We have a very basic system.
On either side of our bathroom, we put in screws and then attached a rope to each screw. On this line, I use clothespins and hangers to get as much as possible on that one line.
The smaller pieces of laundry - socks, underwear, rags and cloths, and napkins all go on a small hanging rack that is in our bedroom which is close to the woodstove in the main living area.
I do one load of laundry each day.
Warm wishes,
Tonya
Winter hanging of laundry always reminds me of the little house book where they'd hang out the laundry and beat the ice out of it.
ReplyDeleteHow long does it usually take to dry? In 2 weeks I am going to be drier-less. I hang my clothes all summer into fall and start back up again in the spring but I have never dried in the winter without a drier. We wont own our place so I think we will have to just go with multiple drier racks...
ReplyDeleteWow - only one load a day. I wish I could say that! Right now I am thankful for both my washer and dryer and buckets. We are all sick here.
ReplyDeleteI need to get a clothes line up in the house.
Namaste, Nicole
I so enjoyed your post!
ReplyDeleteI'm quite impressed, we do at least 4 loads a day (except the weekends,, I try to take them off) and all day on Mondays (and we have two washers and dryers!). I tried drying racks but our home is just too small, but wish we could to save $. Maybe I'll attempt it again.
I don't mind line drying inside during the winter when the air is so dry and my laundry acts as a (free!) humidifier. Nor do I mind line drying outside in the summer when the conditions are perfect for doing so. However, during the damp spring and fall when our heat is not on as often, I often find myself resorting to using my dryer rather than wait two+ days for the laundry to dry. Do you have that issue as well? Any tips for that?
ReplyDeleteWow, your post is very timely for me. I live in Oregon where we get a lot of rain. Yesterday, I was just thinking how I could dry laundry inside this winter. I rarely use the dryer in spring or summer but find even trying to dry things out in the garage during winter is not very practical. I had not thought of stringing a line that could be taken up and down easily, in the bathroom. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. :) I cannot wait to get a line up this spring!
ReplyDeleteWow now that is impressive. I must confess I have not attempted to dry most of the clothes without a dryer in the winter-a few things here and there, but never the whole hog. Wow! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a funny coincidence. Our dryer broke last night so I woke up this morning going, "ooooh how on earth are we going to be able to dry our clothes in the house?? That's *impossible*!" lol!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a dryer either, and live in a place that's often cold and wet. We have two lines strung up in the utility room below the ceiling, like yours; we have a pulley rack attached to my husband's study ceiling that we can raise and lower by ropes, and we have two other moveable drying racks (with two spare for overload). We also have some handy racks that fit over our radiators that you can stash away when you don't need them.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had a drier for the past 18 years, and prefer it this way for a few reasons besides the environment and the elecricity bill. I'm convinced our clothes last a lot longer. And when it's so cold that we need the heat to be on a lot, it keeps the air more humid. Also, when it *is* nice enough outside to dry things on the line, they just smell wonderful. I will say, though, that my husband does a lot of ironing! He finds it relaxing and does it while watching t.v. a couple of evenings a week. If you iron things when they are still slightly damp it isn't such a bad job to do (he tells me!).
Where we live there is an almost constant south westerly - and it does like to blow - so often if there is a wee bit rain on the wind, the clothes still manage to dry quite well. We plan to put in a solid fuel cookstove, and will erect an clothes dryer pulley type system above that.
ReplyDeleteThe Barefoot Crofter
I have the small drying rack that you have I have used it alot for drying my sweaters and thing that need to be air dryed, but I really would like to use it for a whole load of cloths. I need to find a way to save more money on our elecric bill.
ReplyDeleteKelly
My husband and I are dryerless too! WE dry our clothes on a wooden rack in our living room. It only takes a very few hours to dry with the aide of the ceiling fan which circulates the heat. I have never hung my clothes outside in the winter, but I did yesterday. I brought them in snow-covered and frozen this am...but you know, they were almost dry. Amazing!!
ReplyDeleteWe hang dry most of our clothes and diapers and we also live in a cold & wet climate. We do have dryer but we try to eliminate our impact on the environment and our wallet by hanging to dry. We have a wood stove and use this dryer http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=63435&cat=2,42194 right beside it to save space and my husband also constructed one of these using wood http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=63436&cat=2,42194 and it is hanging in stairwell - great airflow as we are always running up and down the stairs.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a standard drying rack. We do about 5-6 loads of laundry per week including diapers.
We have no dryer either. Just a large drying rack. When it's dry outside, the rack goes out back. And when it's wet, well the laundry is all around us! But we live in Texas and it's warm here nearly all here! And there's only 3 in our family. Way to go for being able to live without dryer in your climate and with your large family!!!
ReplyDeleteMy family and I are concentrating on living a more simplistic life and I applaud each and everyone for their efforts. I have a question though, with appliances now being very energy effecient, would it be just as simple to purchase a high energy effecient dryer and save on having to put your clothes on racks with the same outcome?
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I just purchased one and noticed a drop in our electric bill. I do clothes once a week usually on Monday's and do 6 of more loads. Just asking as living simplistic is still new to us. I love your blogg too. Thanks for sharing.
We dry a lot of our clothing by our woodstoves in the winter to and I just love being able to go from the outside clothesline to the indoor one this time of year :) I still have a dryer when I need things in a pinch but it definitely gets used less and less ever year :)
ReplyDeletehi tonya - i wrote about our indoor line drying a couple of years ago at the simple green frugal co-op. our system takes up very little square footage and i can hang 3 loads! my husband built it with wood scraps from around the house, we purchased the rope only.
ReplyDeletehttp://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2009/01/line-drying-laundry-indoors.html
Wow -- this is great. It really makes you consider what is most important to wash doesn't it? A good lesson for all of us.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for stopping by my blog recently. Good on you for not using a clothes dryer - me neither, and I have a baby in cloth nappies, but I don't have six kids! We have a drying rack on a pulley system above our wood stove, which gets things dry really fast in winter.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a dryer either. We have a family of four. I have found this system works great for us. I start laundry the same time I start supper. Then the first load is done about the same time that dishes are washed up. I then set up a clothes drying rack in the kitchen for the first load. This also has the added benefit of keeping us from late night snacking since it is a pain to get to the fridge. Since I have teenagers always seem to need to do that second load so it gets hung up in the living room right before we go to bed. They are all dry in the morning. I simply sort and fold them right of the racks and laundry is done.
ReplyDeleteI actually think it is easier than when we had a dryer.
I use an old walker that's fortunately not needed right now for those things that I have no other place to hang to dry-when the rack, bathtub curtain rod and all of my chair backs are occupied. I live in a very old apartment and the old and faulty wiring can't handle an outlet for a dryer. Being sick often would be my motivation for taking advantage of that ease of life that I used to know-my dryer....*sniff*
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the idea of inside hanging laundry. Please keep sharing more household ideas with us.
ReplyDeletecloth drying stand