Living Green by Using Clotheslines

Some areas ban the clothesline. You remember, that thing outside on which your mom or grandma dried clothes? The one that doesn't need carbon offsets because there's no machinery involved. Two metal posts, with four or five ropes connecting them, ropes on which laundry is pinned and dried? Alternative styles include the umbrella style which features a single post with four arms attached at the top which are connected with ropes going around; another option is to have the ropes attach to the house and a metal pole at the other end. Some in this style are made to be retractable. People used to also hang ropes in their basement to dry things during the winter. After all, the furnace is down there so it's warm. My mom hasn't had a clothesline in years and is talking about installing a new one. To save on her utility bill.

Clotheslines are viewed as low-class eyesores by some, yet are a viable way to cut down on energy bills. I heard somewhere that electricity is going up 40% in price by winter. Never mind that gas and food continue to increase in price, but still homeowners associations ban them. In some places clotheslines are restricted to the backyard, but in others, they're banned altogether; honestly, I've never seen a clothesline other than in the backyard, so that seems to be an odd restriction.

It seems reasonable to give people the option, now that budgets are being squeezed the way they are.