Get the Hang Of It

Umbra on communal clothes drying 12

Hello Umbra!

I'm a college student working to make my school greener and would like to purchase a few relatively sturdy, high-volume clothes drying racks to place in our laundry rooms so that students have an alternative to using the electric dryers. I know these racks exist because I just got back from studying in Italy for the semester and saw them all over, but I haven't been able to find anything good in 45 minutes of searching the net. The best I could find are those giant umbrella racks, but those are meant to be placed outside. I also don't need (or want?) the racks to be collapsible -- these are a permanent deal!

Any suggestions? Price isn't too important as my school will be paying. Thanks!

Chelsea H.
Claremont, Calif.

Dearest Chelsea,

You have a great idea, and I have some finds I hope will be helpful. And kudos to your school for coughing up for this worthy cause!

Tip 1: Wash, then dry (or just bring it
home in May).

Photo: iStockphoto

First, a moment for how odd the internet can be. It's incredibly useful, but how can one person spend 45 minutes and find nothing, while another can spend five minutes and get some good leads? Speaking of said dilemma, do any of my fair readers know anything about pearl production? I have sought definitive information -- even simply leads to an organization that might be paying attention to pearls -- for one of you for hours, and can find nothing substantial enough to satisfy.

But back to racks: Laundry drying racks are one of my favorite objects this winter. I'm living with a wood stove right now, and wet jeans will dry in a couple hours on the rack. Why pay and pollute twice for heat and drying when you can just pay and pollute once?

I found a variety of racks on the internet by going back to one of my old columns about buying exterior laundry lines, and to a source I suggested then; I learned the search terms at that source and hunted around from that point. I share the practical bounty below.

Wall-mounted drying racks, which fold up to the wall when not in use, seem to me the best dorm laundry option. Several types are available. For you, Chelsea, there are metal ones that look durable and hold one load of clothing; the pictures show them folded out, I think they hinge and lie against the wall when not in use. Price is really no object? Gaiam carries a metal collapsing wall dryer with 82 feet of drying space for $230. Many of the vendor sites I mention below also carry wall-folding lines. (As an aside for other readers, there is a very cute small wooden one that collapses into a sort of geegaw shelf and is meant to dry dishtowels, mittens, and other small wet things. One could also use it to dry fresh pasta. It's too small and nice looking for a dorm laundry, but would go well next to my stove.)

An even more thrilling option if the room has ceiling space: ceiling racks. I've wanted one of these (and high ceilings) since I first laid eyes upon one, in Budapest. Lehman's carries a wooden one, but alas, it won't hold a full load. Stenic makes two aluminum ceiling dryers that look appropriate for a dorm environment (i.e., very durable). Some of the ceiling racks are pulley-operated, but I did see one with a hand crank such as you might use for an awning. Urban Clothes Lines has a wide range of fancy indoor and outdoor drying racks at great expense and great temptation.

There are also floor racks, of course. I've found large versions of the wooden one, and an odd metal one. I'm concerned about clothing theft, honestly, and if I were a student I might try to remove the collapsible floor rack up to my own dorm room, where no one would steal my clothing. Then I might forget to bring it back down. Another laundry-dedicated site, Eco Washing Lines in Britain, carries a giant floor rack big enough for bed sheets (plus a lovely range of ceiling and wall mounted lines) that perhaps wouldn't be so portable. Gaiam carries a pile of racks too, including a large wooden one with 50 feet of drying space.

Lastly, have you considered a retractable clothesline? I do see some drawbacks: It would require clothespins, unfortunately, and those might get lost. Plus, it would be (hopefully) in constant use and hence ne'er retracted. But it could be the tidiest solution to this common-area conundrum.

Airily,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. anthony11 Posted 3:03 am
    25 Feb 2008

    college laundry room vs. your living roomWhy pay and pollute twice for heat and drying when you can just pay and pollute once?
    Because the questioner is talking about a communal college laundry room, where it is unsafe to leave one's clothes. Who has 6 hours to burn every time something needs to be washed?

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  2. streek23 Posted 4:46 am
    25 Feb 2008

    Chelsea, is this you?Hey, Chelsea,

    Is that you?? It's Matt Auerbach from Gunn! Is this your comment? Whether it is or not, great question!

    -Matt

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  3. davismx Posted 5:19 am
    25 Feb 2008

    A $230 drying rack??!!!Did you seriously just recommend a $230 drying rack to a poor college student?  I imagine that trying to save money is one of the big reasons that the student wants to move to air drying their clothes.  That probably equals what they would pay to do their laundry for an entire school year.
    How about something cheap like the Ikea Frost Rack for $16.99.  Small enough that they could probably set it up in their dorm room and forgo the risk of having their clothes stolen out of the laundry room.  It folds flat and could be stored easily.  Additionally it's cheap enough that if you decided to keep it in the community laundry room you wouldn't freak out if someone stole it.  I know there's an Ikea near Claremont.

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  4. ethuiel Posted 6:33 am
    25 Feb 2008

    RE: A $230 drying rack??!!If you had read the entire question as well as the article, you would have noticed that the student is looking for something for which her SCHOOL will pay. In that case, 82 feet of drying space for $230 when the school installs, pays, and monitors is not such a bad idea at all. Please don't jump on Umbra's case for a crime she hasn't committed!

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  5. ChiefRabbit Posted 8:22 am
    25 Feb 2008

    Hang it in your roomUnless you're willing to spend your Friday night mad money on sweat-shopped/3rd World produced clothing to replace the ones that "walk away" while drying, why not just dry your clothes in your own dorm room? And maybe the college would consider installing the lower cost retractables in all the rooms?

