Line drying or Backyard clotheslines is now old-fashioned and largely disappeared from our society. Even some cities and communities have imposed rules against the clotheslines. Industrialized laundries with delivery and drop off have made our lives more convenient and easier. Our great-grandmothers used to hang every load of laundry outside to dry. It may seem tedious to hang wet clothes outside and wait until they dry in hours, if not a day. Now we have dryers that can do this job in minutes. However, line drying has some advantages over the dryers as they save money, promote energy conservation and it is also good for clothes and fabrics.
Electric dryers were invented in the 1930s, but they took another 20 years to replace the traditional line drying. Before the Self-service laundry, New Yorkers used to hang their laundry outside buildings, homes, and in backyards as you can see in the photos below.
