San Diego is known for sunny, breezy and warm days. Perfect weather for hiking, surfing, pickleball — and hanging laundry out to dry.
One of those is a far less popular activity than the others.
At least 20 states have laws prohibiting bans on outdoor clotheslines or drying racks. In January 2016, California became one of them.
The idea is to give people an option that would save on ever-rising energy costs and help cut down on air pollution.
Much attention has been showered on these “Right to Dry” laws over the years. While there were few, if any, predictions of a clothesline boom, an increasing trend in their use was expected.
It’s hard to say how much that happened. Figures on how many people dry their clothes outside in San Diego or California are hard to find.
Project Laundry List (yes, there is such an organization at laundrylist.org) estimates that 8 percent of U.S. households line-dry their laundry during five months a year.
Anecdotally, you just don’t see a lot of laundry hung out to dry in the San Diego region.
There are many reasons for that. There are exceptions in the state statue, it’s not convenient, the cost savings may not seem worth the time, and the environmental benefit may shrink over time.
The law says any rule or local law is unenforceable if it prohibits or unreasonably restricts a person’s ability to use a clothesline or drying rack in their backyard.
But there are “reasonable restrictions” if they do not significantly increase the cost of using a clothesline or drying rack, as the Los Angeles Times noted after the law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown took effect.
That allows organizations some leeway to enforce bans, particularly homeowner associations.
For instance, clotheslines can be prohibited in some cases if they would be visible to neighbors or from the street.
When the law was ed, residents were advised to check with their homeowner associations before stringing up lines. But even if they have the law on their side, an HOA board that is predisposed to disallow clotheslines could set up an unwanted fight.
Not surprisingly, a balcony, railing, awning or any part of a building doesn’t qualify as a drying rack or a clothesline.
Meanwhile, the current trend in development may be a factor in outdoor clothes drying in the future. Single-family homes are by no means going the way of the Edsel, but the push is toward more multifamily housing, which might not be practical for clotheslines. However, there have been some efforts to allow clotheslines at condominium complexes.
Rules aside, hanging up and taking down clothes from the line takes considerably more time than putting a load in the dryer. The costs of running a dryer can vary greatly (as can the purchase price), depending on whether it’s gas or electric powered and when it’s used, considering energy rates can vary depending on time of day.
According to various estimates, using a dryer can cost between $100 and $200 a year. That’s not a bad savings, but it may not seem enough of a trade-off for people who are pressed for time — or have to do a lot of laundry.
According to Consumer Reports, a typical dryer uses about 4 percent of household electricity, further adding, “it breaks down the fibers in your clothes over time because of the high heat of a cycle.”
(Sunlight is a mild disinfectant, can fight stains and even bleach whites somewhat. Pro tip: Turn things like dark jeans inside out on the clothesline to reduce fading.)
The environmental impact of using a dryer is not insignificant. If all Americans who currently do not use a clothesline started to use one for 10 months of the year — not always practical in colder climates — that could avoid 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere annually, according to Project Laundry List.
By comparison, one typical enger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
With the trend toward clean energy sources, emissions attributed to dryers (as well as autos) will shrink over time.
People hang clothes out to dry for various reasons, some mentioned here. The legislation in recent years gives more people the choice to do that. But then outdoor drying (or indoor hanging drying) used to be a necessity, not an option.
J. Ross Moore, an inventor from North Dakota, created the first automatic clothes dryer during the early 20th century and publicly published his design for an electrically operated dryer in 1938.
In 1980, fewer than half of U.S. households had a drying machine, according to the EPA. By 2009, dryers were found in nearly 80 percent of households. In 2021’s American Housing Survey, 84 percent of respondents said they had access to a dryer at home.
With such advances, hanging laundry out to dry, in the view of some, carried a lower-class stigma.
Though it’s not discussed much, the use of dryers is one of the many notable cultural differences between the United States and some European countries, where drying laundry outside or on a line inside is still far more common. Americans often have bigger houses that can more easily accommodate dryers and comparatively cheaper electricity.
Backyards in the U.S. tend to be used for relaxation, recreation, socializing, gardening and more. Homeowners might not want to mar the landscaping, sometimes achieved at considerable cost, with hanging laundry.
Let’s face it, not everyone sees aesthetic charm in boxer shorts swaying in the breeze.
What they said
Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson), anchor at Fox 11 Los Angeles, on X.
“Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden all ran against each other starting in 2007. 17 years later, for the first time this summer, Democrats have new characters at the top of the ticket who weren’t a part of that historic race.”
