I dry my laundry in my garden and my neighbour is really unhappy about it

[WashingWoes]

I really don’t think I’m in the wrong here but keen for opinions which I will take onboard if I come off as unreasonable.
I live in an end-terrace house. Neighbour is attached to me. I peg my washing out to dry on good days. We are a family of four, lots of laundry and I much prefer to peg out than use the (expensive and environmentally unfriendly) drier. My neighbour HATES me for drying my laundry in my garden. Relentless comments about how she can’t enjoy looking at her garden from her bedroom window because she can see my (clean) laundry. About how it’s spoiling her enjoyment of her garden. Why can’t I just use the drier, for everyone’s benefit (not mine, see: bills; climate change…). It’s bad manners to dry ‘smalls’ outside - her husband might see my ‘undergarments’ … honestly it’s relentless. I recently received a birthday card from them (very kind, and appreciated) which said ‘Happy Birthday WashingWoes, we really love seeing your washing on the line, have a lovely birthday’. Please reassure me that I’m normal and neighbours are barmy?

When I moved in to my house a few years ago one of the (pension age) neighbours commented that ‘we don’t hang washing out here’ so I made sure to hang out suspenders, bras, red knickers….. and they never commented again.
Unless your nutty neighbour is paying your mortgage she can bog off. Just laugh if she goes on about it.

Sorry xxxx but since it's my garden, that belongs to me, that I pay the rent/mortgage for I will not stop drying my laundry outside.

Feel free to take it up with the council if you have any further objections.

If your husband is offended by my underwear I suggest you get a new husband.
Thanks!

Isn't drying your washing what gardens are for?

Really, how often does anyone admire their garden from an upstairs window? I might look out of an upstairs window because I want to get more of an overview than I'd get at ground level, but to admire & enjoy it? Twaddle.

Just carry on and ignore her.

My mum has a washing line on attached to a scaffold pole so it's about 3 meters high on a pulley system. Your neighbour would cheesed off with that although she doesn't put underwear out.

Blimey, thats crazy.
Everyone around here as far as i can see hangs washing in the garden .
Just put 3 line fulls out earlier .

YANBU.

This is one of the oddest I’ve seen on here.

I’m only a Mum of 2, and could not be without pegging out washing daily, especially bedding and towels. I hate it all hanging around inside during the Winter. You have an even bigger family, more washing and it is your garden!

As someone who spends a lot of time in my own end terraced garden, and someone who can see all my different neighbours’ washing hanging out in their gardens from my upstairs bedroom window, it is still a ridiculous comment about spoiling her enjoyment of her garden. So when I sit in my garden to enjoy it, guess what I then can’t see my neighbour’s washing through the fence 😂 I enjoy my garden in it, not from my bedroom window?! So bizarre!

Ignore, ignore, ignore! 😊

I assume you have a decent 6' fence between the gardens? So she can't see it from her own garden? Complaining about seeing it from upstairs is nonsense.

Tell her to stop looking at it.

Id but something really sexy and hang it out. I wouldn’t be able to help myself

Madness. I have a 6ft fence and the previous neighbour used to have her washing line pushed up high so I could always see her washing. I never thought anything of it. Imagine telling a neighbour they can’t/shouldn’t hang their washing on a line in their own garden. I think you really need to firmly say something when she mentions it again! Personally I’d put in another line so I had two.

She's batshit crazy. Tell her one more time you will not be stopping hanging your washing out and ignore anything further about it. It's hard to believe people act like this but I can well believe it. I had a friend whose neighbour used to phone the police and send solicitors letters for vacuuming and normal household noise. It probably comes from a place of loneliness and boredom.

I don’t even have a dryer so laundry is hung outside on good days and inside when bad.

Personally I use the tumbler because I live in Ireland, and apart from a couple of weeks ago, I rarely see a day without rain. And actually, given it's a modern one, it doesn't use a lot of electricity (2kWhish per load - so nothing compared to the oven) - BUT - I do love a scratchy towel, and I do often hang up some bits and bobs inside and use the dehumidifier (outside is often 70% humidity due to aforementioned rain) if I'm having a big washing day and don't want to wait for the tumber, so, I fully support you.

In fact, I like seeing next door's washing wafting in the breeze against the green of the garden, and I can only admire their commitment to it given how often I also see them run out to bring it in when it rains.

OP maybe you could use the image posted by @Absentmindedsmile and reciprocate the birthday card;
and maybe a winter version for Christmas.

Your neighbour is bat shit crazy. How bloody annoying for you though to have that constant drip drip of comments abut something so normal.

Erm I am well aware I’m really in the minority here and also nuts but I don’t want to see my neighbours undies outside the window either 😂 for some context - we’ve spent years renovating a really old terraced house into something amazing and I’ll be really honest - and probably cause great offence - by saying our neighbours house is in a bit of a state. Their laundry outside doesn’t help and is not inkeeping with the rest of the row of houses which have been renovated in the last few years. The area has been gentrified a bit to be honest and when other houses have updated the architecture and materials I do think you have a responsibility to upkeep the look / feel of your neighbourhood and that does mean having good standards. Our council has also done a lot of work to improve the ‘feel’ and look of the area which was quite tatty in parts. I suppose I feel it’s everyone’s obligation to keep the area nice and I don’t think loads of washing hanging out is doing that. Occasionally I say fine but not every day and not all your clothing. I do sometimes dry washing outside on a sunny day but it is deliberately hidden from view of the main road nearby and also we have installed a large high gate that stops the back patio area being visible to the neighbouring terrace. If you had more space I think it’s acceptable but if your row of houses is terraced as is mine, I think you should try to be discreet about laundry and bins. Otherwise it ends up looking rough tbh.

Ignore

i love nothing more than hanging my clean washing out

@babyproblems you have no idea how snooty you sound. Especially this bit

"I suppose I feel it’s everyone’s obligation to keep the area nice and I don’t think loads of washing hanging out is doing that. Occasionally I say fine but not every day and not all your clothing"

So what days would suit you and what clothes is ok by your standards?

I love pegging my washing out to dry, I don't own a drier so it goes out whenever I can.
I wouldn't even consider whether the neighbours like it or not. It's my garden not theirs.
You neighbour sounds awful. Ignore her and carry out putting it out

We own a house in the US. It has very strict HOA rules, including the prohibition of drying laundry outside, think Stepford or Wisteria Lane. I have to say, it would look really odd as absolutely no-one does it.

I just wish we had such a fast and efficient dryer here as we do there. It can take 3 hours here to tumble dry one set of bedding. In our American one, it’s bone dry in 30 minutes.

Some people are unbelievable! She’s being absolutely ridiculous. You are being far too polite. I’d be getting increasingly firm with her, start saying how inappropriate it is of her to keep commenting on your washing.

Your neighbour is absolutely deranged. The card has made me cackle! Washing on the line is normal - I think it'd be batshit and downright irresponsible to tumble dry in the summer simply for her pleasure, even if electricity were free (which it most certainly is not).

The next time she said something I'd raise my eyebrows (if you can raise one, even better) and say, "That's a really odd thing to say, (name). Are you alright? Do you really think that's normal?"

Glad I don't live near you, snobbery or what.

It's clearly the dryer you have. My drier would dry bedding in 45 minutes.

YANBU at all. I had a neighbour like yours. When I'd be hanging out a load I could hear her muttering under her breath that I was despicable for it 🤣 Thing is she actually couldn't see anything unless she was either peeking through the tiny gaps in the fence or standing on something peering over the top. Started hanging out my more sexier pieces after that. Two can play that game 😇