I missed National Hang Out Day this year (April 19th) because I was sick. No, I wouldn’t have been hanging out with my girlfriends or hanging around the local mall.

National Hang Out Day is an effort supported by Project Laundry List to promote cheap, low-tech, easy to install solar dryers – that is, hanging out laundry to line dry.

You may not like the idea of seeing your neighbors’ undies flapping in the breeze. A friend of mine in a small southern Ontario town fielded complaints from one neighbor every time she hung out laundry. He said that he couldn’t have company over, or even enjoy his back yard himself, when her sheets & towels were hanging on the clothesline. Personally, I couldn’t see what the big deal was but many others do.

In May 2001, when this series of Doonesbury cartoons was published, nearly all of California’s 35,000 homeowners’ associations (affecting about seven million people) banned clotheslines.

Florida is the only state in the USA with a law specifically protecting clothesline users from such restrictions. Elsewhere, thousands of homeowners’ associations and apartments and at least one local government have prohibited or restricted the drying of laundry outdoors, generally claiming that clotheslines obstruct views and are an eyesore.

In this part of the country, far from being considered an eyesore, hanging clothes is regarded as an art form of sorts.

Many subscribe to the large to small method of hanging out clothes, but I find this leaves socks & underwear at the closest end of the line and in the way of faster-drying items such as sheets & t-shirts. Some like the color-code  approach.

Nova Scotian Cindy Etter-Turnbull (aka Mrs. Clothesline) has written a fun-filled book, Fine Lines: A Celebration of Clothesline Culture that examines some of the popular patterns & details the different kinds of lines, the various hanging methods and the personality profiles of those who participate in this age-old daily ceremony. Fine Lines for Canadian readers

The book The Clothesline, a joint effort of authors VanSteenhouse & Rawlings, and photographers Foxhoven & McConathy contains a chapter on clothesline collectibles and on clotheslines in art, as well as tips for laundry day & laundry room. The Clothesline for Canadian readers

Clotheslines are definitely part of country living. Whether you participate or not, chances are you’ll be looking at your neighbors’ lines.

To show you how firmly entrenched clotheslines are in the culture of eastern Canada, the province of Newfoundland & Labrador has a charming clothesline sudoku and lots of clothesline lore on their official tourism site.

So – how do YOU feel about hanging out?

P.S. If you don’t have room to string a long line, try one of these space-saving umbrella models.

[tags]National Hang Out Day, Fine Lines, The Clothesline, Cindy Etter-Turnbull, hanging clothes, Newfoundland tourism, clothesline sudoku[tags]