apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think there's just the trailer and the website, as Lake doesn't have much more done. It's a short, or maybe a segment, not really enough for a whole doc.

I remember scoffing when a friend said she loved the smell of line-dried laundry. I grew up going to the laundrymat with my mom and couldn't wait to have my own washer and dryer. Well, things have changed. My gf got an old set of metal poles from a salvage yard and we've been line drying (in our ridiculously plentiful sunshine) ever since. Makes me as happy as my compost pile--plus, the washing machine greywater goes to my trees. Makes doing laundry more worthwhile!

The debate about the right to dry versus aesthetics of the neighborhood doesn't quite address the issue of drying in a damp climate, like in Ireland where I grew up. No one I knew had a dryer, so we would hang our closes on indoor lines. And, in fact, I still do this. I wonder of the 50 million who cannot hang outdoors, what percentage hangs indoors?

*hang our clothes (apologies)

Two things...

one, I used to live in Australia and was bemused by a seemingly modern place insisting upon only airdrying clothes. Dryers were the exception, ot the rule. Perhaps the sun is too great a resource to waste? Perhaps people aren't as impatient as Americans? Perhaps the weather is not as severe (winter) to warrant otherwise. Perhaps people there love to iron. (moan)

two...on a business trip to Hong Kong I was fascinated at how so many clothes were commonly hanging outside from the windows of high rise buildings. Dirty air? Yes. Full wardrobe flapping in the breeze? Decidedly yes.

God, I am SOOOO glad I can still line dry outside...in the hot south florida sun, which combined with a front load washer and its powerful spin cycle gets my jeans dry within 20min. :)

So thankful to have grown up in a European environment where line drying is the norm, and that my parents instilled these small habits in me that could really help save me some money and the environment too. :)

I don't understand why people think clotheslines are ugly. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I think clothes flapping in the wind look pretty. Is it some kind of class thing? Like only poor people can't afford dryers and we don't want our neighborhood to look poor?

I am a committed line drier and with my retractable clothesline discretely tucked away in my backyard, I can't imagine that it has any affect on property values. Then again, I live in a relatively funky area where such things as chickens and line drying are not frowned upon.
I will say that there is a certain time commitment to line drying, and it may be difficult for people with children, jobs and other activities who typically squeeze a load of laundry in whenever they can manage to find the time.

I grew up with outside line drying, and it always seemed normal to me - plus the clothes do smell really fresh! I don't have anywhere to have an outdoor line - so I use 2 ikea "FROST" drying racks indoors. Saves energy and money!

I totally understand and sympathize with the premise of the movie but was confused by the quote "It's much uglier to look out the window and see rising sea levels."

A rising sea level is actually needed in many parts of the world...global warming is causing many bodies of water to evaporate leaving people, plants, and wildlife dead or dehydrated. We could use a good dose of water on earth...

I hung a clothesline in my condo laundry room. So far I am the only one to use it.

I grew up hang drying clothes, we did it inside because of harsh winters, but during the summer it was outside. Now, admittedly we don't hang dry EVERYTHING, but definately 50%, it also helps your clothing last longer. We are buying a house and I was so excited to see a line in the backyard.

ps I think it is pretty too!

This is another reason why I will never live in a house that is subject to a HOA.

We should never have bought a new dryer. It's used about once a year in perceived "emergencies", such as often happen when young children come to visit. That's hardly a good use of space and money.

Here in southern Ontario, Canada... the summers are humid and the winters are dry. But even outdoors in the summer, the humidity isn't quite like that of Britain, and even a light breeze is usually enough to help dry clothes. In the winter, in this family anyhow, we dry clothes in the furnace room.
See, the humidity of the air is brought up a little as the clothes give off moisture, and we don't have to use the dryer. It's a win-win in the Win-ter. Har.

Thanks for all your comments. It does seem that this film is still in production, not yet released. So stay tuned for it's eventual release! You can follow the film's progress on Facebook -

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Drying-For-Freedom-A-Film-About-Clotheslines/133953030943?v=wall&viewas=100000123465600&ref=nf

Kyle, Apartment Therapy Boston

I don't have a backyard or porch anymore, so I dry my clothes on a drying rack in the bathroom. The sun, however, is much quicker! WHY WASTE FREE ENERGY?!?!

starting from today i am following it !!!!!!! nothing like a sun dried linen !

All in favor of the Freedom to Hang movement. Housing developments with rules against this should be boycotted, or openly defied, IMO.

I've lived in a handful of *developing* countries where clothes were hung to dry on trees, rocks, and -- yes -- clotheslines. Virtually no one in these places owns a dryer.

I have a dryer, which I do use when I need to (rainy days, dead of winter, etc.) but we could all benefit from cutting back. (I got rid of my dishwasher a while back and have no regrets.)

Good luck to these people and their message.

I don´t think line drying is ugly...i live in lisbon and here one of the most comon pictures in postcards sold to turists are XII century buildings with clothes hanging outside

I used to try my clothes when I was living in Turkey (it is still very common) and it is a huge change for me now to get accustom to share washer / dryer wt strangers (my mom was shocked when I first told her) ... Also some of my beautiful clothing got messed up in the dryer.. but without a balcony I do not know how to dry my clothes..

why they do not have balconies in each apt building in NYC is still a msytery to me...

I honestly don't like the look of this, aesthetically. I don't know about buildings telling people they can't, that seems a bit much.

Our upstairs neighbors used to hang their sheets so when we looked out of our balcony, we would see their sheets flapping in the wind.

