The Hughes’ family prefers to hang-dry their laundry to reduce energy bills and carbon emissions. But, for fear of incurring their neighbors’ wrath, they keep a low-profile, hanging the clothesline “secretly” in the backyard.

The New York Times / Sara Remington Sara Remington

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Are you interested in saving energy and money by using a solar clothes dryer? Now, before you say, “sure,” realize that by “solar” we don’t mean equipping your laundry room with a boffo environmental techno-gadget.

We mean the sun.

You know, evaporation.

OK, we mean a clothesline.

Many may have missed it, but on April 19, the country celebrated National Hanging Out Day, declared by Alexander Lee, a clothesline activist in New Hampshire.

Terry Wiggins knew nothing of Hanging Out Day, but she’s a clothesline advocate of sorts herself. She was first empowered to hang a clothesline when she saw a neighbor do it.

“Anybody else who has an inclination should know they’re not alone,” Wiggins said.

Not alone, but also not part of a throng. And that’s the issue.

Before 1960, less than 20 percent of U.S. households had automatic clothes dryers. Now, most Americans use one, setting us apart from pretty much the rest of the world.

Dryers account for an estimated 6 percent of the energy consumption in a typical American home. For the environmentally conscious, that’s worth talking about. Wiggins said she’s not a slavish clothesliner, but she figures every time she avoids using the dryer, she’s helping the environment. She skips much of the winter and those really unbearable summer days. And her husband’s permanent press shirts go in the dryer. But for about half the year, she lets most items blow in the wind — including the unmentionables.

“I hang it all out,” Wiggins said.

If the jeans or towels seem a bit stiff after air drying, she takes it as a reminder of the greater good she’s doing.

“I hung out clothes all the time as a kid,” the 56-year-old said. “Every morning before I went to school, it was my chore to hang out the clothes.”

She’s motivated, too, by going outdoors. Her husband does the gardening. She does the hanging.

“I look at it as something fun,” she said. “I enjoy hearing the wind chimes all around the neighborhood. The clothes look great when the wind is blowing.”

The general attitude about clotheslines, however, hasn’t been positive for several decades.

Many neighborhood associations restrict or even ban clotheslines. Some claim they can reduce property values.

This is what Lee doesn’t understand. He’s the Hanging Out guy, founder and executive director of Project Laundry List (laundrylist.org). He has heard that a clothesline is an “ugly flag of poverty.”

He couldn’t disagree more.

“It’s organic, it’s nostalgic and it’s colorful. So why is it ugly?” he asked.

In fact, laundrylist.org has a section featuring clothesline art, colorful photos and illustrations, explained this way: “Illustrating the beauty and utility of clotheslines is part of our mission.”

Jennifer Cain is a clothesliner in Shawnee, Kan. Her homeowners association has rules against clotheslines, she said, but she has been hanging clothes anyway, hoping for leniency.

“On a day like today,” she said, when it was sunny and breezy with temperatures in the 60s, “I feel guilty if I don’t.”

Cain, who has three children, ages 9, 13 and 15, initially used a regular clothesline in her backyard, but now has an umbrella clothes hanger, spokes atop a pole. She puts her family’s clothes out to dry, then takes down the equipment.

“It’s not up all the time,” she said.

She has heard that her drying habits have been discussed at a homeowners association meeting, but no one has contacted her.

“I think they shouldn’t be allowed to restrict this,” she said. “It’s not very environmentally friendly.”

A lawyer friend suggested that if the issue comes to a head, she should fly an American flag from her clothes-hanging pole. A federal law that took effect last year prohibits homeowners associations from restricting residential displays of the flag.

Cain said she loves how the clothes smell after they hang outdoors and doesn’t mind if the process takes extra time. She said she has gotten more efficient, hanging paired socks next to each other and folding clothes as she takes them down.

“I guess when it’s all said and done, I like knowing that I’m doing something for the environment,” she said.

Some people who avoid automatic dryers are motivated less by energy savings than by saving their clothes. But that, too, can help the environment. Making clothes last longer can mean less use of raw materials. And one estimate is that 90 percent of the energy used in the life of a garment is attributable to washing and drying.

Jennifer Daugherty lives in an apartment in south Kansas City and hangs her clothes inside to dry. She uses a closet in a spare bedroom and a hall closet.

“As long as you give them two or three inches, they’re dry by the next day,” Daugherty said. “And they’re out of the way, so it’s not like people have to see them.”

Daugherty’s aunt told her years ago that automatic drying was hard on clothes.

“I became a big believer,” she said. “I think my clothes last longer. I think they keep their shape better.”

Carmen Morgan, of Kansas City, said her main preservation effort relates to bras. She took to heart a lesson from a friend and lingerie expert at Victoria’s Secret, that dryers do a number on brassieres. Not one of Morgan’s bras has seen the inside of a dryer.

“Never, ever, ever,” she said. “I just put them across a hanger and leave them in the laundry room.”

Lee acknowledges that clothes-hanging can be limited by bad weather, allergens and lack of space, to name a few considerations.

But estimates are that a typical homeowner could save $85 a year in energy costs, and, collectively, dryers eat up the equivalent of about 30 million tons of coal a year in energy use (not to mention the occasional sock).

The numbers make solar drying worth the effort, Lee said.

“I’m concerned about where we get our energy from and how we use it,” he said. “This is such a big part of the energy we use in our homes.”