This week, I get to write about something that I dearly love: Hanging out the laundry. Not that I don't love any number of other things, but clothes on a clothesline brings back so many good memories, both of my childhood and of my own family times. We hung clothes to dry, my mother and I, because we enjoyed it, because it was cheap and because you just can't beat the smell of sun dried fabric.

There are other reasons, though, not the least of which is a desire to be environmentally safe. Project Laundry List deals with this, but it also deals with something else - an ever growing policing force that thinks beauty is generic and sterile, flat lawns: straight corners and never a hint of people and their things. It also deals with dangers that come from using dryers and it deals with the heart.  

The newsletter is a serious voice for these things and if you're at all interested in making this a better world, there are volunteer opportunities to do so.

Who is behind this web site? His name is Alexander Lee, a graduate of Vermont Law School and a teacher of behaviorally and emotionally challenged kids at the local public middle school.

When I asked him what inspired the project, he answered, "(I) was inspired by Helen Caldicott, MD, and my mother, a veteran hanger-outer. Helen gave a speech at Middlebury College for a peace symposium that I organized as an undergraduate. She said that if we did things like hang out our clothes we would be able to shut down the nuclear industry."

Since 1999, Project Laundry List has been sounding the trumpet call to keep on hanging out and has grown tremendously since then.

Parting wake-up call from Alexander: "Dryers are dangerous. Clothes dryer fires account for about 15,600 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 400 injuries annually."

Something to think about.

Why I like this site:
It strikes close to my heart, personally speaking, but the layout and graphics are comfortable enough to make you want to stay awhile - which is good, because there are many ideas, actions, invitations and common sense thoughts to find there.

The most interesting thing I found:
The little box right in the middle of the home page, where it says, "Top five reasons to hang out your clothes." That might not seem like the biggest and greatest thing on the site but that, along with a quote from a reader, sums up the entire concept neatly.

What do you think?
Whether you do, or can, or even want to, hang up clothes, what do you think of this site's philosophy and purpose? I couldn't fit it all into a nutshell without leaving shreds everywhere, so it's up to you to tell the rest of the story.

P.S. There's a thread about National Hanging Out Day
you might want to check out, also!

I proudly raise my hands as one who is a hanger-outer!   There's nothing better than the smell of line-dried clothes and sheets and I always take a whiff before I put them away...they even make my closet smell wonderful!  I even like they way they look and sound when they're flapping in the breeze. 

Thanks so much for the website!  I plan to spend more time there when I get a chance.

 

Jennifer

 

Count me in also as one who hangs as many things out as I can.  When we were looking to buy a house one of the things on my MUST HAVE list was .... a clothes line and the house we purchased had one already in place with 4 lines on it!! I fill them up twice a week.  I also love the way my clothes smell and feel.  My mother and grandmother also hung out clothes when I was a child.  I still can remember helping Granny use her wringer washer and hanging  the "flat" clothes up on the line (oooppps, guess I'm telling my age with that one). I also will be checking out the web site you referenced.

shelliajean:

  I still can remember helping Granny use her wringer washer and hanging  the "flat" clothes up on the line (oooppps, guess I'm telling my age with that one). I also will be checking out the web site you referenced.

I used wringer washers by preference for most of my life. I'd still use one if I could find a good used one! :)

I see they really need donations.

Other than that, it's an informative site. I like seeing some sound reasons that hang drying is a good thing. Maybe it will catch on and my family and friends will stop thinking I am destitute or bizarre for the things I do.

 

 

I'm glad to see a site that makes hanging laundry a good thing. I get tired of hearing how silly or time wasting it is, or having people think that only people who can't afford a dryer or to go to the laundromat would ever hang clothes out to dry.

I followed a few links around and found the "Action Center" which I liked. (http://www.laundrylist.org/actioncenter/index.htm) I'm thinking of at least contacting my legislator and might do more.

Thanks for the review.

I can't wait to look at that website, and I did hang my laundry up totally by accident on the 19! :)

That's funny! :) I did, too. Next year, we should have a "Hanging Out Day" right here. Enjoy the web site; it's cool.

Great site, quite interesting. I was amazed to learn that so many places don't allow washing lines. My inlaws lived in Germany for a while, and they weren't allowed to hang laundry on a sunday (or mow lawns, etc) which I think is a good idea - maybe that would be a good compromise (though, with both parents working these days, perhaps not)

I'm enjoying hanging my laundry but it IS a HUGE time consumer. By the time I get it all pegged out, then go and get it in again, and then I have to stand and iron it - I hate ironing, and I think an iron uses almost as much power as a tumble-dryer - I think it added an extra hour to my day compared to just stuffing it in the dryer and putting one or two things on the indoor rack.

 I also disagree about the danger part. I'd like to know about those figures - how many of those fires were from properly maintained, modern dryers? I take the lint out of my dryer every time and  usually use it on a low heat.

I used to have a clothes hoist in the laundry of my old house. My dad made it. A rack with four bars on a pulley with a rope, so I could hang the clothes up to get the warmth in winter, without cluttering up my tiny laundry. I wish I'd kept it.