U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry (2009)

I'm in this thread as an American confused about why everyone cares about this.

Everyone has a dryer here, either in their place of residence or in the location they do their laundry. Washer and dryer are a set pair. They're either stacked on top of each for compactness (some apartments) or they're next to each other in the same room. I've never even heard of a place in the US that doesn't have dryers where they have washing machines. Even homeless people can use dryers, assuming they can afford to use the laundry in the first place. (And no the hot humid air doesn't dump into the house/apartment, it dumps to the outside.)

Yes I occasionally hang up laundry, but the dryers are always there. It's not an access issue.

This isn't something people complain about or even mention here. It's usually only recent immigrants to the country who hang up laundry like this however.

My experience in the US is that most folks' attitude about their home is that they should be able to do whatever they want, but no one around them should be able to change anything unless they like it.

America is full of people who believe in their right to be completely their own person, and that everyone else should be exactly like them as well. By force, if necessary.

> For the pic seems to be her home, her property and she can't even hang her clothes to dry.

Sure, but there's limits to what you can display on your front lawn without annoying the neighbours, no?

As per the pic in the article, she's handing her clothing in the front yard, which, even in a country where drying-by-hanging is the norm, is still considered tacky and stupid.[1]

Now, maybe she doesn't have a backyard, or maybe it doesn't have enough space, but the article didn't say so. They also pick a single quote used in the anonymous notes - "Don't want to see your underwear" (or something similar), without the rest of the anonymous note. My guess is that she has already had notes asking her to do this in the privacy of her backyard.

I wish they (or the woman herself) could have stated why it has to be the front lawn or nothing at all.

> This coming from the country where morons want to own a gun to protect their property and all other bs excuses, it's rather comedic.

[1] I'm 46 years old in said country, and I have never before in my life seen people hang their laundry on their front lawn. How common is this in Portugal?

If you include gas heating, heating alone becomes twelve times the energy use of refrigeration: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php

Actually, I don't necessarily mind it. It should be done in the backyard or sides if possible though as it's probably an eyesore to numerous neighbors.

But the bigger point is if the community has a standard or by-law that she is just ignoring. Just doing what you want is no way to live in a society as is reflective of the selfish turn we've taken. It's inconsiderate of you neighbors and part of living socially is that a part of "who we are - our true selfs" has to be sacrificed to make ourselves bearable to others. We can't just expect everyone to accept "our truth" or whatever. Otherwise, you're antisocial.