Article Courtesy of The
News Press By Melanie
Payne
Published December 10, 2015
In the upscale community of Cross Creek Estates, Terri Krass’
sheets are flapping on the clothesline in her backyard.
While spending the summer in Maine, Krass found out that Florida statutes
override the clothesline ban in homeowners’ association rules. So when she came
back to Florida the 62-year-old Krass put a pipe in the ground, stuck an
umbrella clothesline into it and started using sunshine to dry her laundry.
Just as she wasn’t aware of Florida’s right-to-dry legislation, she thought
others might not know about the law either.
“I think you would be doing many homeowners a favor if you shared this
information in your column,” the former school superintendent wrote.
“Clotheslines have a major impact on energy usage and are environmentally
sound.”
Krass said some of her neighbors have expressed an interest in putting up
clotheslines and others have expressed consternation.
“They acted like I was white trash and I was going to ruin the community,” Krass
said.
Indeed, there are people who don’t like clotheslines. And many HOAs’ rules state
that clothesline are verboten. Cross Creek’s rules and regulations, too, state
that clotheslines are prohibited.
But those were written prior to the state law, said David DeLaMater, who is a
community association manager for Suitor, Middleton, Cox & Associates, the
management company for the gated community where Krass lives.
“I think a few people were surprised there was a Florida Statute (163.04) on
that,” DeLaMater said. “And they weren’t aware they were allowed.”
Still, DeLaMater said, very few of Cross Creek Estate’s 501 single-family homes
will have clotheslines in the yard. “It’s been a statute for six years. But you
can drive all around Fort Myers and sill can count on one hand the number of
clotheslines.”
Alexander Lee would like to see that change. Lee is the founder of Project
Laundry List, a nonprofit group with the mission of “making air-drying and
cold-water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways
to save energy.”
Florida was the first state to pass a right-to-dry law, Lee said. The statute
makes invalid any ordinance, covenant or deed restriction “which prohibits or
has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors,
clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources ...”
Electric clothes dryers are power guzzlers accounting for 6 to 10 percent of
residential household electric use, Lee said. Because 80 percent of American
households own dryers, a lot of the country’s energy resources go into drying
laundry. It’s a lot of energy and a lot of money. Project Laundry List provides
a calculator that lets people know how much they will save line-drying.
The dryer is not going away, Lee acknowledges. It will be hard to get people in
the North to use clotheslines in the winter, for example. But he believes we
need to cut the use of the dryer as much as possible.
“We were never preaching this for everybody,” Lee said. “But we don’t all need
as a society to depend on something that requires multinuclear power plants.”
Laundry on a line is considered unattractive, said Marlene Kirtland, attorney
and managing partner for the Community Association Law Group in Winter Park.
That’s the reason nearly all homeowners’ associations will have in their rules
and regulations a prohibition on the practice.
Even though those prohibitions are unenforceable in Florida, communities can
place some restrictions on clothesline use. Things such as not allowing clothes
to hang overnight or not allowing them in the front yard, for example. But there
can’t be an outright ban, Kirtland said.
Realtor Patty Chafatelli doesn’t think clotheslines are unsightly or a poverty
indicator. She used to live in a fairly affluent county in New Jersey where in
good weather people always hung their sheets outside to dry “because it makes
them fresh and smell pretty,” she said. “To me it’s not a lowbrow thing.”
House hunters considering gated communities might not agree. These buyers tend
to like rules about what their neighbors can do with their property. “They like
that the next door neighbor will have to keep his lawn a certain way or that the
house across the street will be painted only certain colors,” Chafatelli said.
One Cross Creek Estates resident, Earl Kennedy, said he had no objection to
clotheslines. He would, however, like to see some rules to make sure the lines
aren’t a safety hazard. And he’s seen Krass’ umbrella clothesline and doesn’t
consider it an eyesore.
“It looks fine,” he said. “I wouldn’t see where anyone would have a problem with
it.”
Clothesline tips
If you’ve never slipped between sheets dried outside on a line, or put your head
on a pillow case that a few hours before was hanging outside to dry, you’ve
really missed out on something special.
It’s not too late to give it a try. Here are some tips to make your foray into
the clothesline world a little easier:
-
Put a ½ cup of white distilled vinegar in the rinse cycle
of the wash to reduce stiffness.
-
Grouping your laundry items before hanging them on the
line will make them easier to hang.
-
Put the edges of two items together under one clothes pin
to save on space and pins.
-
Hang clothes by the hem. Towels and sheets can be folded
over the line.
-
Hang whites in the sun but colors need shade.
-
On a multiline clothesline hang shorter items such as
washcloths and pillow cases on the front line.
-
If you want fewer wrinkles, hang clothes out on a breezy
– not real windy – day.
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A clothespin bag makes the job easier.
-
Don’t leave your clothespins on the line after you take
the laundry down.
-
Regularly wipe off your clothesline with a wet cloth.
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