Apartments and Line Drying...can it be done?

[CityChic]

We live in an apartment and will be there for at least another year. I would love to save money by Line Drying our clothes. I just had a couple questions...

1. Can you put up a clothesline inside (your bathroom for instance?). We are on the 3rd floor and don't have an outdoor deck of any sort. We also don't have a courtyard we could use.

2. How do you keep the clothes soft? They seem real crinkly when you line dry. (Keep in mind I can't throw stuff in the dryer for 5 minutes without paying the full amount to dry a load.)

3. How long does it take to line dry clothes? Is there anything you don't line dry?

TIA,
Rachael

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I do not dry most of my colored clothes. I live in an apartment, but I've never set up a formal line. I wind up draping clothes over furniture and doorknobs, which is really annoying. You could put up an indoor clothesline (I know they even make retractable ones). I've just never been that dedicated. With the draping method, it takes about a day to dry stuff. It would probably go faster on a line. I don't use fabric softener or anything like that. I just deal with the crinklies. If you iron your clothes before wearing them, it usually makes them soft again.

[zeldabee]

When I lived in an apartment in Brooklyn, I had a washing machine but no dryer. I had two sturdy folding wooden drying racks, and dried most everything on those. Some things were hung up on hangers to dry, especially if they were stored on hangers anyway. I had no problem with this year round.

Now I live in Oregon, and my apartment has a moisture problem. I couldn't routinely hang up clothes to dry here. I've got a dryer, and I wish I could hang up at least some of my clothes, because I think the dryer's rough on our clothes. I'm prohibited from hanging clothes outside. I long for the day when I can go back to hanging my clothes, and I really want to hang stuff outside! Some day.

ETA: If you rinse well and spin, don't use too much soap, clothes will be less crinkly. Also, I used to shake them pretty well as I was hanging them. Towels are the only thing I would sometimes pay to dry, since they get fluffier.

[Neva]

When I lived in an appartment I had a clothes line across my bedroom. The only things I paid to dry were sheets and towels. I live with the crinkles but usually would just give them a few shakes out before wearing just to get the stiffness out. I also kept my window open all the time. My heat didn't work properly and I had to keep it open so it didn't get too hot.

[cece]

I, too, line dry in my apartment. I am fortunate to have south facing windows in Southern California, so my things dry fairly quickly. I use a fold out wooden drying rack. I have a portable washing machine that I connect in my bathroom, so I don't wash all my clothes in it, it would take up too much time/space in our only bathroom. I mainly wash diapers and then throw a load in when I wash in the coin laundry so that I can toss the load in the dryer with the coin wash. Does that make any sense? Yes, some things are crunchy. I do sometimes use the ecover fabric softener.

[Literate]

Also, check out http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=607512

[chel]

In winter when it's too cold to dry outside, I've found putting a drying rack (I use metal as the wooden ones get mildew-y on me) over the heater vent to speed up the drying time. Or if you have a sunny spot to put a rack that would help.

Ideally, if you could plan your clothes. 100% cotton can get very stiff, but blends, poly, and nylon stuff line dries great. I also shake out the clothes before hanging them.

Time-wise, it just depends on the humidity and the clothes. Dh like socks made from bamboo and they takes 2 days to dry even though they are hung over the heat vent: .

[jocelyndale]

In one house I lived in, there was an old clothesline system inside. The line was basically twine (heavy duty cotton twine) and lived inside a reel which looked like a crank pencil sharpener. I could pull it straight across the kitchen to a hook *or* use two-three other hooks for shorter lengths. I could even run it to all four walls (diamond configuration). Since it was old, I generally used shorter lengths to the nearest wall. Clothespins were called for.

When I was in Moscow, my host family (two older women) had wires they strung across the kitchen and hallway. Those were the warmest areas, so it worked well.

I hang tshirts and non-dryables on hangers in the bathroom, from the rod for the shower curtain. Undies (mine last longer if I don't dry them in the machine) and lay-flat-to-dry things go on a drying rack. My old drying rack just died, so I replaced it with a similar one from Ikea (coated metal A-frame shape with wings).

Sturdy curtain rods, the kind which stay up with pressure, make excellent places to hang stuff. You can put them in hallways or doorways. If you don't want to leave them up, store them in a closet.

