My dirty laundry

I've just been reading about hanging laundry to dry. It can apparently be quite a hot topic. Who knew? Since I'm the one who usually does the laundry for two people who have a lot of clothes but never anything to wear, the only taboo related to laundry in our house is if someone is all out of underpants. (gasp)

These days, all the cool kids seem to be talking about how clever it is to hang your laundry in order to 1)save on the electricity bill and 2)cut down on carbon emissions.

Now, I don't know about you, but when did people stop hanging up their clothes? Oh, I know, trends are always coming back into fashion but I know people who had the hairstyle the first time and persevered until they were back in style. Well, I guess I've just been the same way about hanging laundry to dry. It, um, works.

Recently I've come to discover something that I had no idea existed. It is something I have come to revile as much as littering and rudeness. Maybe even more! I have recently discovered that in some communities have elected, (chosen, hired, I don't know how they do it) groups of people who tell others who live in their communities what to do with their homes! One of the things they say is "not to be done" is HANG YOUR LAUNDRY OUT TO DRY!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously!

I assume that the idea is something to do with "unmentionables". I know, I know, how gauche and unsightly. However, I do wonder where these people think that clean clothes come from? The Laundry Fairy?

Pardon my ignorance, but I really do want to know what the consequences are for blatantly defying laundry guidelines and hanging your wet clothes willy-nilly in your very own backyard. What do these communities have to fear from their LAUNDRY POLICE? Is it possible, for example, to get off scot-free if, some unforeseen freak of nature cuts the power at the exact moment you were about to pull your wet laundry from the machine to put into the dryer and you happened to have a spare clothes line hanging around from days of yore.

I'm going to go so far as to spread the word that the idea of Laundry Police forbidding clothes lines in back yards actually decreases the property value of those homes. I don't know anyone would buy a home in one of these communities where they have to put up with this sort of nonsense. It's laundry, you hang it up to dry. It's not the end of the world. Get over it. There are more important things in the world to concern yourself with.