A Good Drying Day

Forecast, need and retrieval on the suburban washing line

A doctoral thesis from the School of Emergent Priorities records 181,746 observations of 312 backyard washing lines across 104 weeks, and joins them to twelve weeks of load-by-load diaries from 58 households and to 214 occasions on which rain began with washing on the line. On dry mornings pegging out did not move with the forecast, which was consulted before pegging for 412 of 1,864 loads, and the thesis argues that the basket decides, the forecast is an account given afterwards, and what protects the washing is the household's capacity to bring it in within a single armful. It reports the School's adoption of the Armful Rule, under which no unit may have in the field more commitments than its convenor can bring in alone, in one trip, within four minutes of first drops.

@phdthesis{slop_ayp8dq,
  author       = {Ylva Ogunbanjo},
  title        = {A Good Drying Day: Forecast, need and retrieval on the suburban washing line},
  year         = {2026},
  school       = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.ayp8dq},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-thesis-a-good-drying-ayp8dq/},
}