Project Laundry List- "Right to Dry" Campaign

Many people in the United States are not allowed to hang out their clothes to dry in the sun. Community covenants, landlord prohibitions, and zoning laws are the three primary means of stopping people from using clotheslines. State and federal legislators are encouraged to introduce "Right to Dry" legislation to stem this growing problem.

Project Laundry List board member Dick McCormack, a former Vermont State Senator, introduced the Right to Dry bill in 1999.

Read the text of S.41-AN ACT RELATING TO LIMITING THE ABILITY TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF CLOTHESLINES FOR THE DRYING OF CLOTHES.

“Forbidding sheets and undershirts to flap in the New England sunshine is akin to banning boiled lobsters or requiring New Hampshire town clerks to smile.”

-Froma Harrop, “‘The Right to Dry’ versus Starbuckization”
The Providence Journal, February 1999

I love clotheslines and all that they stand for: beautiful and proud, art installations with clothes, the flags of our life. So join me as I hang my clothes. Save energy, take time to whiff the blue breezes, feel the sparkling yellow sunshine, beautify Poughkeepsie and hang a clothesline. In Venice, when one woman wants to compliment another it is said: "She hangs a beautiful line."

-Marian Dioguardi to the Mayor of Poughkeepsie when she voted to restrict clotheslines to the backyard only, September, 2007

Are you tired of not being able to hang out your clothes? Are you or your neighbors prohibited from using the clothesline? Would you like to save money and energy by using a "solar dryer"?

Encourage your state legislators to introduce a Right to Dry bill or solar rights legislation, like Florida and Utah.
Register your community if your are prohibited from hanging your clothes.
Contact us for more information or if you live in a community affected by these rules and covenants.
See a list of communities that ban the clothesline.
Current Right to Dry bills:
Bill No. 185 in Canada, sponsored by MLA Howard Epstein of Nova Scotia.

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New Hampshire Media

Lift bans on hanging clothing out to dry in the Concord Monitor (Dec. 6, 2007).

Clothesline: Solar Device or Eyesore? on NHPR (Nov. 1, 2007).

Legislative Briefings

Frugal Yankee Fact Sheet

The Opposition's Argument

Listening to Richard Monson, the president of the California Association of Homeowners Associations, you would think that homeowners ought to be as worried about clotheslines as about vermin or graffiti. A clothesline in a neighborhood can lower property values by “15 percent,” Monson is fond of saying. “Modern homeowners don't like people's underwear in public. It's just unsightly.” (See full article...)

Our Response

"Where in Victorian times, clotheslines were ubiquitous, Mrs. Brown’s brassiere blowing in the breeze has apparently become scandalizing to some modern Americans. A strange brand of prudery has made it impossible for some people to conserve energy and money by using a clothesline."

-Helen Caldicott, M.D.
Founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
Project laundry List Board of Advisors

Do you live in Florida, Utah, or Hawaii?

See Florida's state law that allows clotheslines everywhere. Get help from Florida Solar Energy Industry Association at (800) 426-5899.

Read Exercising my right to dry, Daytona Beach News-Journal (Nov. 3, 2007).

Utah has a weaker law, but still defends "reasonably sited" clotheslines. Utah Code and Constitution/Title 10 -- Utah Municipal Code/Title 10 Chapter 09a -- Municipal Land Use, Development, and Management/10-9a-610 Restrictions for solar and other energy devices.

Hawaii's Revised Statutes state in §196-7 Placement of solar energy devices. This definition of solar devices clearly includes clotheslines.