Or is my neighbour about my laundry...?

[laundryninja]

Name changed in case she's on mumsnet

Don't know NDN well. We are quiet and (I thought!) inoffensive so no issues for the last 6 months we've lived here. There's a low fence between our gardens.

Given that I live in the west of scotland, it's a rare opportunity to hang clothes out on the line to dry, which DH and I have been doing the past few days.

Today NDN appeared at the door and asked me to "be more careful" with my laundry. I initially thought something had blown into her garden and apologised. She said no, that us hanging out "personal items" was embarrassing for her and she didn't want her young sons (who are late primary age I think) seeing things like that. After clarifying she meant bras and knickers I admit I snorted with laughter a bit and said "but don't they see YOUR pants drying indoors!?" to which she said that I clearly didn't want to help and that she'd ask her DH to come over later to speak to my DH once he's in from work!

I have not brought my laundry in and have just done another load. She's glaring from her conservatory. AIBU to ignore her? Or should I bring my offensive undies in off the line?

[ZebraOwl]

EBearHug

Ha... didn't think to search that, searched other things... no idea they were [now] commercially available products either

[EBearhug]

Annoyingly I can't get my old Guide Handbook to put in the picture - you twist together two strands of string (or something more heavy-duty) so you get little loops you can poke fabric through.


Just Google "pegless washing line."

[ZebraOwl]

AcrossThePond

Annoyingly I can't get my old Guide Handbook to put in the picture - you twist together two strands of string (or something more heavy-duty) so you get little loops you can poke fabric through. Is YEARS since I've camped now though - we take the Brownies away INDOORS (though spend heaps of time outdoors, weather permitting...)

laundryninja
It's basically been thunder-central in London since start Bank Holiday weekend, so I'm guessing your pants are not the only ones that have been struck by lightning. I reckon you could get a Netflix Series out of the adventures of the unlikely group of people united by their lightning!pants

[AcrossthePond55]

Zebra I hear you!

Enjoy your laundry . Stringing a line and tying clothes to it is called 'camping drying' for us.

It's raining here, which is really, really weird this time of year. So it's the tumble dryer for me!

[LornaMumsnet]

Hi all,

We're just sending this over to classics, thanks for the nominations.

[Itsallamysterytome]

Oh man, I would be looking out for all sorts of funky knicks and undercrackers to hang on that washing line

[ZebraOwl]

AcrossThePond
To be fair, I've been allergic since childhood (though with a cumulative exposure worsening, because my body apparently does literally NOTHING normally ) so have been the person with nothing/fruit-while-everyone-else-gets-PROPER-pudding (etc) so I absolutely won't be doing with this "they can make the cake & take it home for someone else"/"they're used to missing out"/"I'm sure they'll have something at home they can have" business...

Feel I should at this point get back to laundry. Errr... everyone knows they can make washing lines using string & nothing else (as long as they have stuff to tie the ends to) right? As in, so you don't need pegs? AL-FRESCO DRYING FOR EVERYONE!

[AcrossthePond55]

Bless you for that Zebra. I was dx'd with Coeliac as an adult and I still remember how I felt when my new supervisor started to bring me M&Ms or a GF candy bar when the office had a pizza party or bagels brought in for making goals. She didn't make a big deal, she'd just bring them to me at my desk and thank me for hard work and say that I deserved to be rewarded too. The first time she did it, I cried.

It's the little things that mean so much.

[ZebraOwl]

AcrossThePond
We did consider trying to find a recipe that would be simple enough, but we really did need one guaranteed to work. We've had two Brownies with multiple anaphylactic food allergies & in both cases Brownies has been the first/only place outside home they've had the chance to cook & where they've been involved in all food-based activities. With the first, a couple of meetings after she started we had a Niklaustag meeting & of course gave the girls some sweets to take home at the end of the meeting. I got chocolate buttons as it meant that I could give allergic!Brownie the death-free sort. She instinctively said "I can't have sweets" when I went to give her her ones & cried when I explained I'd got her the ones she could have. Because nobody had ever done that. Current Brownies v cute in their concern I be able to share in treats - they find it utterly tragic I "can't have chocolate EVER unless it is the special chocolate, like we use when we make s'mores... but that's not the same as REAL chocolate, is it?"

SenecaFalls
Time for a bumper sticker? Or to get some made anyway... more seriously, I wonder if people don't know they have the right to dry... also wonder if anti-Trump sentiment could be channeled into al-fresco laundry-drying via the environmental impact angle: would also delightfully draw in stuff on gender roles/stereotypes & ways women have been working to oppose Trump (pretty sure you could get some [pretentious] concept art out of it if nothing else...)

[GlitteryFluff]

You could get creative op?

Apologies if someone has already posted this. Haven't looked through all zillion pages.

