I cannot take credit for inventing this slogan – it is the name of a movement that fights against state laws and community bans on drying your laundry outside. Officially more than 60 million Americans are prohibited from hanging their laundry outside, in their own yards or balconies and porches. The 2 minute clip below is a poignant introduction to what served the interest of the electricity industry (with former President Regan and Nancy as their spokespeople!) and those selling dryers. https://vimeo.com/36605168

Hurrah for sustainability movements that fight these bans with clever digging out of laws that can be used against them. As of 2012 they voided the ban (or made it unenforceable) in 19 states (including Oregon) by referral to solar access laws. Many of these are from the 1970s and hidden clauses in state property laws. A 1979 Oregon Law, for example, says any restrictions on “solar radiation as a source for heating, cooling or electrical energy” are “void and unenforceable.” Clotheslines appear to fit under the umbrella of Oregon’s and other states’ solar rights because systems for hang-drying rely on the sun’s radiation to evaporate water in wet laundry. Given how much electricity and money you save, prolonging the lifetime of your clothing and eliminating pollution, it seems insane not to allow outside drying. (However, my clothesline does not look as arranged as this one….)

Since my photos were taken in Italy I though it fitting to match them with Lavanderas, by an Italian painter, Antonio Donghi (1897- 1963), who was part of Italy’s neoclassical movement in the 1920s and was sometimes compared to Rousseau.