More Time to Hang

Project Laundry List wants people to have more time to hang. Haggled by Christmas consumerism? Is Facebook constantly pestering you? Does the TV suck up hours of your time? Working too many hours? or un(der)employed? The world we live in is increasingly frenetic. We work more and take less vacation than any of the nations to which we most frequently compare ourselves. We measure Gross National Product instead of Gross National Happiness. This is what the Center for Bhutan Studies has to say:

Across the world, indicators focus largely on market transactions, covering trade, monetary exchange rates, stockmarket, growth, etc. These dominant, conventional indicators, generally related to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reflect quantity of physical output of a society. GDP, along with a host of supporting indicators, is the most widely used indicator. Yet GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs, at the expense of other more holistic criterion. It is biased against conservation since it does not register conservation or stocks.

Indicators determine policies. The almost universal use of GDP-based indicators to measure progress has helped justify policies around the world that are based on rapid material progress at the expense of environmental preservation, cultures, and community cohesion.

While Project Laundry List is not advocating for a monarchy, we do think it is our national mission to pursue happiness. (Thank you, Thomas Jefferson, for corrupting Adam Smith's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property" into the more humane words we all know.)

We want to know what you think...

Hanging in the Winter Wonderland

The halcyon days of hanging laundry outside in the hot summer sunshine are over. Watching clothes flap in the warm breeze are a distant memory. Bringing in sun-dried sheets smelling of the sweet spring air are long gone. Winter has now settled in quite deeply over most of the country. Dark, damp, snowy, dank, cold, freezing and icy conditions are really not ideal for outdoor drying, so it is time for year-round clothesline/drying rack users to get a little more inventive!

I live in the Pacific Northwest where winters usually consist of dark, damp, rainy, gray days. Indoor drying is a must for me, as any attempts to line-dry are futile. The laundry ends up being just as damp after a day spent drying outside as when I first hung it, so why bother? For winter indoor drying, I have three drying racks that I usually fill, the overflow goes to the shower rod, backs of chairs and lamp posts. Stuff dries in about a day, two if it's really humid out. I'm accustomed to it now, but it does take a bit of getting used to when laundry is hanging all over the house.

This past week has been quite unusual, weather-wise, in Seattle. We have had frigid record-setting low temperatures, low humidity and absolutely clear skies. Very weird for us! I decided that I wanted to take this rare opportunity to try drying the sheets outside on the clothesline. So on an 18 degree F. morning, I hung 2 sets of sheets out on the line (absolutely freezing my fingers in the process). Winter hanging is not for the faint of heart.

I had always heard stories from my mom and grandma about hanging laundry in the dead of winter on the North Dakota prairie. I was always fascinated to hear about the laundry freezing on the line, but drying quite quickly once it was brought inside. I had never done it myself, so now was my window of opportunity to try it.

It was almost comical to see the sheets freeze almost instantly into a solid board. Any breeze would blow them around straight as could be. I left them out for several hours, until the sun started going down. When I went to get them off, they were actually frozen to the clothesline! I peeled them off, amazed at how much drying actually took place. After bringing them inside I draped them over drying racks where they finished drying quite quickly. They were really soft and had a pungent wintery ozone smell. Overall, a satisfying experience.

I doubt if I will have any more opportunities for outdoor sheet drying this winter; the more typical rain/snow is now on it's way in. Back to total indoor drying. But it's good to be experimental in different weather conditions. Just makes laundry day a bit more fun!

-Marilyn Huttunen

Learn more line drying in winter.

Model Resolution for Right to Dry legislation

Since we generally find that the nicest people in our country come from Minnesota and they have earned that reputation, we hereby offer this model resolution as though a member of the Minnesota Democratic Farm Labor Party wanted to change the world. We crib generously from the Florida "right to dry" law or solar rights bill that passed a few decades ago.

Whereas, there are three major intersecting crises of climate change, energy security, and personal finance that effect all Minnesotans,

Whereas, dryers use at least 6% of all residential electricity in this nation,

Whereas, the myth of modernity that we will be freed from the drudgery of housework if only we buy the latest appliance, spend money to maintain and run it, and then replace it periodically has proven a detriment to the pursuit of happiness,

Whereas, this is the land of the free and there are overwhelming public policy reasons to allow clotheslines to proliferate,

Resolved, that Minnesota should join the other states which make it possible for more people to hang out their clothes in the sun,

Resolved, Minnesotans should act to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by encouraging the development and use of renewable resources in order to conserve and protect the value of land, buildings, and resources by preventing the adoption of measures which will have the ultimate effect, however unintended, of driving the costs of owning and operating commercial or residential property beyond the capacity of private owners to maintain,

Resolved, the adoption of an ordinance by a governing body which prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources is expressly prohibited,

Resolved, a deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or binding agreement. A property owner may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices by any entity granted the power or right in any deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property with respect to residential dwellings and within the boundaries of a condominium unit. Such entity may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south if such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors.