Seacoast NRG

Amy Quinton of New Hampshire Public Radio has an interesting segment on the so-called right-to-dry movement to bring back clotheslines in New Hampshire.  The line drying of clothes is no longer an inalienable right, due to neighborhood and homeowner covenants that prohibit clotheslines for being unsightly.  Advocates state that line drying saves energy and money, as well as helping clothes to last longer and smell better (see my previous post on line drying).

According to the NHPR segment, state Democratic Representative Suzanne Harvey of Nashua is sponsoring right-to-dry legislation in New Hampshire.  Harvey, who is the Vice-Chair of the NH House’s Science, Technology and Energy Committee, has proposed legislation would allow home associations to consider aesthetics or placement of clotheslines, but they could not ban them.  Twelve states apparently already have laws that protect the use of clotheslines for drying clothes.

Line drying has other champions in New Hampshire.  Alexander Lee, who I met at the NH Going Green Expo in Manchester last week, is a resident of Concord and is the Executive Director of Project Laundry List.  Project Laundry List is an advocacy group seeking to educate people about how simple lifestyle changes, such as the air-drying of clothes, “can reduce our dependence on environmentally and culturally costly energy sources.”