Right to Dry for Apartment Dwellers
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 08.25.07
Are you living in an apartment, dorm, anyplace without the space to hang a clothesline? Then you probably read Fight for Your Right to Dry a bit skeptically. After all, what can you do? You don't own a backyard!
But wait! There is a better way! The drying rack, a device which folds compactly out of the way when not in use, allows anyone to dry their clothing naturally. The modern drying racks add a design element to your green living, a big improvement over the unstable, old accordion-racks. A couple options are shown over the fold, with some tips and hints on how rack drying can make your laundry-life better.
We will admit, a typical family of four will use the fold-away functionality only when guests are expected. But natural drying will save energy and money. Not only on your gas/electric bill, but also on the wear and tear your clothing avoid. Your favorite tight jeans come off the rack fitting just right. And you can wear that perfect shirt you found months longer without the heat-and-tumble drying process. No more lost buttons or snags.
Modern washing machines have faster spin cycles, leaving clothing already dry enough that they will not drip when hung out, so there are no worries about water damage. Set out in a well-ventilated room, clothing will be dry by the next day, smelling fresh and fine. The clothing comes off the rack already sorted and half-way folded: so the labor quotient is not significantly different than machine drying. Also, you can wear most clothes without ironing. (Hint: Want to really save time? Try the rack-to-body lifestyle.)
This A-frame over tub drying rack also lays out flat for drying sweaters or delicates which need more support.
As a practical solution for a larger family, we advise looking for a winged rack. We like the Pegasus 200, from German company Leifheit, because the wide-diameter blue plastic joints are a great place to hang sweaters and pants to avoid the dreaded "dowel-crease". This stand is stable enough to hang a large number of garments on hangers as well (although we recommend hooking hangers onto the main rack or the most inside wing-dowel to avoid stress on the wing joints, unlike shown in the picture).
So trust us and try it: you won't miss your dryer a bit.
Image credit: Clothesline by ::allysonkalea
There is another sort of drying rack out there, a "european" style that raises and lowers to the ceiling. Since heat rises it makes sense to let the laundry dry up there & out of the way. You can find them online for about $100 or make one yourself. I did this out of 5 dollar store broom handles, 2 scrap pieces of wood, a few pulleys and rope, for about $13.00. I can just about get a whole load on it!
When I was at home living with my perants, we had no problem using portible clothes hangers to dry our clothes (there where 4 of us), I don't see how anyone would think this is a bad idea.
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/shopping/search/searchresultsmain.jsp?fresh=1&searchType=advanced&iMainCat=0&iSubCat=0&attribute14=0&attribute15=0&attribute16=0&RS=1&keyword=drying+rack
I am using two of these right now on the deck to dry clothes on this bright sunny day in NC
They are made of wood
FYI, hangars are things you put planes in. Hangers are what you put clothes on.
Now if only the article addressed how to teach your cats the hanging clothes aren't toys.... ;-)
==auth. note==
Oh man, those hangars are reeally gonna stress the joints in my drying rack....I switched back to hangers. But now how am I going to dry my plane?
I had a rack like the first one pictured for a while and to be honest, they're not that effective. Better than nothing I suppose, but you really need a decent airflow and lots of space for the garments, and on that style of rack your average load of washing will have to be hung so close together that it takes much longer to dry.
I don't own a tumble dryer, and normally wait for a dry day to do washing - I am lucky enough to be able to hang it out, and it dries on the line in a couple of hours. If we have rain for a long time (like recent weeks in the UK) I dry it indoors, but it can take more than a day to do so.
It's an absolute disgrace that outdoor drying is banned in some places.
A couple of hooks, door hinges or anything else you can tie a sturdy sting to - and then stretch across a room, is also very handy. When you're done; unhook one end, roll it up and let hang from the other. Instant dry line. Inside.
The perfect complement to line drying is a small spray bottle filled with water, set to a fine mist. You can pick one up at the local "dollar store". Even before we started line drying we used the spray bottle so we could retire the iron. Put the clothing on and mist out the wrinkles. Your clothing will then dry out before you get where you are going.
I have a wooden rack, but my new kitten likes to knock it over and claw at my clothes. Grrr. I still use the dryer for some stuff at this point because I would never have enough space to dry everything, not to mention it takes days to dry in a humid environment. However I'm moving to a bigger apartment and if I'm allowed to put holes in the wall I might invest in something like this . Or maybe just buy some hooks and some rope. When I first moved out on my own I never used the dryers in my building because it took forever. So I hung up everything, even down to the socks and undies!
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