This is one of those posts that I'm probably more excited about than you… I finally have a working system for hanging my washing that's not standing on the floor like my current temporary one is. Yay!
I don't know if you remember this post where I said we were going to get a new heating system come spring. Well that's not on anymore we found out the other week. 50% of the households in our neighborhood needed sign up and in most other neighborhoods they had so our hopes were really up.
For some reason the idea was turned down and with that came that I lost the drying space for laundry I had hoped for. I had planned on adding a dryer and have a small additional drying rack next to it but now there's not room for both so I 've skipped the idea of the dryer and since I added the blue cabinet and took my old washing line down I needed to think of something else.
I'm pretty happy with my solution to the problem. It's kind of odd and different and definitely not standard issue but it works. Again yay!
Here's my wacky how to:
Take a piece of wood that's just randomly laying about in the garage. Cut it to size and drill three pairs of holes, at the ends and in the middle.
Here the strip of wood has been primed and mounted on the wall with screws and plugs.
The holes were spackled, the wood painted and eye hooks screwed in at regular intervals.
On the opposite side where the heater is I put heavy duty magnets on the metal side of the heater.
I tried using the magnets on the blue cabinet too but because the washing line was longer there the line drooped too much so I drilled holes in the side of the cabinet and inserted eye hooks with washers and nuts instead. The washing line was then threaded back and forth from side to side in the eye hooks and fastened at the end.
Hey presto! It works!
39 Comments
Wow, it’s fantastic Benita! We’ll be putting one up in our garage soon and I totally thought of your last post on your drying line. Now I have lots of Chez Larsson options! I’ll be linking as well.
Wow, it’s fantastic Benita! We’ll be putting one up in our garage soon and I totally thought of your last post on your drying line. Now I have lots of Chez Larsson options! I’ll be linking as well.
Awesome idea! I wish I had room for something like this!
Awesome idea! I wish I had room for something like this!
Hi Benita-
This is an awesome solution to creating hanging drying space! We just finished remodeling our laundry room. I am trying to come up with a creative solution to having hanging space for drying. We do not have 2 walls to put a line or hanging bar up. I was thinking galvanized pipe hanging from the ceiling? What do you think? or any other ideas?
You have the best ideas Benita. Thanks for sharing with us. Bummer about the heating system. Question, when you hang dry your things, do they sometimes feel stiff after drying? I know I hang dry some things, but before taking to iron or put away, I throw them in the dryer on ‘tumble press’ to soften and get some wrinkles out.
Also, do you know any more about your book? Will you pursue another publisher after the holidays? Obviously, I am looking forward to it 🙂
brilliant! i am going to try this.
brilliant! i am going to try this.
Good lord. I can’t believe the creative solutions you come up with every time. You are so clever!
Good lord. I can’t believe the creative solutions you come up with every time. You are so clever!
Geez girl, you never stop amazing me! I love the way you maximize your space. So efficient and always good lookin. Thanks for sharing your projects. I love seeing them.
Geez girl, you never stop amazing me! I love the way you maximize your space. So efficient and always good lookin. Thanks for sharing your projects. I love seeing them.
I’m impressed. Great ingenuity!
YOU: GENIUS!!!!
ME: SOOOOOOOOO Stealing this idea!
You really should send this in to apartment therapy. They would be agog!!!
Simplicity. Perfection. Thanks!
YOU: GENIUS!!!!
ME: SOOOOOOOOO Stealing this idea!
You really should send this in to apartment therapy. They would be agog!!!
Simplicity. Perfection. Thanks!
Carol, I like your idea! Maybe you can assemble a rectangle, drill holes in the short sides, thread the line back and forth and mount it or have a pully system from the ceiling?! I love galvanized… Above the line I have there’s a metal pole with hangers where all shirts and tops are hung when drying, makes for less ironing and creases.
Brandi, our laundry does get stiff from hanging… Martin loves that stiff as a board feeling on both jeans and towels…
About the book, I’m taking some time off over the holidays and will have some alone time when Martin and Wille leave to visit family in the south of Sweden. I’m going to try and figure out my next step then. I don’t think I’ll send it off to any more publishers though. It will be a diy thing probably in one way or another.
Kevin, steal away 🙂
Carol, I like your idea! Maybe you can assemble a rectangle, drill holes in the short sides, thread the line back and forth and mount it or have a pully system from the ceiling?! I love galvanized… Above the line I have there’s a metal pole with hangers where all shirts and tops are hung when drying, makes for less ironing and creases.
Brandi, our laundry does get stiff from hanging… Martin loves that stiff as a board feeling on both jeans and towels…
About the book, I’m taking some time off over the holidays and will have some alone time when Martin and Wille leave to visit family in the south of Sweden. I’m going to try and figure out my next step then. I don’t think I’ll send it off to any more publishers though. It will be a diy thing probably in one way or another.
