Page 4 | To want our neighbours to not dry their laundry on their front drive?

Hop27 · 2021-12-30T06:55:51+00:00

We have new neighbours, they seem to live out their garage. Constantly fixing their 3 cars, parking their cars in front of other peoples drives. Sitting in their cars with the door open talking on their phone via the speaker, vaping - music blaring. Now drying their laundry on an airer on the front drive. AIBU to think put it in your back garden like normal people FFS. The rest is bad enough, but the whole street doesn't need to see your pants!

rrhuth · 30/12/2021 09:22

Shooting a dog is very much like hanging up washing

Offmyfence · 30/12/2021 09:25

[quote mylovelydd]@HeronLanyon Agreed. It's always 'chill about everything' day though on MN. No matter what anyone posts about posters always ride up with "none of your business' 'People can do what they like' 'YABU' 'Could not get bothered about this' blah blah fucking blah.

You could literally watch your neighbour shoot a dog on their front lawns and everyone would be like "YABU he can do what he likes, it's his garden' and the best bit is they are all full of shit.

Doing all those activities on your front garden is chavvy as fuck and there isn't one poster who wouldn't be driven insane by the makeshift car repair garage opposite.[/quote]
Shooting a fur baby?

LakieLady · 30/12/2021 09:27

@Hop27

We had a strict covenant when we built our house, down to the type of window covering we used in our street facing window. So yes I'm probably being a bit 'mrs bucket' to let it bug me so much. But really, your back garden is closer to their washing machine than their front and it 30 deg, it's not a matter of getting the last of the winter sun. It goes without saying that the other anti-social stuff is much more troublesome. But it seems so unusual to dry your pants in full view of your neighbours!

When my washing is on the line in the back garden, it's in full view of the neighbours on my side of the road, the houses round the corner and the houses behind mine.

It's quite possible that fewer neighbours would see it if I put it in the front garden, as the road bends and only about 6 houses would be able to see it.

I'm really struggling to see what's wrong with it, tbh.

antisocialsocialclub · 30/12/2021 09:27

The calls on speaker phone in the car would annoy me more. One of our neighbours seems to make a loud speaker call from his car at 7am every morning. All you can hear is the ringing and then some talking but just under the level where I can make it out. I don’t understand why people do this

kittensinthekitchen · 30/12/2021 09:28

My god, they don't wear pants, do they?? How ghastly.

MulchSqulch · 30/12/2021 09:28

This is clearly about poverty though, it's a snobbish view that you don't want your neighbourhood to look poor. "Are they renting", "it's chavvy", "makes it look like a slum/council estate", etc, the perspective that it's not the done thing to dry your washing outside in view of the neighbours stems from the past when wealthy houses had large detached gardens, can afford to buy and run tumble dryers, and in the past would have had poorer people do their washing for them. People who lived in poverty took in other people's laundry, particularly the women who may have had 10 kids and couldn't go out to work, they would have laundry blowing in the wind all year round and would be unlikely to have the space to keep it hidden.

ineedsun · 30/12/2021 09:29

@Hop27

We had a strict covenant when we built our house, down to the type of window covering we used in our street facing window. So yes I'm probably being a bit 'mrs bucket' to let it bug me so much. But really, your back garden is closer to their washing machine than their front and it 30 deg, it's not a matter of getting the last of the winter sun. It goes without saying that the other anti-social stuff is much more troublesome. But it seems so unusual to dry your pants in full view of your neighbours!

My washing line is out the front as my back garden is much smaller and I want to optimise the space we have.

If anyone wants to spend their time thinking about my underwear they can knock themselves out as far as I’m concerned. It never crossed my mind till coming on mumsnet that there were people who were so small minded.

DotBall · 30/12/2021 09:29

Lol this was a common site in Lancashire in the 1970s and it’s clearly still happening today.

The second pic is of Crail harbour in Fife - my great granny used to dry her washing on these lines, her old house is in the picture 🙂

To want our neighbours to not dry their laundry on their front drive?

SoupDragon · 30/12/2021 09:29

Are you usually this snobby?

DotBall · 30/12/2021 09:30

Cellardyke not Crail

Redact · 30/12/2021 09:31

I wouldn't like it either OP

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 30/12/2021 09:34

@TheAntiGardener

Agree with every word of your posts *@invisiblereally*

I spent time in the US as a child and there were very strict rules about how houses and gardens were to be kept in our neighbourhood. For precisely the reasons of visual harmony and keeping things looking neat. It may not be as bad as noise or ASB, but clearly it’s not unusual or weird to dislike this.

