My sister who’s lived in Massachusetts for decades, tells me that in her neck of the woods, hanging washing out is seen as a sign of either poverty or madness!
She puts just about everything in the tumble dryer and doesn’t even possess an iron. (My other sister on a visit once spent ages looking in vain for one!)
A bit weird really since in other matters she’s very eco-conscious.
To be entirely fair, though, for much of their very long winter, anything hung out to dry would just freeze, and their summers can be extremely humid.
As for hanging washing out being ‘common’, my ILs in later life moved to a fairly new build smaller house on a very attractive estate, and were somewhat nonplussed to find that the ‘rules’ (imposed by some presumably unofficial committee) included ‘No washing to be hung in gardens’ and ‘Net curtains to be hung at all front windows’.
Both of which they very sensibly ignored, with no apparent comeback apart from a few ‘tuts’ (also ignored).
My father had a term for such ‘proper-ness’ - ‘net curtain mentality’ - by which he meant excessive prissiness and prudery, not anyone who did actually need them for privacy.
