Hanging Clothes to Dry

[AstarB1]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post. I came across this website a little while ago and I've been learning a lot as I've been catching up on old posts.

I have a question about drying clothes. I have a clothesline set up in my basement that I currently use for delicate clothes to extend their life and avoid dry cleaning. I've been inspired by this website to try hanging to dry more of our laundry. I was wondering if those of you who hang your clothes, do you generally hang your clothes outside? If so, do you use a clothesline or a rack? And if you use a rack, do you find the umbrella type or the stacked type more useful.

I have a feeling that a clothesline is the best, but I think there is a local by-law here prohibiting them.

[sunshine]

I dry outside on lines in the summer -- indoors on lines in the basement in the winter and rainy weather.

I hang my clothes on hangers, then hang the hangers on the line. . . even the delicates and socks get clipped to the hangers with clothes pens.

I've also been known to hang the wet clothes on hangers on my shower rod.

[nuisance26]

~I toss my clothes in the dryer for a few minutes to soften them before air-drying. I dry them indoors on a circular, waist-high metal contraption my mil gave me and a garment rack. I use a variety of hangers to hang my clothes on the garment rack and just drap the other things over the metal bars on my drying rack.I find that some things dry in 6 hours but others take 24 hours. Welcome to Frugal Village!~

[dmvezina]

In the summer I use a clothesline.
In the winter I use hangers & clothespins in the laundry room which is in my basement. We have a woodstove down there so the clothes are dry within 24 hours.

[jinx]

We lived in an apartment until 3 years ago. I had my own dryer, but also had 2 clotheslines out a kitchen window, as well as 3 dowl racks in the basement. Now that we live in the burbs I have an umbrella style, and a regular straight clotheslines outside. Inside I have a couple of dowl rackes, and lines accross the ceiling. I hang dry everthing in the nice weather. In the winter, I still hang dry all the colored clothes, socks and underwear. The towels, I tend to throw in the dryer, because, they can take to long to dry. I also will throw items like jeans in the dryer for about 5 minutes to heat up before hanging them. they are not as hard or wrinkled when dry. I grew up in the city where my mother did not have a dryer and had a clothesline that went out each of our 3 kitchen windows. She Hung everything out. In the winter she had lines that she would attach to hooks that ran accross the kitchen ceiling and a dowl rack.

[homesteadmamma]

Welcome to the village. I see you live in ONt. where the weather can get very interesting. I live in Manitoba and the weather is indeed interesting here. I don't own a dryer and haven't in years.

I use a clothesline in the summer and dry my clothes on clothesracks in the winter. When we lived in Winnipeg, I dried my clothes on clotheslines in our basement. You can pick up clothesracks pretty cheaply at Canadian Tire or Walmart.

[watchingpennies]

I am in Ontario too...in my neighbourhood no clotheslines are allowed but...the umbrella type is allowed. I have a drying rack and use the shower rod and hangers for some things!

[peanut]

I hang my clothes inside on plastic hangers from the cold water pipes in the basement. Also on a drying rack. We have a local ordinance against outside line drying too. Plus I think my neighbors would come shoot me if I tried! We live in an upper middle class neighborhood, thanks to a move from a place with high real estate costs to one of lower real estate costs.

[monkeywrangler71]

I have the umbrella type outside, I didn't have enough space for a line. I don't know if there are any rules against it here, I've never seen anyone else in the neighbourhood drying clothes outside. No one gave me any rules when I bought the place and I'm not all that certain they are legally binding anyway. I heard a show on the radio one day where someone was trying to do away with them, especially since ON is having an energy crisis - the gov't wants people hanging their clothes out.

This time of year, nothing dries outside - too much rain. I will start hanging out again in the winter, things will freeze-dry quickly in the dry air.

In the meantime, I have one of those gullwing dryers in the basement. I wouldn't recommend it, very flimsy and you can't use most of the drying space (unless all your clothes are doll-size). I keep mine under a heating vent though, so it does dry quickly, I just can't fit much on it. I hang all the shirts on hangers in the bathroom.

I've been here just over a year, I've probably used the dryer about a dozen times.

[dmvezina]

I do the same thing!! Hangers & clothespins off the pipes in the basement!
I have a drying rack too for smaller items. Larger items take too long to dry on the rack.

[Bethany]

Oh I'm TRYING to get back into the habit of line drying!!! I have three wooden drying racks in an un-used bedroom that I dry clothes on. They usually dry in a day.

[lilk]

I don't always line dry, but last month my electric bill was $20.00 higher. So now I'm drying in the house again. I use the rods in the bathrooms. Today I closed the bathroom doors while things are hanging to dry with the vents open. I'm hoping this will speed up the process.

[Katybird]

I use an outdoors line in all seasons except for the coldest parts of winter. I use indoor dowel racks during that time for indoors.