[quantumleap]

We also live in an apartment, and don't use a dryer. In our old apartment, we were lucky enough to have indoor lines in the laudry area, but not here. I've actually found it quite easy. We also use a drying rack situated over a heat vent. Here, it takes a matter of hours to dry most things that way. I also use hangers. In fact, you can hang an entire load of laundry on hangers. I use clothespins and pin things like family cloth, pants, socks and underwear, and hang things like shirts. Then, I hang the hangers on the shower curtain rod. I find you can fit a lot on there this way, and it dries fairly well if you hang it up in the morning after showers. It's typically dry by the time people need to do morning showers again. If not, we just grab the hangers and stick them in the closet while people shower, and then transfer back. I am also a fan of the shower method because you are not dodging drying laundry all over your house all day this way. We usually pay to dry sheets, mostly because our space is so small that I go a little nuts if 3/4 of it is covered by drying sheets. I should also mention that all my hemp clothing, with a wee shake once it's dry, is as soft as ever. Handy, I must say. So, the pp was right about fabric making a difference in stiffness, which I hadn't really thought about before.
You'll figure out a system, I'm sure.
Best,
Katia

[Twocoolboys]

I am back to line-drying everything after using a dryer off and on for years. I live in a house, but have lived in apartments where I dried most everything - back in the days when I didn't have any extra quarters for dryers at the laundry mat.

I have one of those metal folding racks. When set up, you can fit a whole load of laundry on it. I also have a small wooden rack which fits quite a bit as well. I hang shirts on hangers and hang them from the shower curtain rod. And, when I wash sheets, I hang them from the back of a door.

To help with the stiffness, I give everything a good snap before I hang it. There will always be a difference though - you just have to get used to it. Laundry won't be as soft as it is out of a dryer. But, I tell myself that line-drying is the normal way. The ultra softness out of a dryer is not normal - lol.

A pp said that dryers are hard on clothes - I think that is true. My whites have been whiter since I completely stopped using a dryer and things seem to hold up better.

[Penelope]

We used a couple of good-quality metal racks in our apartment washer-but-no-dryer days. (The laundry was down two flights of outdoor stairs, and I had a January baby, so hauling laundry and my huge self down icy stairs multiple times to wash and dry seemed like a bad idea. We got a hand-me-down washer, which solved that problem.)

I found that while things do get crinkly, ironing will help, and you also just get used to it. The one thing that you do need is space to put the racks up and leave them up - we used our dining room, but if you have space in your bedroom that might work better. You can get racks that install above the tub - they expand, so you can contract them when you're not using them, and then they drip right into the tub. My mom has one and it works well.

I did hang cloth diapers, but in cooler/wetter weather they take more than 24 hours to dry, which can be a drag. So I sometimes threw those in the dryer, especially since by then I wasn't pregnant (obviously) and the stairs didn't pose a real hazard once I could see my feet.

[Sharlla]

My aunt didn't have a dryer' She just hung up her shirts on hangers to dry and the rest on a wood clothes rack.

[tbone]

We also live in an apartment. We used to go the the laundry mat every two weeks or so but finally splurged on a portable washer that we connect to the kitchen sink. We bought some drying racks from IKEA for pretty cheap and they are slim and space-saving. They attach to the wall and fold down when not in use. Also bought a small circular drying thing with clothes pin attached for smaller items like socks and undies from the $1 store. Our apt is really dry so clothes dry really quickly. If I hang them up in the morning they are often dry before I go to bed. Works great to "humidify" the room!

[Merilin]

As long as there is a sunny day, you can dry you clothes outside even at 0F; it has worked well for us. Yes, the laundry freezes, but thanks to a process called sublimation (see wikipedia, if you are interested for a short explanation), the laundry will be dry by nightfall. Don't forget to wear gloves, as the laundry will freeze stiff, while you put it on the line. I personally do not like to hang the clothes in the kitchen, as they will take on food smells while cooking; not that this is not a nice smell, but nothing I want my clothes to smell like.

Still, during we often spin a laundry line from one end of the appartment to the other, with little hooks on the way.


To keep things from being all wrinkled. We stretch the clothes smooth before putting them up, shirts go on hangers right away, as it will safe time later when putting them into the closet. To keep them smoother try a bit of vinegar in the rinse cycle.

[FoxintheSnow]

Can you do something like this?
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_Rtrqh....7163oPl4iD.jpg
I dont know what kind of apt place you live in...