Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tetromino_ 1768 days ago
Re clothes dryers - many Americans don't have much choice. Most apartment buildings in the US prohibit drying clothes on the balcony (to avoid giving the impression that poor people might live there). And some towns and neighborhood HOAs prohibit outside clothes lines even for residents of single family houses.
3 comments

In good income houses and apartments in Europe there is a specific place that is designed for hanging your clothes, that is not very visible from outside, like an internal patio, or an outdoor balcony with metal screens that let most sunlight and air go through, but you can't hardly see from outside.

In those places it is typically forbidden to hang clothes outside their specific places because it is not aesthetically pleasing.

I've usually hung my laundry indoors or on the stairs if I lived in a place with stairs. I realize this requires some space, but usually keeping the clothes in front of the window is enough to have them dry.

I've had one of [1] these for years and it hasn't let me down yet.

[1]: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/frost-drying-rack-indoor-outdoo...

Effectiveness of indoor hang drying depends on air humidity and circulation. In our previous place, at end of August indoor RH would be around 70% (edit: outdoor would be around the same so opening a window wouldn't make a difference). In practice that meant that some of the clothes hadn't completely dried the next day, and were starting to smell.
I'm hanging my clothes next to the dehumidifier. We need the dehumidifier anyway for the basement. It dries the clothes in no time, they're already on hangers, without wrinkles, and without wearing them out like the drier does.
TIL... Land of the free my ass
Housing is one of the most heavily restricted activities in the US with institutions like HOAs or rental companies often applying all sorts of restrictions to enforce homogeneity or cultural values.
TIL means "Today I learned. Well today I learnt.

Edit : Don't downvote. I am just the messenger. I just wanted to spare the googling to someone

i wonder if your comment saved energy or used up more energy than no comment at all. I guess we'd need to know how many people don't know and want to know what TIL means.