There's nothing like sliding into sheets that have just been hung outside on a clothesline..but did you know in many places it's illegal for you to dry your clothes outside?

Many neighborhood associations have covenants that ban you from doing things like parking a boat on your driveway, building a shed in your backyard, or hanging clothes outside on a clothesline!  I can understand why neighborhoods  have standards (like no rusty cars up on blocks in the frontyard or cows grazing on the lawn), but I think with the world focusing more on energy efficiency, it's time to take another look at the clothesline.

I bet there are kids who've never experienced what it's like to have sheets that haven't been puffed up by Bounce or Snuggle..instead being kissed by the sun and dried by the summer breeze. I feel sad for them. (Actually there are probably a lot of adults who have missed out, too!)

I know of at least one Madison neighborhood association that bans clotheslines, because I live in it. I asked Mayor Dave Cieslewicz if it would be possible for the city to enact an ordinance to override these restrictive covenents. He says it's possible,  but no one has introduced this proposal, at least not yet.

A group called Project Laundry List is out to make the clothesline hip again..and offers several reasons to grab those clothespins and get hanging.

Save energy!  Right now, dryers use five to ten percent of the residential energy in the United States.

Your clothes smell better, and aren't coated with questionable chemicals from dryer sheets.

Clothes last longer. (They ask, where do you think lint comes from?)

Find out more about Project Laundry List here.

And let me know if you have a clothesline I can borrow.