Hanging your laundry on a clothesline

[Baron Kurtz]

In big cities, it can be difficult. Less and less people have yards large enough to handle a line. In London I have a washing line strung from my house to my shed roof. I live on the outskirts where one generally gets more garden space.

Such a washing line in Hong Kong, of course, would be considered an "illegal structure" and would have to be removed. Hong Kong, however, shows big city folks how to dry their clothing. You see these bamboo canes (the thin horizontal ones, not the ones at the front left of the photo - that's scaffolding) sticking out of pretty much every window. I guess it's the same pretty much everywhere in China. They are, of course, "illegal structures", though the authorities do nothing about them:

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

I recently found out clothes lines are protected in Louisiana as of 2010 as a solar powered device. I'm glad but it did give me a bit of a giggle.
http://daily.sightline.org/2012/02/21/clothesline-bans-void-in-19-states/

 

[TomS]

We have a clothesline, and use it often. The sun is great for removing spots!!

 

[vitanola]

In big cities, it can be difficult. Less and less people have yards large enough to handle a line. In London I have a washing line strung from my house to my shed roof. I live on the outskirts where one generally gets more garden space.

Such a washing line in Hong Kong, of course, would be considered an "illegal structure" and would have to be removed. Hong Kong, however, shows big city folks how to dry their clothing. You see these bamboo canes (the thin horizontal ones, not the ones at the front left of the photo - that's scaffolding) sticking out of pretty much every window. I guess it's the same pretty much everywhere in China. They are, of course, "illegal structures", though the authorities do nothing about them:

Pretty much the same all over the world.

Yorkville, New York, late 'teens:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Gawd, I'd hate to have been the guy who had to string the clothesline. I have a major problem with heights. I get vertigo just changing a lightbulb.

 

[Edward]

So it seems the impression I get from television is true: most apartment dwellers in the US don't have washing machines in their own apartments, but a communal laundry room? Is there a cultural or practical reason for that?

I used to have a combined washer-dryer to save space, but it died. I now have a washing machine: an Indesit Moon. Beautiful piece of retro-futurist design:

In a flat in the East End with only a small balcony, I don't have the space for a washing line, but I have a couple of racks. Occasionally it's dry enough for me to put them out on the balcony, but usually they just have to go inside. Eventually when I clear enough space in my spare room I'll buy a separate dryer. Those are invaluable for things like sheets, towells and underwear, but everything else goes on the rack. I'm especially fussy about things like denim that are known to shrink in a dryer. A few things I do hand wash. Less since I stopped wearing printed T shirts. Mostly just woollens and delicates.

I was taught to hang sheets and towels on the lines facing the neighbors, and underwear on the middle line. There was a series of incidents here a few years ago of women's underwear being stolen from clotheslines, but for some reason they left mine alone. Possibly they didn't recognize what it was.

lol Well, at least you can rule out any of the vintage-leaning guys in the neighbourhood as the Secret Knicker Thief...

In big cities, it can be difficult. Less and less people have yards large enough to handle a line. In London I have a washing line strung from my house to my shed roof. I live on the outskirts where one generally gets more garden space.

Such a washing line in Hong Kong, of course, would be considered an "illegal structure" and would have to be removed. Hong Kong, however, shows big city folks how to dry their clothing. You see these bamboo canes (the thin horizontal ones, not the ones at the front left of the photo - that's scaffolding) sticking out of pretty much every window. I guess it's the same pretty much everywhere in China. They are, of course, "illegal structures", though the authorities do nothing about them:

I think the bamboo is a southern thing - never seen it as far north as Beijing. I loved that scffolding, though. Something so much more pleasing to the eye about it.

 

[MissMittens]

I prefer hanging my laundry on the Siegfried Line

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think most apartment buildings, at least the ones I've lived in, which tended to be at the lower end of the poshness scale, were only equipped with washer fittings in the basement -- it was too expensive and too impractical to run the necessary pipes and drains to each individual apartment unit in an older building. I used to use my wringer machine in one apartment -- it doesn't need a dedicated water connection or drain system, you fill it from a hose attached to the sink and empty it into a pail on the floor. Automatic machines, however, require a much more complicated hookup.

 

[Edward]

I think most apartment buildings, at least the ones I've lived in, which tended to be at the lower end of the poshness scale, were only equipped with washer fittings in the basement -- it was too expensive and too impractical to run the necessary pipes and drains to each individual apartment unit in an older building. I used to use my wringer machine in one apartment -- it doesn't need a dedicated water connection or drain system, you fill it from a hose attached to the sink and empty it into a pail on the floor. Automatic machines, however, require a much more complicated hookup.

Good point, I didn't think of that. My block went up in 53 - long before automatic washing machines were the norm (my grandmother had a twin tub well into the eighties), but it was plumbed up as a modern block.

 

[sheeplady]

So it seems the impression I get from television is true: most apartment dwellers in the US don't have washing machines in their own apartments, but a communal laundry room? Is there a cultural or practical reason for that?