Like Lizztopia mentioned, in Australia dryers are the exception to the rule. I couldn't imagine taking a walk around the neighbourhood and not seeing clotheslines...full of colours and waving in the breeze. Like a string of party banners :)

Even my uni friends who don't have access to balconies or gardens hang their clothes on drying racks in their living room.

The only time I can remember not hanging my clothes on a line to dry was during winters when I lived in Montana. During the winter it would get to -40F. If you hang your clothes on a line when it's that cold they will freeze and then your jeans can break in half. Not terribly efficient.

I live in Australia and clothes on the line is a way of life (the hills hoist is an icon like vegemite)! And if Apartment blocks ban hanging clothes on balconies then they have to provide an alternative option for your clothes to hang in the sun. Well it was like that the last time I lived in Apartments, hope it's still the same. Often you'll see a fenced off area where there are stacks of washing lines around apartment blocks in Brisbane.

I don't mind the eye-sore of clothes off balconies. When I flew into Beijing I loved seeing the clothes hanging on the apartment blocks, it gave colour to those grey blocks!

Hanging clothes on a clothesline or a drying rack is good for the environment, good for the clothes, and good for the pocketbook. What's not to love? As for aethestics - I think it is fundamentally more beautiful being frugal and socially responsible.

I also disagree about the aesthetics of it. How is HOA-enforced bland homogeneity the more attractive option?

In Yorkshire, where I grew up, hardly any households had a tumble dryer. I'm not talking council housing, either, I'm talking affluent neighborhoods. Nearly everyone dried their clothes outside, and inside in the winter or when it rained.

I live in Chicago now, and dry most of my laundry indoors on drying racks, mostly because it's expensive to do laundry in my building (and the dryer doesn't dry all the way, anyway) and because my clothes seem to last longer this way.

Depending on the clothes, it can be very unappealing. Living near Chinatown, I see worn, yellowed panties and tightie-whities. But they're part of the neighborhood.

Growing up under an HOA, I never understood why we couldn't have a clothesline in our backyard. I like to think that my dad's polos looked better than the back of our house for our neighbors.

How about the next HOA rule to go should be vegetable garden bans? Not everyone wants to live on a golf course!

I hang dry most of my clothes indoors. I hate it when stuff shrinks or fades. I'll put things like sweatpants , sheets and towels in the dryer, but I always wait until I have a big bundle of those to do in one go.

My family and I have been drying our clothes on a drying rack for probably over 10 years now.

Our dryer broke one year and we never replaced it after we saw how much money we saved.

Only when I lived in the dorms is the only time I used a actual dryer again. It felt really unnatural to have my clothes all dry in under an hour. hehe :\

I was watching this documentary the other day (BBC? I don't know, it was Youtube) about how in certain parts of Africa, hanging your clothes to dry can be dis-gust-ing. There's these little flies that love laying their eggs in damp clothing, and when you put the clothes on, the little buggie-wuggies crawl inside of your skin. A whole lot of itching and a couple weeks later, you have these huge, nasty magggots crawling out of airholes in your arms, legs, whatever. AHHHHH! Thank God I live in Canada.

Shannon, that's why ironing (many people in the developing world use charcoal irons) is so important and is done assiduously in areas prone to these little pests ... it kills the eggs. (Paul Theroux wrote a short story on this subject many years ago.)

I don't like to be negative but if people won't even hang out their washing, where possible, they are never going to cut their air miles or get rid of gas guzzling cars. I've been running a home for over 40 years and I have never owned a dryer. I did use a laundry for a few years when I lved in an apartment but as soon as I had space the clothes all went outside.

I've been drying my clothes on clothing racks since college, and I love it. It started as a way to save money, and I just got to love it. I still dry my towels, white socks, and sheets in a dryer, but I will wait until I have a decent size load. I remember moving into an apartment my senior year of college, and not being able to dry our clothes on the balcony. Instead my roomie and I would set up racks all over the living room for laundry day, and that was simple enough. I still use my dryer racks, since I live in a city and there is no place to dry outside. It still saves us a lot of money, and I love knowing that I'm doing at least a small part to help the environment.

All you people are so inspiring, I think I just my try to get a drying rack this week. (I live in Seattle, so stringing a clothesline on our tiny balcony would be useful for maybe two months of the year.) Line drying clothes would require me to be a more organized person, since I tend to be the sort who realizes she's out of socks at 11pm and hurries to do a load of wash. But that would be a positive improvement in my life, too.

I hang most of my laundry to dry inside my kitchen and bathroom (I live near a smog-spewing port that keeps my car coated with a fine patina of grime, and I can't trust my neighbors, so no outdoor hanging for me). Hanging laundry indoors was good enough for Abigail Adams, after all.

Ever wonder why dryers have lint filters? Dryer lint is a side effect of your clothes gradually wearing away, and they will wear out faster if you only ever machine-dry them. Dryers warp bras, knot up anything long, and wreck delicates. I strive to use mine only for bedding, since I don't have enough space to hang it.

I grew up in Eastern Europe where everyone used clotheslines and probably 70% of the people still does. I do like the smell of air dryed laundry but I still can't get out of my head the lines of all kinds of undies and all kinds of unatractive laundry hanging from the balconies and I still remember the never-ending piles of clothes that have to be ironed every week.
Airdryed clothes do get stiff with a lot more wrinkles and they do streach a bit. I still air dry some of my shirts, skirts and dresses but for towels, sheets, t-shirts, jeans and ect. I preffer to use the dryer.