Ah yes "the land of the free"

invisiblereally · 30/12/2021 09:34

* (In back garden) I have a view of lovely trees one way and my neighbours washing inclusive of her and her husbands underwear the other way 🤷🏻‍♀️*

I'm a gardener, have you thought about planting a couple Laurel bushes, red robin (photinia) or growing climbing plants (honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria) against that side of the fence? It'll grow higher than 6 foot (you need to tame it regularly each year) and give you a much nicer view. I love my gardens front and back, all thoughtfully planted so it's not huge amount of work. My NDN also take care of their gardens and front of properties so I am lucky with a lovely view from my living room. It's one of the reasons I chose my house.

It sounds like your fence or hedging is too low on the one side in your back garden if you can see NDN washing on an airer unless NDN has a high line going down her garden. It is difficult with small back gardens and close housing, but it's possible to improve your general view in your own back garden with beautiful plants.

EveningOverRooftops · 30/12/2021 09:35

I dry my laundry in the front garden in the afternoon. The doorstep gets full sun from 11am onwards and I can dry an entire load on a rack out there on a good day so

Yabu. My need for clean dry pants trump you by wanting to look. Avert your eyes

AuntyBumBum · 30/12/2021 09:36

Something like this ...

R0tational · 30/12/2021 09:37

Yabi

deadlanguage · 30/12/2021 09:38

Yabu about the washing, it might dry best there and has no impact on you. Protecting your precious eyes from their washing doesn’t count 🙄

Yanbu about them being noisy and blocking people’s drives though.

VikingOnTheFridge · 30/12/2021 09:38

YAB hilariously unreasonable. Get over yourself.

rooarsome · 30/12/2021 09:41

@watchingrnfire

Am surprised a lot of ppl don't think drying in front is a issue.

It is a issue. It makes the area look tacky. A lot of flats that are sold have in the contracts that no clothes to be in the balcony as it gives the impression it's a council estate.

Not... a council estate

gofg · 30/12/2021 09:45

I couldn't care less where my neighbours dried their washing. Honestly, some people!!!

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 30/12/2021 09:48

[quote mylovelydd]@HeronLanyon Agreed. It's always 'chill about everything' day though on MN. No matter what anyone posts about posters always ride up with "none of your business' 'People can do what they like' 'YABU' 'Could not get bothered about this' blah blah fucking blah.

You could literally watch your neighbour shoot a dog on their front lawns and everyone would be like "YABU he can do what he likes, it's his garden' and the best bit is they are all full of shit.

Doing all those activities on your front garden is chavvy as fuck and there isn't one poster who wouldn't be driven insane by the makeshift car repair garage opposite.[/quote]
This is bollocks, and I am that poster who is not driven insane by someone repairing their car(s) on their property.

HPFA · 30/12/2021 09:51

I put my washing at the front sometimes depending on the time of day - the sun can be better there.

Never occurred to me that anyone would have a problem with it and if that's the worst problem I give my neighbours they should consider themselves lucky!

toomuchlaundry · 30/12/2021 09:55

If any of you who put your washing out the front have reasonably new houses ie less than 20 years old I would be checking your deeds

ememem84 · 30/12/2021 10:01

@toomuchlaundry

If any of you who put your washing out the front have reasonably new houses ie less than 20 years old I would be checking your deeds

My house was built in 1978 but I have just checked our purchase contract. Nothing about laundry outside.

We are not allowed to demolish the garage. Or extend into the front garden.

invisiblereally · 30/12/2021 10:04

I think it depends on what your housing and the neighbourhood is like.

If most People dry their washing out front, then it's not an issue but it is unusual in most areas. If lots of people have cats being repaired or sit out in their front gardens all day or in shared areas then that is the character of the area.

If it's a quiet nice area where people take pride in the front gardens and how their houses look, to create a relaxing feel to their neighbourhood then one neighbour hanging their washing out, making noise all day out the front , repairing multiple cars on their drive and the road, blasting music, would be out of kilter with the rest of the neighbourhood and probably make some NDNs unhappy. And that would be understandable and what would happen in real life.

There is no rule (unless in a covenant) that you can't air washing in your front garden and need must if that is the only place, but if it isn't, then it's not unreasonable to expect people to think of their neighbours and try to live in harmony.