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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Drying washing on our balcony

493 replies

Emmabryant123 · 03/08/2019 11:37

We private rent in a block of 16 flats
The flats vary from rented to owned .
We put our washing on two airers today on our balcony
No offensive clothing etc on show
We came down to this message on the main front door
Are we being unreasonable!? Or is this person who wrote this note being unreasonable?

Drying washing on our balcony
OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
WaxOnFeckOff · 03/08/2019 16:43

And honestly, where does this stuff end? I think my neighbours car is too bright a colour and it clashes with my hanging baskets, my neighbour has a beer belly and likes to cut the grass with his top off, should he be allowed? My neighbour keeps growing nasturtiums and I don't like them, I don't like the colour someone has painted their front door etc etc.

timshelthechoice · 03/08/2019 16:46

YANBU

thisnamechanger · 03/08/2019 16:47

Put your laundry back out OP. If it wasn't in your contract you can't have known about it and it's a totally dickhead rule anyway

WaxOnFeckOff · 03/08/2019 16:47

OP team up with some neihbours and get this on the go - it's not on the balcony...

Drying washing on our balcony
bubblesforlife · 03/08/2019 16:56

@rachelover40 agree.
I’ve just bought a new flat and if my neighbours used the balcony like that, guaranteed multiple people would be calling them out within 10 minutes to pull in their washing. I’ve done some reading since I’ve seen this post, it does impact the value of the property as it loses its appeal.

I can see all perspectives, but at the e

VenusTiger · 03/08/2019 16:56

Disgruntled neighbour that’s all. Ignore.

PancakeAndKeith · 03/08/2019 16:59

Drying clothes on a balcony is not a good look for a housing block, imagine if everyone did it?

I really can’t see the problem. I’ve tried and I can’t.

Here are some of the things you can’t do in Poundbury.

Drying washing on our balcony
Drying washing on our balcony
Drying washing on our balcony
bubblesforlife · 03/08/2019 16:59

Err hit I post to soon...
I see all perspectives. The note was a cowardly thing to do. But people are honestly just protecting the value of their home and they shouldn’t have to see washing when it’s not allowed.
If drying clothes inside is an issue, try using a dehumidifier. You can get super cheap options.

PancakeAndKeith · 03/08/2019 17:01

it does impact the value of the property as it loses its appeal.

Wow. Let the planet burn so long as our house prices stay the same.

Crispmonster123 · 03/08/2019 17:03

I hate hanging washing outside. Looks a mess but that’s my issue

Outsomnia · 03/08/2019 17:07

A drying rack below the parapet of the balcony (provided balcony is not made of toughened glass or railings) should never be a problem.

Cornettoninja · 03/08/2019 17:09

they shouldn’t have to see washing when it’s not allowed

It’s hardly a projection of the human centipede is it? Confused

I just find it a really weird thing to get so annoyed about that’s it’s not unusual to see it in a legal document! I can’t help but feel it’s the same group of people who get all sneery about tattoos that actually give a flying one about it.

The value/devalue thing sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy at the expense of the environment.

There were a whole raft of driers declared fire risks in the last few years weren’t there? I’m mildly surprised driers are allowed at all in flats after Grenfell.

WhyBirdStop · 03/08/2019 17:18

If drying clothes outside is trashy where do posh people dry theirs? You can tumble dry polyester and most other synthetics until the cows come home, but silk, linen, nice cotton, wool, and so on die in the tumble dryer and need to be air dried. Do they give wet laundry to their staff to take home to dry on council estates?

diddl · 03/08/2019 17:25

"If drying clothes outside is trashy where do posh people dry theirs?"

Pulley airer in the laundry room?

Abraid2 · 03/08/2019 17:28

If drying clothes outside is trashy where do posh people dry theirs?

I’ve wondered this too.

PancakeAndKeith · 03/08/2019 17:32

Actual posh people dry outside, in big walk in airing cupboards or Shiela maid over the aga.

Middle class people who think they are posh (Jacob Rees Mogg for example) use tumble dryers.

StealthPolarBear · 03/08/2019 17:38

Proper posh people rarely see their own dirty clothes I imagine.
Most sensible people regardless of poshness crap dry outside because it's the sensible thing to do.

PancakeAndKeith · 03/08/2019 17:40

Proper posh people rarely see their own dirty clothes I imagine.

The properly posh don’t have as many staff any more, although there will often be a live out house keeper who does stuff.
Of course tweeds are not washed in a machine.

PumpkinP · 03/08/2019 17:42

I’m sorry but I do think it looks horrible and I say that as a council tenant. There are flats near me that hang it out the front of there house and it just looks really tacky and awful they literally have a washing line going from one end of the building to the other and all flats have a section of the line. I use to live in a flat where they hanged it out the front (no back balconies) but diagonal across the balcony so it meant you literally had to walk through the washing. I hated it but if I didn’t use the line then my neighbours would put their washing on it! I think it’s easier just to have a no washing outside rule.

WaxOnFeckOff · 03/08/2019 17:43

it does impact the value of the property as it loses its appeal.

Well, loses it's appeal to one group of people whereas a whole other group are thinking "great, somewhere to hang my washing..."

But I guess those are the "wrong" people?

I embarrassed SIL when we visited and stayed with her and family in the states with DH and out toddlers at the time, by hanging a load of washing outside in their massive back "yard".

Honestly they had this huge long garden that was barely even overlooked and she was drying everything in a tumble dryer. Confused

Sunny breezy day here today and i've done load after load, including the bedding and hung it out, the last lot is just about dry now. We also have an indoor pulley in the utility so we rarely ever use the tumble-dryer. And when we do use it, it's just to finish damp stuff off rather than to dry from wet.

There is no way i'd be using a dryer when there is warm air outside.

ChimesAtMidnight · 03/08/2019 17:45

Proper posh people rarely see their own dirty clothes I imagine.
Of course they do - in the pile on the floor ready for the maid to dispose of, as I expect they wear once and throw away. Grin

DownToTheSeaAgain · 03/08/2019 17:51

Actual posh people dry outside, in big walk in airing cupboards or Shiela maid over the aga

Oh gosh. I must be posh as have a washing line and Sheila maid. No dryer though.

Washing inside with little ventilation is crap for houses. Using a dryer is crap for the environment and the electricity bill. It is utterly ridiculous that people are bothered about how washing 'looks'. We all have to do it

WaxOnFeckOff · 03/08/2019 17:51

Proper posh people don't bother washing clothes at all as they all stink of horseshite from the stables so what would be the point?

PancakeAndKeith · 03/08/2019 17:56

Of course they do - in the pile on the floor ready for the maid to dispose of, as I expect they wear once and throw away

No. Not the properly posh. They buy things to last. They send their Barbour coats off to be repaired.

fourquenelles · 03/08/2019 17:56

World Heritage site. Porto. Wonderful.

Drying washing on our balcony