Alternatives to Hanging Laundry Outside

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

02 May 2008 09:41 AM

Hanging laundry outside is not only good for your budget, but it is also good for the environment. Sometimes, however, hanging laundry outside just isn't practical or even possible. Maybe you live in an apartment or house without a backyard for a clothesline. Maybe hanging laundry is simply not allowed in your area. or maybe you just don't want to hang your laundry outside for all of your neighbors to see. I remember being a teen in New York City and being mortified when my mother hung the underwear out on the clothesline that ran from our kitchen window and across the courtyard to our neighbor's kitchen window.

Here are some alternatives to hanging laundry outside that still eliminates the need for your dryer. Do you have a spot in your home that you can use as a place to hang your laundry? If you have a large, dry basement, you can hang a clothesline indoors. But even if you don't have a large indoor space, you can make use of sweater drying racks and individual hooks or trees that hang from the ceiling. I used to hang t-shirts on hangers from some very sturdy pipes in our old basement.

If you only have a bathroom to work with, you can still use it to hang some clothes. One great way to do this is to fashion a clothes hanger that can be inserted and removed easily, allowing you to hang your clothing over the bathtub (to catch any drips). I saw this idea in the Tightwad Gazette. To make your clothes hanger, you will need a long dowel (an old broomstick works wonderfully), a couple of wire coat hangers at at least two plant hooks. Drill holes in the dowel. Bend the coat hangers and insert the hanger ends into the dowel, one on each side. Next, screw the plant hooks into your ceiling and use them to hang the clothes hangers. When you aren't drying clothes, simply remove the clothes hangers from the plant hooks.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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MegfromAllAboutAppearances (330) 02 May 2008 01:18 PM

My husband put a metal pipe above our dryer in the utility room so that we can hang clothes there. It works great. We rarely have any problems with clothes drying there. When it is really humid I try to time it so that they're in there while we run the heat or air since that dries the air. And since I hang the clothes on hangers, it actually saves me time.

Delicate knit items I dry on collapsible shelves on top of the washer or dryer. We got them at Big Lots for really cheap.

Mary Ann Romans (26886) 02 May 2008 02:43 PM

Great ideas!