Making outdoor clothes drying easier

Moerman Folding Rack

As you may remember, I've tried a number of different contraptions over the years to facilitate drying our clothes outside. Everything from retractable clotheslines to several kinds of folding drying racks. And, while the folding racks work well, they are not really made to be used outside and they tend to fall over in a stiff breeze, especially when laden with big, heavy laundry.

Why bother line drying your clothes outside, you ask? Well some of the benefits include:

• saving $150 or more per year in energy costs or coins
• reducing your carbon emissions by about a thousand pounds or more
• creating less wear and tear on your clothes
• eliminating static cling
• UV light from the sun can help disinfect clothing
• your clothes and sheets will smell fantastic
• it's a nice form of meditation

Brabantia Lift-O-Matic!

Because of the issues I was having with the folding racks and having to move them inside and back outside to protect them from the elements, we invested in a removable umbrella style rotary dryer clothes line that has 196 feet of drying space which, let me tell you, is more than sufficient. I can easily hang upwards of 4 loads of laundry which, let me also tell you, never happens. It also can comfortably dry sheets and large duvet covers with ease.

My husband had something similar in his yard when he was growing up, although not quite nearly as fancy. He's been wanting to get one of these for a while because he loves the smell of outdoor dried laundry. I've held off getting a more permanent line like this, but since this particular product allows you to pull it out of the ground and store it away so it's not a big eyesore in your yard, it was worth the extra cost.

The Brabantia Lift-O-Matic also comes with a spike cover thingy that keeps the dirt out of the bracket hole in the ground when you put the contraption away, as well as a weather protective cover to keep the crap off of it either while in storage or when it's out in the elements. Like I said, it's kind of pricey, but I love the darn thing.

Hills Panache Laundry Trolley

In order to help me lug all those heavy, wet clothes outside without tweaking out my back, I got a laundry trolley. While I can't say that I consistently use it (it's kind of hard to navigate on stairs, to be honest), it helps get me halfway there. And, it gives me one less excuse for not drying our clothes outside.

My only lamentation is that it's hard to dry clothes outside in Seattle for more than a couple of months out of the year. It's easy to fall out of the habit in the off-season and get used to using the dryer. I then have a hard time getting back into using it each year.

For more hints and tips on line drying clothes, check out the posts from my Laundry Challenge that I hosted a few years ago.

If you much prefer drying your clothes inside, check out my post for Tips for air drying clothes indoors.

What about you? Do you line dry your clothes outside and, if so, what kind of line do you use?

Warning: there be Amazon affiliate links in this here post.