Retractable clothesline inside?

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Anyone use one of these?  Can you recommend a good brand?  Am I loony for thinking I should put this up in my house? 

I am thinking of putting it up in my bedroom in front of my window, or possibly in the living room (maybe both?) so that I can hang laundry up before work, and open the windows on nice days to let it dry in the breeze.  I am moving to a new apartment in three weeks and will not have a way to hang laundry outside.  I have three wooden clothes racks, but I much prefer lines and clothes pins.  I figure with retractable ones, at least they won't look like indoor clotheslines when I don't need them. 

I did read a review on Amazon that recommended screwing a wooden board into the wall to hit the studs and then attaching the clothesline to the board to give it enough strength.  Ideally I would love three or four lines to have enough room for two or even three loads of laundry. 

Any suggestions or ideas?

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Should I post this in another section of MDC?  I am so curious about how to make this work and really would like to find a solution.

[mommaof3boz]

Personally due to the age of my house I have wooden racks in my laundry room.  We have drywall wall over the original plaster (which is over the lath and board).  The studs are harder than heck to find and even then the movement of the screw in the underlying plaster could cause cracks in the new drywall.  I would in a heart beat put up the retractable line types if I had a good solid way to mount them.

[justmama]

I rent so I don't want to really put holes in the walls if I can avoid it but we have no dryer so we need a solution.  I have the "frost" drying rack from ikea and LOVE it.  It's QUITE sturdy(I've been using it over 2 years now and it's like brand new) and works well as a moveable option for drying in the bedrooms and opening windows or in a sunny warm location over a heating vent.  I also have several feet of clothesline crisscrossing one half of my basement to hold 2 full loads of laundry.  That's my main drying area.  Our basement is completely unfinished with wooden exposed rafters and concrete walls and floor so I just strung a dollar store clothesline tied to existing exposed nails int he rafters.  It works fabulous.  For normal laundry, I just hang everything in the basement but it's COLD down there so it takes about 24hours to dry.  So when I need something to dry faster, I take it upstairs and put it on the rack over a heating vent in the floor and it dries in a few hours(like 3?).  I could probably afford a cheapo dryer in the next month or two but I'm thinking I probably won't buy one since this is working and it's a free option.  It also saves me on the electricity needed to run the dryer.  It really only takes 10 minutes per load to hang everything once you get into the swing of things and as long as I do a load every day or every other day and keep up on it, it's not a problem.  It's when I get lazy and the laundry backs up that I stress about getting it all done.

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie 

Anyone use one of these?  Can you recommend a good brand? 

I have several retractable clotheslines outside and love them.  I purchased inexpensive lines at Menard's similar to this and one of mine is nineteen years old and still works great.  But this would look better in the house - but it is only 6'.  I've never had them inside but your plan for hanging with a board over the drywall and into the studs sounds good; you'll just need to patch the drywall when you move?

Inside, I have a fourteen foot pole in my tiny laundry room and hang on hangers -not enough space for us. Thanks for the idea, I might put a retractable line up in my bathroom since our weather is not conducive to year-round outdoor line drying.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Originally Posted by dbsam 

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie 

Anyone use one of these?  Can you recommend a good brand? 

I have several retractable clotheslines outside and love them.  I purchased inexpensive lines at Menard's similar to this and one of mine is nineteen years old and still works great.  But this would look better in the house - but it is only 6'.  I've never had them inside but your plan for hanging with a board over the drywall and into the studs sounds good; you'll just need to patch the drywall when you move?

Inside, I have a fourteen foot pole in my tiny laundry room and hang on hangers -not enough space for us. Thanks for the idea, I might put a retractable line up in my bathroom since our weather is not conducive to year-round outdoor line drying.

That second one looks like a good one to have in the bathroom, but I wonder how much weight it would actually hold?  I am ok with the first type for my bedroom, as I figure I can hang something over it when it isn't in use, or even just have it on the wall just like that.  Noone ever comes into my bedroom and I really need function over aesthetics at this point.  I also couldn't find where the second one was listed as being 6' long on the site.  I wonder if they make one that is a bit longer?  I could totally see putting up two or three of those in the bathroom to hang most of one load at a time if I had to. 

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Oooh, look what I just found!  It only costs $10 and looks exactly the same as the link that you had and it is 8' long!  They recommend putting it over your bathtub, which I love the idea of.  It wouldn't show at all, even when the clothes are hanging there.  Granted, the clothing wouldn't get as much air flow as in front of a window, but I could keep the curtain open and if I needed to, I could just close it to keep the laundry out of sight if I needed/wanted to.  I love it!  I am going to order 2 or 3 of these and they are going up as soon as I move!  Thanks so much for the idea! 

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie 

Oooh, look what I just found!  It only costs $10 and looks exactly the same as the link that you had and it is 8' long!  They recommend putting it over your bathtub, which I love the idea of.  It wouldn't show at all, even when the clothes are hanging there.  Granted, the clothing wouldn't get as much air flow as in front of a window, but I could keep the curtain open and if I needed to, I could just close it to keep the laundry out of sight if I needed/wanted to.  I love it!  I am going to order 2 or 3 of these and they are going up as soon as I move!  Thanks so much for the idea! 

mh...I typed my response twice but it posts without half of the info??

The other nice thing about hanging in the bathroom is you can keep the exhaust fan on if it is humid and you are not running the furnace or AC.  (OT, My husband installed timer switches on all our bathroom exhaust fans.  It saves energy, and the fan motor, and we can leave the bathroom/house without worrying a fan is left on all day.  It is an easy and inexpensive change.)

I've never seen a tub that didn't have fiberglass or tile surrounding the entire tub area.  Does your new apt. have something you can put holes in surrounding the tub?  If the shower is in the tub, I would also worry about water getting in the walls through the fixture - unless it can be hung high enough to avoid getting wet?  or if it is caulked really well it s/b fine. 

[Pumpkin_Pie]

The shower only goes up about 6 feet and the shower head is about 4-6 inches down from the top.  Above the fiberglass, there is just regular wall.  I am thinking I could install it above the shower walls and it should be fine.  It is the same where I live now and have never had a problem with mildew on the walls, so I am assuming that water never gets up there.  Caulking around the edges wouldn't be a bad idea though.