Recently I was in talking to my lawyer about the Kuzuka website and she made a comment that shocked me. She said that she wanted to hang a clothesline to cut down on some of her home energy use and take a step towards reducing her carbon footprint. She decided not to get a clothesline because the city of London (Ontario) had an antiquated by-law that bans the use of clotheslines!

I was so appalled by this news that I did a quick internet search when I got home about clotheslines bans. It turns out London is not alone - communities and home owner associations across Canada and the USA have similar policies in effect. Included in this list are large governments like the city of Vancouver and the province of Nova Scotia. There is even a website dedicated to these unnecessary laws: http://www.laundrylist.org/.

The frustrating thing about these clothesline bans is that they are not at all based on anything scientific or energy-related. These bans were put into place to preserve the aesthetics of residential areas - basically clotheslines were thought to be ugly. I think public opinion has shifted on this issue, and having a clothesline is now considered a ‘thumbs-up’ in many people’s eyes.

In response to the changing perceptions of clotheslines, the province of Ontario and the city of Southampton NY recently passed laws that outlaw any existing clothesline bans - kudos to them for their action on this issue. If your government still has clothesline bans in effect, contact your local representative and let them know what you think about it.

Meanwhile, I’ll send my lawyer an email to let her know that its OK to go get that clothesline after all.

Photo courtesy of Kevin P on morguefile.com.