The snow outside is beautiful but when you have 30″ of snow you remember that drying laundry in the winter can be difficult.  Maybe tomorrow the snow will have sank enough that I can make a trail to my washline and hang up some wash.

I love hanging out wash and if the temperature is 45 degrees tomorrow and sunny I will just need to trudge through the snow. The towels will just smell so nice and fresh if they are hung outside.

If I had a pulley wash line then I would be able to just step outside and hang my wash up on the line and wind it out without having to go through the snow.

 

Today was not so nice and sunny so I needed to hang my wash somewhere other then outside. Yes, I know I could have put it all in the dryer but to dry all 6 six extra large loads would have taken awhile. Not to mention the fact that I would need to pay for the extra electric to run the dryer. When I empty the lint I realize that the dryer is also hard on my clothes.

My solution to snow under my wash line is not to shovel it away but to just hang my clothes inside. I am blessed with a large heated basement and hanging clothes down there to dry works just fine for me.

At Home Depot or Lowes you can purchase retractable clothes lines for 10-20.00 depending on the size. I have 3 of the 40 foot lines and they have lasted 13 years! The 40 foot lines are great if you have poles to wrap the lines around so they don’t sag.

Make sure when you put up these lines that you mount them on a stud and also put the end hook into a stud. A wash line like this holds quite a bit of weight and without them mounted firmly in a stud they will pull out of the wall.

Two of mine I have mounted close together so it keeps the wash a little more out of the way. In the winter time I keep these lines up all the time since I use them so much. Then in the spring time I let them retract.

Now you like this idea of the indoor wash lines but you wonder where you would put them. You can have a small house and still use them. My sister mounted one in a closet and did her wash in the evening. Then over night the wash would hang across the family room and with the wood stove burning the clothes would be all dry in the morning. Then the line could be retracted and out of the way for the day.

You also could use drying racks. There are some very large ones made that hold a lot of clothes. I just have a few cheap ones that I got at yard sales. I like them for socks and small items.

Another easy way to dry coats, shirts, dresses, etc. is to put them on hangers and hang them on door way or closet trims.

So you see that drying laundry in the winter can easily be done without a clothes dryer. What are your favorite ways to dry clothes in the winter?