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  6. marymaide Posted 8:23 pm
    25 Feb 2008

    Racks in the rooms vs one for the dormIf the college is willing to install communal drying racks, it may well get more line-length for the dollar by designing a sort that fits the space. It would probably be much more difficult to convince them to fork over $20 x n dorm rooms (plus all the maintenance/replacement costs).

    One of the maintenance guys might feel inspired by such a project (particularly as it would permanently enter the college folklore  as "Joe's stretcher").  
    Chelsea didn't say the college would "monitor" the drying racks. And therein lies the rub, doesn't it?

    Problems ranging from people who forget to take their dry sheets away until the ones on their bed are (more than) ready to be washed, to those who confuse drying lines with boutiques need to be addressed by the users, rather than by spy cameras or laundry-police.
    What's needed is some sort of social organization among dorm-mates. Maybe just a sign-up list, or a sheet where the person whose laundry is hung up writes her/his name and room number.

    If they can do that (and why not: students organize for all sorts of things?), they'll be well on their way to creating a much happier dorm society.  
    And Chelsea, who's already gotten college approval for this project, is well on her way, it seems! (Brava!)

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  7. Amethyst Lynn Posted 8:31 pm
    25 Feb 2008

    wooden drying racksI was born in '48 and remember having a fold-up wooden rack that was about big enuf for a small load of clothes but washers were smaller back then...I'm also old enuf to have seen wringer washers and even mangle-type dryers that u could press sheets nice and crisp as well as put nice pleats in all ur pants
    Gee...am I really that OLD...I still FEEL as YOUNG as kids my SON's AGE !!!  

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  8. Amethyst Lynn Posted 8:44 pm
    25 Feb 2008

    communal drying rackswith college dorm use in mind...maybe the RA/dorm parent/college could finance buying several portable racks that could be loaned/signed out to individual students on an 'as needed' basis...that would eliminate the problem with theft or a permanent fixture 'growing legs'...a signup/checkout system would insure knowing the locations of however many racks where acquired...the number available would vary depending on the size of the dorm...the timeframe would have to be reasonably short (like no more than 12-24 hrs to keep the racks 'in motion' and eliminate having to buy a rack for each dorm room...putting retractable racks in each room would be a more expensive route but might be a better option as long as they used 'commercial grade' racks 'cuz we all know how rough college students can be on the fixtures/contents of their dorm rooms !!!      

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  9. Zephaniah Posted 3:11 am
    26 Feb 2008

    Drying rack - durabilityRE: personal drying racks

    Survey started with 2 yard sale treasures, wooden contraptions that left a few stains on white clothes and then cracked and turned into pick up sticks.  Replaced with new $40 wooden rack, which cracked on 10th use. Replaced with metal folding rack and retractable clothesline now up to 50 days of service and counting.
    Low humidity days are on my radar now (cheap thrills are the secret of happiness.) When the air is dry and over 45oF, and I can get the clothes hung early... yeaaaaaa!!  

    If you live in the lovely, rainy Northwest, not recommended to leave clothes really wet  overnight, or to dry more than one or two items inside unless windows are wide open, because mildew needs scant invitation.    
    Thank you for shrinking your carbon footprint and not your clothes!

     

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  10. dancingwolfgrrl Posted 5:45 am
    26 Feb 2008

    Clothespin-free!You only really need clothespins for outdoor lines: indoor lines can have things draped over them, just as you would on a rack.  Although you can hang more things if you can be bothered with the clothespins, I usually can't be!

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  11. mbickmore Posted 9:20 am
    26 Feb 2008

    courtesyThis is a great idea! Years ago I was happy to have access to communal outdoor clotheslines in university family housing. I saved a lot of money using them. However, one thing that aggravated me was that people would often leave their laundry up long after it was dry. Since it takes several hours for laundry to line-dry, this meant that only one batch was dried that day.  The efficiency of air-drying is limited to begin with. Inconsiderate use can limit it even further.

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  12. ChelseaH Posted 7:08 pm
    28 May 2008

    Pomona's Plans PLUS a new LAUNDRY RACK WEBSITEHello all! Chelsea writing here. I had no idea people would be so into this idea! In any case, things are coming along nicely here at Pomona. We administered a survey early this spring to gauge what sorts of things students are most interested in, and will be shortly turning a proposal into our "President's Advisory Committee on Sustainability" to fund the installation of some racks. One of the most interesting results from the survey (non-random sample) was that over 80% of the 334 students who completed the survey (not bad, considering out student body is only 1500 students) HAD line dried their clothes at some point in their life.
    Indeed many of the issues brought up above are ones that we've struggled with. The possibility of people walking off with clothes is a definite possibility, and some people expressed in the survey that they don't feel comfortable airing their laundry in public. This said, communal laundry racks in the laundry rooms seem to be the most cost-effective solution. Hopefully theft won't be too much of a problem since you have to have a key card to get into laundry rooms, and steeling out of laundry rooms hasn't been too much of a problem in the past. Our plan is to install permanent racks (probably the super durable Austral  brand ones) and then also purchase small foldable racks that students can "check out" from the college for the duration of the school year for use in their rooms.
    I also wanted to mention a new WIKI WEBSITE ON LAUNDRY RACKS that I just finished creating that I'm REALLY excited about. I used Umbra's response as a launching point for exploring the world of laundry/clothes/washing racks/lines/hoists/airers and found that there was no site, or even a wiki page, that detailed all the options. So, being the project oriented-type that I am, I decided to create a wiki page that I'm positive is THE most comprehensive site on the web about air drying options (I spent about 20 hours scouring the web for products and putting up all the pictures). You can check it out here: http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washi ...
    Please check out the site, share it with your friends, and add your wisdom to the page, and correct my mistakes!
    I'll post again once Pomona's gotten our rack plan finished!
    Best,

    Chelsea

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