.

I'm in Devon and saw this on Spotlight South West. I absolutely defend that lady's right to hang her washing out.
I hang my washing out and am lucky enough to have a back garden. I gather that she doesn't. There is nothing nicer than air dried washing. The community support was marvellous and a credit to the people of Colyton.

Me too varian?? I am interested to hear the answer from muffinthemoo

Thank you for explaining your reluctance to drying washing outside muffinthemoo. We are, of course, all different but the smell of line dried clothes is, to me, delightful!

I suppose it depend if the farm next door has been muck spreading. But I too love the smell of fresh line dried sheets.

Years ago one of my DD's friends started giggling when she saw knickers on my washing line. I said to her "Doesn't your Mum wash yours, or maybe you don't wear any!" She shut up pretty quickly.

We often see small cottages on the island with washing lines (rotary or long) in the front gardens, presumably because they don't have back gardens. It doesn't look unsightly, it seems to add to their country charm.

Back in the 80s (in London) we had new neighbours, I think they were Turkish. One day they had a huge row in the garden and the husband stormed out, leaving his wife in tears in the garden. I asked if I could help her at all and she explained her husband was furious because she had hung her underwear on the line for all the neighbours to see. He said she had shamed and humiliated him and he was leaving her!! His underwear was also on the line. I offered to dry the offending garments in my drier, hers and his. Later in the evening the husband returned home and I gave their laundry back to them in separate bags. He was clearly embarrassed that I knew about their argument and I told him bluntly that he was an overbearing bully. I didn't tell him I had sprinkled itching powder in his boxers!

We also all have muderous hayfever, live adjoining a park and a pair of devoted gardeners, and I can do without importing any more bloody pollen into this house right now

angry sneezing

I used to love to see a line of freshly washed nappies. I still love the smell of washing that has dried in the fresh air - especially bedding. Driers use so much energy - they shouldn't be encouraged!

Here in Denmark most people have forgotten the "rule" about not hanging washing out on a Sunday or other religious holiday, but washing is hung in the back garden if you live in a house. Housing associations and blocks of flats do have rules about where and when you may do your washing or hang it out. Usually, if you share accommodation /live in flats you can't use a washing machine or dryer between the hours of 9 p.m. and 7 or 8 a.m. Some places allow you to dry washing in a backyard, in others you may hang washing anywhere, but most commonly washing hung on your own balcony has to be hung below the level of the balustrade, so it is not visible to others.

Someone once told me, but I don't know if it is true, that in Switzerland you hang your washing in the front garden so everyone can see how nice and clean it is!

Just remembered: Grannie (my father's mother) was deeply offended when my mother, while living with them just after my parents were married, hung her own and Daddy's underpants on the same clothes' line.

According to Grannie, Daddy and Grandpa's unmentionables should have been on one line, and Grannie's and Mummy's together on another!

My mother's back answer that being legally married she assumed her and my father's knickers were married too, did not improve the MIL - DIL relationship.

I love the smell of garden fresh laundry and remember the lines
Those that wash on Monday, have all the week to dry
Those that wash on Tuesday, are not so much awry
Those that wash on Wednesday, are not so much to blame
Those that wash on Thursday, wash for shame
Those that wash on Friday, wash in need
But those that wash on Saturday - Oh, they're sluts indeed!

I always felt that I should wash whenever the weather permitted. When I first came to the north east ( 40 years ago) I was scolded by a neighbour for line drying cloth nappies on a Sunday as they were visible from just about everywhere- top of the cathedral the railway viaduct etc. I bought a rotary dryer and I think it was invisible from those placesand hope it it didn't offfend delicate sensibilities.