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?

You’ve reminded me that my grandma used to put a tea towel or sheet over her underwear on the line so that the neighbour couldn’t see it 😂. Crazy thing was she lived in a detached house with a massive garden that wasn’t at all overlooked anyway! Her neighbour would have needed his binoculars out to spy on her bloomers.

You often see it suggested on here that posters who need some extra income “take in ironing”. I think in your situation I would be setting up a new laundry business with an “only ever dried on the outside line!”tagline. Then include your neighbours in the leaflet drop for your new venture.

I am also reminded of a friend who thought that drying laundry outside was common. She then had a couple of kids and now denies she ever said it.

Hahaha your neighbour would hate to live next to me. I dried 5 loads of laundry on the line yesterday. With all the hot weather I’m running out of things to wash! As a family of 4 I’m running at least one load of darks and one of whites a day (all white towels). I love the sight of a line full of laundry!

Not being a dick just FYI its crux not crooks.

The land of the free, eh? 😂

I don’t but then I live in the middle of the country so I don’t like my clothes and sheets covered with Pollen (or bird crap)

But yes she is batshit.

🤣🤣

My DH would be told that that was hard luck. Not that he would comment on it anyway as his mother loved to hang their washing out whatever the weather.

I know north east Leeds - I grew up in various bits of it and had extended family in Moortown. I babysat for affluent families on Wigton Lane, where house prices were high even then and no-one, as far as I know, would have been crass enough to make a fuss about a neighbour's knickers and tea-towels. They had better taste and manners.

My sons in Yorkshire near Farsley. The apartments have Juliet balconies Ideal for hanging a few bits out on. There's been a few tuts apparently but there's no covenant so people crack on.

Found the neighbour (the person who voted YABU - it's the only explanation)

Short arms and deep pockets, the lot of us 😂

You what??? You’re a crazy as well

That’s nuts. We don’t dry washing outside, as far as I’m aware, our neighbours don’t either. (We live in the sort of place where people don’t)

It’s your choice how you choose to dry laundry. If I could see my neighbours’, I might not enjoy looking at pants, but I’d never dream of saying so.

Do it! Add something every time she complains.

Seriously though, it is ecological and your own garden. I don't like hearing a neighbours dryer running all day when the sun is shining. I don't complain to them though.

Buy the cheapest tackiest underwear ever and hang it on the line and give her hubby a treat! 😂
she’s nuts. Ignore

😆 🤣 😂

My neighbour and I race each other to get our washing out! We’ve had a lovely conversation today (accompanied by a mojito each) about how many loads we’ve got dry. I love her. If mines out and it starts raining she brings it in for me, and vise versa.

This is an excellent suggestion

Get the sexiest bras and knickers that you can and peg them out

Mad as a box of frogs. I would block her number if that's the general dynamic. Just pretend she doesn't exist.

Thank you - I’ve never typed it before, had no idea. Genuine thanks ❤️

Send them s card with a picture of a washing line on it

That’s five minutes from me!

Is Saltaire still 'dry', ie no pubs, again to appease Sir Titus? He certainly wasn't hampered by false modesty but he did an enormous amount of good for those living in a poor area. I learned the word 'vicuna' through my connections with Saltaire!
It's now a real tourist trap with the beautiful mill now being used for all kinds of purposes, including the Hockney gallery.

Saltaire is great, and not dry! There’s a great pub called ‘Don’t Tell Titus’ - a lovely place for a bike ride along the canal.