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Comment by emsign | Hacker News Reader

This is basic low tech from centuries ago, people used to spread out wet sheets on fields of tall grass.

I dry my linens outside (I'm not American), and no chemical bleach beats the effectiveness of the sun turning oxygen and water to peroxide.

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There are some really striking paintings of it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_Market_and_Washing_Pla...

Though I think this is possibly a depiction of a step in linen production, rather than the maintenance of used linen.

But anyway yeah it used to be a normal part of life people were used to seeing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleachfield

There is probably some math to do about the availability of free radicals from bleach versus a set period of sunlight at a certain time of year, in a certain part of the world.

I tried drying linens and clothes outside the first time I moved from an apartment (with strict controls on what can and cannot be seen on the balcony) to a single family home. I quickly stopped because there was so much dust that would accumulate on your freshly washed clothes in the time they were hung outside. That's not to mention bird poop or feral cats deciding to do some stretching on your sheets.

You need a sun room.

I agree. I like my sun room to be upstairs of the smoking lounge, but next to the library.

That's no longer "basic low tech from centuries ago" any more. Centuries ago there wasn't transparent glass, only colored glass (think stained glass in an old church).

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