Clothesline: Sustainability Wonder

We decided our backyard needed a clothesline, but didn't have a great place for permanent one or want ropes strung out all the time. We picked out retractable lines long enough to stretch from the pagoda to the fence and have been using them ever since set-up.

Apparently clotheslines are quite contentious throughout the country and many homeowners associations and even a few cities have bans against them. As electric dryers became a household appliance in the 1970s and 80s, clotheslines became a thing of the past. But as energy prices rise and global warming continues, the clothesline is being called one of the "Sustainable Wonders of the World." According to the Department of Energy, a dryer uses 6% of a household's total energy consumption. There is even a slow laundry movement that encourages air-drying and resources for simple, effective ways to save money and energy.


Katie and I grew up helping mom hang the laundry, so I wouldn't call it some radical, eco-idea on our part. Just a simple way to use the sun to help us save resources.