Kevin, steal away 🙂
Great post! Sooooooooo clever!
You turned an awkward little corner into a practical functional space! I would LOVE to have a basement like yours, for all those odd jobs like laundry and sewing.
Shame about the heating system though, guess most people didn’t think about the long term…
Great post! Sooooooooo clever!
You turned an awkward little corner into a practical functional space! I would LOVE to have a basement like yours, for all those odd jobs like laundry and sewing.
Shame about the heating system though, guess most people didn’t think about the long term…
Hi Benita,
I have become a fan ever since I discovered your blog. Hats off to your new invention, I will surely be implementing that in my laundry.
I check your blog everyday, can’t wait to read new things you been doing everyday, its a pleasure to see your organised home Sad I am not that organised.
Hi Benita,
I have become a fan ever since I discovered your blog. Hats off to your new invention, I will surely be implementing that in my laundry.
I check your blog everyday, can’t wait to read new things you been doing everyday, its a pleasure to see your organised home Sad I am not that organised.
Great idea, Benita. Here in Brazil, most households use a system attached to the ceiling that we get down to hang the clothes, and put back up to dry. I innocently thought this was the same system adopted elsewhere in the world. I was wrong. In this link http://www.redesdeprotecao.com/varal.htm you see different types of systems. The two ones on the top are attached to the ceiling and the others are wall-mounted.
And as for the person who asked about clothes getting stiff, as my laundry area is very well ventilated, if I don’t let clothes hang for too long after drying, they do not get stiff at all.
Fernanda
Great idea, Benita. Here in Brazil, most households use a system attached to the ceiling that we get down to hang the clothes, and put back up to dry. I innocently thought this was the same system adopted elsewhere in the world. I was wrong. In this link http://www.redesdeprotecao.com/varal.htm you see different types of systems. The two ones on the top are attached to the ceiling and the others are wall-mounted.
And as for the person who asked about clothes getting stiff, as my laundry area is very well ventilated, if I don’t let clothes hang for too long after drying, they do not get stiff at all.
Fernanda
Awesome! When my basement reno is complete I will lose my laundry line. Now I can stick it in the furnace space!
Awesome! When my basement reno is complete I will lose my laundry line. Now I can stick it in the furnace space!
Awesome! We have a wooden one I bought at the thrift shop. When we need to have the clothes dry a little faster we turn a fan on it. One of those fans that you can take apart and clean. Don’t want to blow dirt on clean clothes.
God Bless You and Yours!!!
Awesome! We have a wooden one I bought at the thrift shop. When we need to have the clothes dry a little faster we turn a fan on it. One of those fans that you can take apart and clean. Don’t want to blow dirt on clean clothes.
God Bless You and Yours!!!
Brandi H, I’m not Benita, but my clothes are crunchy, too, after I line dry them. It used to bug me as well, until I started to put my clothes on plastic hangers and dry them upright (not draped over a line). Now they’re stiff and crunchy, but now without that crease across the middle. And once it’s worn, it softens up within minutes. But I have been known to tumble some of my daughter’s fluffy clothes — the clothes that have a pile to them, like velour.
Brandi H, I’m not Benita, but my clothes are crunchy, too, after I line dry them. It used to bug me as well, until I started to put my clothes on plastic hangers and dry them upright (not draped over a line). Now they’re stiff and crunchy, but now without that crease across the middle. And once it’s worn, it softens up within minutes. But I have been known to tumble some of my daughter’s fluffy clothes — the clothes that have a pile to them, like velour.
Geez Benita, you’re like the MacGyver of the interiors world! Love this solution, there is nothing you can’t do.
Geez Benita, you’re like the MacGyver of the interiors world! Love this solution, there is nothing you can’t do.
What a fab idea! I have a collapsible clothes horse that I use, but i can’t stand the thing, I hate having to hang laundry on top of one another, lots of parallel lines are the best solution along with clothes pegs. If only I had the space to do this! Excellent post.
What a fab idea! I have a collapsible clothes horse that I use, but i can’t stand the thing, I hate having to hang laundry on top of one another, lots of parallel lines are the best solution along with clothes pegs. If only I had the space to do this! Excellent post.
Fernanda, We have those too, but I’m not keen on the designs of the ones available…
Barb, how cool to be compared to MacGyver. I loved that series 🙂 Thank you!
Fernanda, We have those too, but I’m not keen on the designs of the ones available…
Barb, how cool to be compared to MacGyver. I loved that series 🙂 Thank you!
pretty clever. It looks like art too!
pretty clever. It looks like art too!
Looks like a good idea, but seems like a lot of work for only that much space.
Looks like a good idea, but seems like a lot of work for only that much space.