Normal Green: Will a clothesline make or break my marriage?

I'm in a mixed marriage. While my husband and I share most of the same values like taste in music and political leanings, I'm much more "radical" when it comes to green issues. I tend to want to shop only for sustainable, locally grown and/or organic foods, he reminds me that our budget can't always allow that — sometimes, frozen pizzas are fine.

I pack our girls' lunches in reusable bento boxes with cloth napkins alongside while he longs for the convenience of resealable sandwich bags and paper napkins. I'd love to dig up our small front lawn and plant a garden, he loves the grass for kicking around a soccer ball with the kids. I can see his point most of the time (except for the sandwich bag thing), but one area where we just can't agree is clotheslines: I want one, he doesn't.

I grew up in Hawaii where lots of people use clothes lines to dry their clothes. They are everywhere in all kinds of creative spaces most often adorned with drying bathing suits or board shorts and colorful beach towels. My husband finds them unsightly and "unneighborly." He's also not a fan of the "crispy towel," and I just can't get him to agree to one. Since I do most of the laundry, and since I already hang lots of our clothes for various reasons (to prevent shrinkage or fading or to keep the shape), I've decided to take matters into my own hands. Have internet will shop.

Today I'm researching clotheslines and later in the week, I just might try and barter for a clothesline installation on Craigslist. Blogger Life, In a Nutshell is imploring me to build a clothesline "right now." She's posted step-by-step instructions for a great-looking line with rustic wooden posts that cost her all of $13.26, and required only a little bit of elbow grease. She makes it look ridiculously easy. Our yard is more compact and an umbrella line probably makes more sense. The Home Envy blogger shares great times for how to dig a proper hole to hold the removable pole for the compact clothesline. I like the idea of being able to reclaim that space in my yard when we have backyard gatherings. And if we move, we can take the line with us.

The Green Guide reminds us that drying clothes via a line saves us about $85/year on our electric bills. More importantly, however, "clothes dryers annually consume about 66 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, the amount that would be produced by burning 34 million tons of coal. In comparison, solar drying does less damage to clothes, eliminates static cling, reduces wrinkles and makes it 50 percent less likely that you'll lose a sock. Best of all, it's good for the planet, and the sun's ultraviolet light is a natural disinfectant." If you have a preschooler in your house who sometimes wets the bed, you've probably hauled a mattress or comforter out into the sun for drying and disinfecting like I have. I've also been looking at different styles of clothes dryers and for the rainy, cloudy days of winter, I might choose of these practical and functional wooden racks. And perhaps my husband could get behind my latest project if our clothes were hanging out of our neighbors' sight. Will my husband ever come around to my way of thinking? I'm hoping that when he smells his fresh, clean, sun-dried shirts, he'll understand.

Photo courtesy of permission of Life, In a Nutshell