Did You Know Clotheslines Are Illegal To Hang in Some Parts of New York State?
If you grew up as I did, you remember hauling out the hamper and stuffing your pockets with wooden clothespins to hang laundry to dry on laundry day. But did you know that when you and I did that, we may have been breaking the law depending on where we lived?
As it turns out, in the state of New York, if you want to hang a clothesline, you're supposed to go through the proper channels, and if your local government, homeowners association, or condo association says no to you letting your clothes dry in the breeze, there's not a whole lot that you can do about it.
When our parents and grandparents were growing up, families hung their laundry to dry all the time, but then, things changed when people started to complain about having to look at their neighbor's unmentionables being strung across lawns, and suddenly, restrictions were put in place in some places, especially in neighborhoods with homeowners associations and condo associations.
Several states have laws on the books that override rules by homeowners and condo associations against hanging laundry to dry, but interestingly, New York isn't one of those states which means if your local government, homeowners, or condo association has decided it doesn't want you to hang your clothes on a clothesline, you really don't have much to say in the matter.
It's interesting that residents are being pushed to really go green and yet, New York still doesn't give its citizens the right to harness the power of the sun to dry their clothing by having their backs when it comes to ridiculous rules.
According to the New York Times, "the typical U.S. household could prevent 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year simply by turning off its dryer and hanging out the wash."