[CoraPirbright]

I know what you mean about older generations seeing modern, labour saving things as better. My dm couldn't understand why I made my own baby purées when I could just buy them from a Supermarket/Boots. When I told her about not wanting the extra preservatives in them, loss of nutrients, mildly carcinogenic rubbery lid rings etc, she nodded along but I could see she still didn't quite get it!!

A couple of other observations:
"And now you'll leave" - is it wrong that I am now dying to have a scenario in my life in which I can use this phrase? OP your dh is awesome.

I have never thought about American laundry habits but I am horrified that they rarely hang out their washing. Tumble dryers use tons of energy and whether its cheap for them or not, it is costing the environment dearly. No wonder their bloody emissions are so high

[diddl]

It does seem odd that anyone can be so bothered about someone elses washing, doesn't it?

I can't imagine not being allowed to peg out my own washing in my own garden!

[SenecaFalls]

My state was the first to pass a right to dry law. So proud.

[redshoeblueshoe]

Yay - this is now in classics

[AcrossthePond55]

I agree that scratch-baked is best, but when you 'grew up' on cake mixes they taste just fine. But, now that I think about it, it's probably why my grandma's cakes always tasted 'better' than my mum's.

Zebra No apologies needed for using a GF mix for your Unit member. I have Coeliac and can tell you that GF scratch baking is a right pain in the arse! Small amounts of 10 different flours (ok I exaggerate there) needed to get the right texture and taste and you can only buy them by the pound. Ugh!

[DillieDoily]

Quite an old article now but still interesting about washing bans in the US.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11417677

[ZebraOwl]

SenecaFalls
Maybe you could try to get crowdfunding for a coffee-table book with pictures of al-fresco & otherwise novel laundry-drying arrangements. Possibly low on undies though, don't want people getting wrong idea about what is clearly a v classy publication being used to fund a jaunt round Europe or wherever after all. Or maybe just deploy stunt undies if that's the way to get the money for your dream holiday. (We can discuss my cut later )

AcrossThePond & Iamastonished
Y/Y to packet mix cakes tasting of Wrong. When I was at secondary school my Home Economics classes spent a v useful 🙄 period focused on fairy cakes, comparing packet-mix to various iterations of home-baked (the ones with half wholemeal flour were really quite grim...) & it was amazing how many of my classmates had never made fairy cakes at all & of those who had, how many had only used packet mix. It makes me sad, too, how often I see Girlguiding groups talking about making cakes with their members & they're using packet mix - fairy cakes are so simple to do! If you're on a residential you can even have girls weigh ingredients (less possible in a meeting unless you've a LOT of baking kit... or not many girls) themselves. I did use packet mix the time we were making cakes & had a Unit member whose anaphylactic allergies included dairy, eggs, gluten, peanuts, nuts & wheat, I admit - but that was about the tricksy nature of gluten-free baking with small people in limited time with a spectacularly temperamental oven...

SenecaFalls & AcrossThePond55
Think you're absolutely right about cultural evolution & conspicuous consumption being used as a measure of success/standing then becoming normalised. Cars are just big, and you do just have them. Ditto household appliances. Gets a bit irksome when people talk about it as if Americans are trying to show off to the rest the of the world with this stuff - obviously you get some eejits who rattle on, but mostly people are just following the norm: they have what is usual. Same as most people will have what is usual in their own country & never think about it for that reason. But, uhm, this is a whole other thing...

laundryninja
Your knickers were struck by lightning?! Have they survived?! If so, they totally now have superpowers. I think you now have to wear them over your clothes though...

[IrisLily]

Just an idea for you, OP:

[Tapandgo]

Seneca - well, as Scots put their names on their front door, it's what I'd get made for her door if she was my neighbour 👙👙

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

Frog,

"My ndn in her late 60s hangs her thongs out, my boys think it's cool she has catapults..."

Small kids are wonderful.

[AntigoneJones]

can you get hold of a mankini for your DH to wear when he answers the door?

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

If you were a pair of knickers pegged out on a line, does being hit by lightning reverse the evils of being darked upon, do you suppose?



OP,

You do realise your lightning-struck undies now possess superpowers?
Use them wisely.

[SenecaFalls]

Mrs.Yanks Spanx No-Thanks.😀 Is that West of Scotland rhyming slang?

[longingforalife]

Hit by lightening!!!

[prettybird]

Have reported the spam post.

Back to the OP: YADNBA

Shame you're not actually in Glasgow: the Glasgow primary schools teach body parts - including vulva and penis - as a matter of course from P1 Can you imagine her outrage at that if she thinks a few knickers and bras are going to embarrass her kids?

I also hang all my washing out - for as much of the year as possible. Sun bleaching is a wonderful thing - not that we get much of that here!