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?

Well you practically said it yourself... but that is a load of bullshit!!!

I've renovated my house so you shouldn't hang your washing up to dry on the line.... oh please! Don't be that person.

Your neighbour would hate me: I hang my laundry out when there’s snow on the ground; if it’s dry on the ground and sunny it’ll dry!
I'd be very tempted to buy a greying string vest and some brown y fronts to hang out, permanently. They wouldn’t excite her husband but would piss her off. Touché Mrs No laundry on the line!

YANBU at all. I had a knob cheese 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 😇

Fuck her and dry your laundry in YOUR garden.

Is she a transplant from somewhere else? Laundry etiquette is cultural. Where I live we get fined for drying our laundry outside. The most I ever put out is a couple of towels after a trip to the pool and I bring them inside quickly.

your culture is to hang laundry outside so just ignore. Just curious if she might not be local.

My neighbour complained about my underwear and bra (post partum knickers and maternity sports bras )😁😁😁She said she's ashamed to have any guests!
I bought huge bundle from Vinted with reaaaallyyyy sexy, fetish stuff and left everything hanging for 3 weeks.

I’m with the neighbour. I hate to see washing on a line. Tumble everything but I have solar panels and lots of batteries.

What offends you about a washing line?

Buy some gloves 🤷🏻‍♀️

Keeping up good standards would mean to me not having a tumble dryer on unnecessarily when there is an outdoor natural dryer available.

I'd ask them how do they dry their washing then?

What's the point of wasting money on dryer in the nice weather. People have been hanging washing out for a long time.

honestly I would say it’s ok in the week and things like bedding, towels, jumpers, jeans ok. I would assume people would be using their gardens in more at the weekends and I’d try to be considerate to that I suppose. I wouldn’t hang my underwear out! which my neighbour does and I always think it’s a bit manky tbh! I only hang out bedding in the sun occasionally but it’s still not visible really for our neighbours or from the street.

Your neighbour is nuts. I was going to say i’d be heading out to buy the skimpiest pants i could fine just to hang them on the line.

having said that i don’t actually hang any under wear outside as i don’t like that people could see it. clothes yes, they go out whenever they can

I'd better get my washing before it walks to the ironing basket (not that I do any ironing).

What did they do before tumble driers?
Especially with sheets? 🤔

12 pages worth of her being bonkers, I suggest you link her this thread then get a new MN acc.

Who the fuck voted YABU?!

YANBU op, I'd hang more washing out to deliberately annoy her, maybe get one of those tacky shower curtains people use in their gardens and a few wind chimes.

I mean I don’t think it’s snooty @Crackanut to be respectful of others when you live close together. I think there is a general consensus among the row of terraces and the street either side of the row, and the local council, that we are improving the area as a community. I don’t live in the UK btw so perhaps this is a key difference as local investment is big where I live and since we have moved in and over the last ten years the area has really changed and there are a lot of new people and facilities. My neighbour has lived here much longer than this and I don’t think they can see actually how much disrepair there is in their property. They are also about to be in trouble for some dodgy building work that was completed without planning permission and has damaged part of the pavement. Maybe all these things affect my judgement but no one else in the row hangs their washing out either and everyone is very considerate and discreet we have found.

Ignore her, OP. I’d be inclined to ask her whether she doesn’t realise how much more eco friendly line drying is than tumble driers, but TBH I’d guess she’d probably be too thick to understand why.

I’ve only ever heard of this sort of complaint before, from some evidently very prudish elderly neighbours of FiL, when he moved to a new house after Mil died. And that was 20 odd years ago!

He was also told that it was ‘compulsory’ to hang net curtains in your front windows, or it ‘wasn’t nice’.

He would never have actually told them to fuck off with their bonkers Victorian prudery, but he made his opinion plain enough.

Yes, they are being ridiculous. People have been drying their laundry including their underwear, outside for millenia.

I can only imagine your neighbour is the type to drape chastity covers over the ankles of her tables and put those knitted crinolines over her loo rolls. 😁

Hyacinth Bucket is her style guru. Ignore her.

Any charity shops near ypu OP?

See if they have some awful skimpy underwear.
Hang it out and leave it out there full-time.

I would be unimpressed with her interference.
Time to blank her completely.

Politeness is lost, wasted, and viewed as a weakness by her type.

Time to locate your inner bitch, most cathartic!

I'm assuming you are being tongue in cheek. If not you are on the far side of deluded unreasonable to expect anything like this.

Your neighbour is an antisocial idiot, and the passive-aggressive birthday card was bonkers!

I dont hang my undies out because I would be too embarrassed myself, Bridget Jones knickers 😊

But everything else gets hung out.

OP YADNBU