Where to put an indoor laundry line ...

**ironmaiden** · 11-07-2005, 09:32 AM

We have a hallway - actually it's the back wall to our house.
And I realized that all I needed was about 2 inches or so away from the wall to hang a laundry line. So I have a line that reaches from one end of the hall to the other - and it doesn't get in the way of people using the hallway. And if I hand kids clothes (my kids are little), I can hang two lines - one up higher than the other - in the same space. And in this case, there is a baseboard heater along that wall. So this works out well.

**Valerie in WA** · 11-07-2005, 11:27 AM

That's neat idea.

I'm going to try to bring my line indoors this week. I have an umbrella-style line. Our attic is accessible by a pull down ladder in the laundry room. The attic has boards laid down on the floor, but is otherwise unfinished. By cleaning an area of the attic, I'm hoping to have room to put my line up there. Rather than supporting it by a post coming up from the floor, I will be suspending it from the rafters.

The bad part of my plan is that it will be difficult to haul wet laundry up the ladder.

The good part of my plan is that I will be able to line-dry through our ridiculously long rainy season and I'm not limited to the hours of daylight.

**Emerald_Mommy** · 11-07-2005, 11:52 AM

I wish I could figure out where to do this. Our basement is completely unsuitable. I bought a wooden drying rack at Wal-Mart just to try it and Philip broke it the second week.

I don't know whether to buy another or not, certainly not one that flimsy. I used to hang wet clothes on hangers and hang them in our bath but the shower curtain bar fell (claw foot tub w/ shower). I feel like I'm running out of options but surely I haven't tried everything yet.

**Missy** · 11-07-2005, 11:58 AM

in my laundry room i have two doors directly across from each other. on the doorframes, about an inch down i hung a curtain rod from the top of each door. then i also strung clothesline from each end of the rods too, so there is lines going from rod to rod and the heavier things like jackets can be hung on hangers from the rods.

works for me

**hollyhill** · 11-07-2005, 12:04 PM

Great ideas valerie, missy and ironmaiden.
Karen have you checked out one of those contraptions you hang on the wall and you pull 4 lines out and attach it the the other wall? Do you know what I mean?

I use wooden racks (my children are older LOL) in the basement under my heating vents. But I can only hang one load at a time..

**forestdale** · 11-07-2005, 02:00 PM

We have a wide verandah out the back so when it rains, I hang my washing there.

**jlxian** · 11-07-2005, 02:19 PM

In the winter months, or during rainy weather, I hang jeans on a wooden drying rack inside. Otherwise, I don't have an indoor line. I do like the humidity that drying clothes add to the indoor air in the winter --- I'll try to come up with something in our hallway, too. Great idea.

**bridge** · 11-07-2005, 04:11 PM

In my spare bedroom off of the laundry room, I have a drying rack and I put a closet rod with the brackets between 2 walls that were spaced about 5 feet. I have found you have to keep up with it because of the drying time. If you get behind it gets stressful. It works very well for us, there are only 2 of us. I have found that jeans seem to dry better hanging upside down. I clip them to hangers by the bottom of each leg.

**SHOPGIRL** · 11-07-2005, 06:43 PM

I hang some of my clothes on a commercial garment rack. I just use regular plastic hangers on it. That works well. I also use over the door attachments to hang clothes. You could always hang a few clothes over the shower curtain rod.

**canadian gardener** · 11-07-2005, 07:41 PM

I have a couple of wooden drying racks, (when the kids were home I had 4) that I can set up in the laundry room, plus a bar that I hang stuff on hangers in the laundry.

**Valerie in WA** · 11-08-2005, 02:43 PM

You know, Keep It Simple Silly. Why should I struggle to fit my umbrella line up the ladder and into the attic (not to mention clearning a wide space for it), when I could just string a line from end to end. I have some brand new clothes line (that I'm planning to use to restring the 'umbrella' as it's line is saggy), so I took it up there and strung some almost along the peak (about a foot to the side) and then back again (about a foot to the other side). So now I have about 40feet, in two rows of 20, about 18 inches apart. The first load is happily drying as I type.

I wasn't able to fit quite all of the load, but the rest is now draped over the shower doors.

This line-drying is addictive and you're all a bad influence on me!