It depends on what sort of apartment you live in. If you live in an apartment complex, unless it is a very high end one (where people often buy their apartments) there are normally communal settings. Even in the high end apartment and condos, there is normally a communal room, as individual renters or owners are financially responsible for paying for and installing their own hookups. I've lived in complexes where it was strictly forbidden to do a "private" hookup" because once the renter moves out, the building becomes responsible for maintaining it. That and washers can make horrid messes of floors and such. The communal rooms are always (in my experience) pay per wash and pay per dry.

If you live in a rented house (you rent the entire thing) or you rent an apartment in a house that has been divided into 2-4 apartments, some of these places may have a hookup in the basement (or first floor if there isn't a basement), but typically you are responsible for bringing the machine and then dictating it's use if it is a multi-complex. (Unless someone left their old machines or the landlord is awfully generous.) Otherwise you use a laundromat. Most renters if they don't have a communal space use a laundromat rather than hauling around washers and dryers from place to place.

It is a common thing to see people with their laundry on buses here.

 

[Flicka]

Here, in Sweden, every apartment building has a laundry room, no matter if it's a rental building or not. It's been a standard feature ever since the '30s and people would be shocked of the notion of a building not having one. Some people have their own washing machines too, but lots of people (like me) just use the laundry room (and the people with washing machines usually use the laundry room too occasionally). It's free but, of course, a constant source of conflict between neighbours. You only have to say "tvättstuga!" to a Swede and the horror stories will begin. It's like a part of our national identity.

I'm going to get a washing machine and dryer installed in my bathroom this autumn. Electricity is included in the symbolic fee I pay to the building society so it won't cost me anything to use (although, me being one of those eco fascists, I'll probably hang most things to dry anyway). I never had a washing machine of my own and I'm reeeeeaaaally looking forward not to only get to do laundry every second week (if I'm lucky) unless I hand wash.

 

[ButteMT61]

I was grateful for the shared laundry facilities as a single young man. I met more than a few dates in them! Nothing like folding clean laundry better than the average woman to get a date Although there were times I was queried as to whether I was gay or not!

 

[sheeplady]

I was grateful for the shared laundry facilities as a single young man. I met more than a few dates in them! Nothing like folding clean laundry better than the average woman to get a date Although there were times I was queried as to whether I was gay or not!

Very true, at least from a woman's perspective on the date thing.

 

[DonnaP]

There used to be a laundromat in one of the nearby college towns that was a bar/laundromat called Suds and Duds.

 

[MissMittens]

I was grateful for the shared laundry facilities as a single young man. I met more than a few dates in them! Nothing like folding clean laundry better than the average woman to get a date Although there were times I was queried as to whether I was gay or not!

If you asked for assistance, your preference wouldn't be in question. You're blonde though, and I tend to be questioned merely by having blonde hair

 

[Brad Bowers]

I would love to use a clothes line, but can't. Our 1932-built house has the poles for the lines, but the lines are long gone. However, that's not the problem. My allergies prevent drying clothes and sheets outdoors, as well as the fact that the wind blows quite frequently around here all year long -- dust covers everything in no time. So, I have to settle for the electric dryer.

Brad

 

[Flicka]

Here you would be unlikely to get a date in the laundry room. You book it, see, and have exclusive use if it for about 3 hours (which is why you sometimes have to wait weeks to do laundry if there is no empty slot). If anyone else even entered during your booked time frame, there would be blood, not a date. People literally come to blows over that.

 

[sheeplady]

Here you would be unlikely to get a date in the laundry room. You book it, see, and have exclusive use if it for about 3 hours (which is why you sometimes have to wait weeks to do laundry if there is no empty slot). If anyone else even entered during your booked time frame, there would be blood, not a date. People literally come to blows over that.

I've never heard of booking a laundry room here. At least not any of the places I've lived. The large apartment complex I lived in had one laundry per building, with two washers and driers, for at least 18 apartments (a mix of a few studios, one bedrooms, and mostly 2 and 3 bedrooms although I am not sure of the number of each). Although, many times I had to do my laundry at 3am.

 

[Katzenjammer]

Way too cold and foggy where I live (even in the Summer) for this, but I let my shirts dry indoors on hangers whenever possible. Takes a couple of days!

 

[Flicka]

I've never heard of booking a laundry room here. At least not any of the places I've lived. The large apartment complex I lived in had one laundry per building, with two washers and driers, for at least 18 apartments (a mix of a few studios, one bedrooms, and mostly 2 and 3 bedrooms although I am not sure of the number of each). Although, many times I had to do my laundry at 3am.

We have one room with two machines and one drier for my entire building which is 3x23 flats - 49 flats, right (most 2-3 bedrooms, some studios and some 5 bedrooms)? And no washing before 7 am or after 9 pm. You can see why I want a machine of my own, right?