Drying Rack vs. Clothsline

[PapayaMom]

I am tentatively entering the world of line drying and rigged up a clothesline on our porch. I like it ok but I know I won't stick with it if I can't make it a more efficient system. I have been looking at drying racks like this one
Drying Rack
What are the drawbacks to something like this, I like it beacuse I can use it outdoors in the spring summer and fall and indoors during our cold long winters. Am I missing a great reason to stick with a clothesline?

Thanks

[barose]

We have this kind http://tinyurl.com/3xlofp so that we can hang our towels, sheets, pants, jeans and most other clothes.

We do have the kind you linked to but that is mostly for our sweaters and heavy and/or delicate garments that we don’t want to hang and stretch out of shape. A drying rack is not idea for larger items.

[bwylde]

Wow, I would love something like that!! We have 4 wooden racks, a gullwing, a crib side , a tower rack and a clothesline in the basement plus we still sometimes have to hang things up elsewhere. We can't count on the weather being nice and we hang clothes up year round. I would seriously consider getting that (except we couldn't use it outside as we live in an apartment and have no place to put it; we do have a clothesline but it's stretched over the parking lot, which sucks as it's been pulled down several times by big trucks).

[wendinbill]

That wouldn't hold enough for me. I have an outdoor clothesline, with 5 lines, about 30 foot long each! I can fit several large loads out at once. In my basement I have lines strung between the support jacks. I know in hotels I've seen little ones that mount in a shower-and the string retracts. Perhaps that's an idea for a small space?

[barose]

Originally Posted by wendinbill

That wouldn't hold enough for me. I have an outdoor clothesline, with 5 lines, about 30 foot long each! I can fit several large loads out at once. In my basement I have lines strung between the support jacks. I know in hotels I've seen little ones that mount in a shower-and the string retracts. Perhaps that's an idea for a small space?

I hear you. The two of us do about 3-4 loads a week on average. We can only do laundry on weekends because of our schedules so its important to have something that holds more than a few items.

What our line doesnt hold, we hang in the house in a semi empty closet we have if we dont have to put them on the rack.

[USAmma]

I use a sturdy expandable drying rack I got at Target.
http://www.target.com/Extendable-Fol...20racks&page=1

Line drying is okay, but with the drying rack I can move it around depending on the weather. I do have to keep on top of the laundry though!

I started using the drying rack also because in our harsh AZ sun the clothes get faded really fast. I dry in the shade, garage, or our home.

[mamadelbosque]

We have an old clothes line outside that holds about 1.5-2 loads. We also just got a large drying rack from lehmans that holds one load - which is pretty impressive for a drying rack

[mommajb]

I saw a huge one on gaiam.com (did I spell that right?) but with seven of us, cloth diapers, two bedwetters, and several sports teams/practices a week I struggle with laundry. I can keep up on good weather days as I have 4 50' lines. I also repurposed a soccer kickback frame (like a goal) to dry clothing on hangers in the garage. It would be even better to hang lines (perhaps retractable) in the garage. I also hang clothing in doorways and on shower curtain rods.

[marlyninla]

Like others I need more space than a drying rack offers. We live in SoCal and don't have many rainy days and it's always warm enough to dry stuff outside so a clothesline is a no brainer for us. I just ordered this:

http://www.urbanclotheslines.com/product/ADDALINE33

I can't wait until it arrives/is installed -- I hate my current jerry-rigged system!

[Alkenny]

It would be way too small for us too. I have five 40-50 foot lines spread across 3 T-bars in the backyard.

In the winter, I only used the dryer for towels and underwear/socks. I hung all of our shirts on hangers and on the basement shower rod (built in concrete shower we don't use), and draped jeans over the chairs and table (our old dining table is down there in the extra dining area-we have a summer kitchen/dining area, family room, blah-blah-blah).

BUT, if you are drying on just a small line across a porch anyways, I think a drying rack would be a great idea.

[dbsam]

The drying rack would not offer enough space for me. I like my clothes line but wish I had two. (It holds about 1 or 2 loads of kids clothing)

Much of the year our weather isn't conducive to hanging outside so I have approx. fifteen feet of hanging bars in the laundry room and find I still tend to hang items on the kitchen cabinet knobs.

I use the dryer for towels, underwear, socks, and my husbands work clothes. (I dry sheets and blankets in the winter since they take up so much hanging space.)

[lightheart]

I try and hang a bunch of our clothes on coathangers instead of folding them. I try and hang them on the hangers right out of the washing machine while still wet then hang the coathangers out on the line sorta garage sale style, If you line slopes it's more difficult but if you hang socks, underware, towels washcloths in between them they don't all clump together, even if they do clump then you just swith-a-roo the outside ones to the inside ones and unless your dealing with heavy winter items, they all dry in the day.

save tons of clothesline space, cuts down on wrinkles and when you bring the clothes in all you have to do is hang the hangers in the closet and laundry is done, no mounds of dry clean clothes on the bed or in the corner also if it starts to rain it's pretty quick to get them down and in the house.

We have open rafters in the house so I have nails all over the place and in bad weather I just hang thm inside and swith them around until the group gets dry, could do a line in the house and do the same thing, we just don't have room for that.

I guess if you were motivated you could even knot up a clothesline rope every few inches so that you had stops so they wouldn't slide around, might increase the amount of time taking the down right as it starts to rain becaus you couldn't guts slide them all together and grab and run but...

[BurtsGirl]

I use both a cloth line and a drying rack. My drying rack looks like this. Basically just my socks, panties, dish cloths and small sized laundry goes on the rack everything else goes on the line.

[DevaMajka]

I really like our clothes rack. In the winter it's PERFECT because our upstairs rooms blow out a lot of heat. It's a good use for them! I hadn't thought about using it outside in the summer- I was wondering what I was going to do when we turned the heat off (uh, yeah. its still cold here. Well, 60F, but definitely not May temps!)

A clothesline isn't practical for us because dp teaches guitar and we have students come to the house. I really don't want them seeing our laundry hanging out, kwim?

Our drying rack is too small though. It would be easier if I'd gotten a bigger one, but the one I got was quite cheap. I got one like this http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/40122995
One like this would probably work perfectly http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/50095091

[tea4tamara]

I like our drying rack in the winter because it adds some humidity to the room (which is really dry) and it works pretty quickly because I put it right over a heating vent. Now that the warmer weather is here, I've been drying diapers outside on the line and I LOVE it -- they dry so much faster than the drier/rack combo and the sun bleaches out the stains so they look brand new. I would use the line year round if I could, I wish I had more lines so I could put more of our laundry out.

[laohaire]

What do you put UNDER a drying rack indoors (such as in the winter)?

I assume you put something under it - or do you just let it drip on the floor?

[VeganCupcake]

Originally Posted by laohaire

What do you put UNDER a drying rack indoors (such as in the winter)?

I assume you put something under it - or do you just let it drip on the floor?

I don't have anything that drips--the washing machine spin cycle spins most of the excess water out of the clothes. My drying rack goes in our exercise/craft/etc. room on the carpet and I've never had a drip problem.

However, when handwashing, I'm not an aggressive enough wringer to get excess water out. In that case, I would hang things in the shower or outside to protect from drips.

[momof_3_boys]

With 3 sons (2 in diapers), I am doing 4-6 loads of laundry daily. I need the capacity of the clothesline. Plus, we live in Arizona- so why not take advantage of the sun?

[aprons_and_acorns]

Originally Posted by bwylde

a crib side

We use a crib side, too. It works great, doesn't it?