Block of flats/COVID-19/hangi ng out washing

My Grandma had a double decker washing line in her house garden: two lines one above the other with, like you say, a pulley system. The wooden uprights were like telegraph poles. She must have had very good pegs as the washing on the upper line really caught the wind!

i remember when i was little being fascinated by those very high lines, which went out over a garden, accessed from a window above ground floor.
it reminded me of the rigging on a tall ship.
there was a kind of pulley so you could send the washing out and retrieve it, the length of the garden, with a very high pole at the far end.
these were for where a flat was in the upper part of a house.
a tenant who did not have access to the garden, but to the air.
haven't seen them for a long time.
anyone know what i mean.

hanging washing out is normal here, if space allows, unlike in north america where they seem to think it is not quite respectable.
blocks of flats nearly all had communal washing lines originally, but most have been removed/ignored because of theft.
except where they are on the roof, some of those still endure.

I would hang the washing out if it were me.

MerylStreep

JaneJudge

we all wash our clothes and shower as we come after work or going shopping tbh

I was thinking of this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-56171006

Janejudge
No we don't. Totally bonkers!!!

I was talking about MY family, we have shielded because my daughter has a severe disability. You can all mitigate your own risk without being nasty to me

Well, bravo for your building to have a clothes line! I would go ahead. As others say, if no-one else is nearby it's not really an issue in my mind.

I've not heard of communal clothes lines. Good idea. In fact most condo or apartments here have restrictions on clothes hanging outside. Doesn't look up-market. Silly.

A lot of what shops and the like do is just COVID wash, to reassure shoppers. like many on this thread, who are over-cautious. it is just marketing hype.

It is similar to the way I wear plastic gloves when out and always splosh my gloved hands in steriliser at every shop entrance. I do not think it does much good, if any, in controlling the spread of the disease, but it makes me look good and people are more comfortable around me because I am perceived as being sensible and cautious, so less likely to infect them.

Some of the shops here ask people not to touch clothes or material unless that is the item you wish to purchase. It doesn’t work of course, it is a natural impulse to touch clothes when you are choosing something to wear. Full marks for trying though.

Thanks for the link Monica.

I don't wash my clothes after shopping either!

JaneJudge

we all wash our clothes and shower as we come after work or going shopping tbh

I was thinking of this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-56171006

Janejudge
No we don't. Totally bonkers!!!

This is a long article published in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4. It discusses all the evidence for COVID - and other viruses being transmitted through touch, or on surfaces and the summary is that while the virus may survive on surfaces for some time, the chances of it being in a quantity and a viable condition to cause the disease is very close to zero.

It reviews a range of studies done by a wide range of universities. It reiterates what we have known from the begiining, that the main way of catching it is from it being in the air and that masks and good ventilation are the key to protection.

Well I have never washed my clothes after going out or into a supermarket since the beginning. I think it’s overkill despite the link. The fabrics that were contaminated with virus would have had tiny amounts put on them and it is known that in order to be infected a person needs to come into contact with a larger viral load. It’s also known that the virus infects by being breathed in, and going into the lungs. Not by touching a minute amount of virus. I had Covid, I picked it up indirectly from my mother who was infected in hospital. My husband went to her flat to do a small job (we’re in a bubble with her) and he picked it up and I then picked it up from him. Obviously we were in enclosed environments ie our homes. That’s how Covid is spread, not via a bit of cloth.

JaneJudge thank you for that link, it's really interesting.

we all wash our clothes and shower as we come after work or going shopping tbh

I was thinking of this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-56171006

JaneJudge

there is some evidence to show it can remain on textiles isn't there? is that what you mean, if someone coughs on it or in its direction?

By that reasoning I should be stripping my minded children's clothing off as they arrive each morning... ?
The main prevention advice in the many gov.uk documents we've been sent is hand washing. I don't remember clothing being mentioned.

If you iron everything, that should kill off any trace of the virus.

And what has March 8 got to do with washing - it's the date for schools to re-open.

What have you been doing for the past year?

Why ever not ?
like monica it wouldn’t have entered my head
If you re worried about covid getting in the material you can always wash them again ???sorry
This seems like a total non problem to me

Monica??

M0nica has got it right with her post! The voice of sense.

JaneJudge

there is some evidence to show it can remain on textiles isn't there? is that what you mean, if someone coughs on it or in its direction?

If this is true I wouldn't hang it out.

i'm surprised you still have them.
they've had to get rid of them round here and in town, due to the phantom knicker snatcher.
generally, anything that can be taken, is.
but i see no problem re covid. agree with monica above.

Thanks everyone. I’m beginning to think along the lines of it’s a maybe , we will see what tomorrow brings as regards the sunshine.

It would never occur to me to even think of this. I would have been hanging my washing out on a communal washline through out lockdown without a qualm were I in a block of flats.

The washing itself will have been through a thorough wash in the WM. You can always ramp the washing temperature up to 60 ifyou are worried and wipe the line with a wipe before hanging clothes out

After that, blowing in the fresh air, will kill any remaiinaning virus, unless you have a neighbours and childrenwho wrap themselves in the clothes or blow
their noses on them - and then, yes, you do have a problem, but not necessarily a COVID problm.