Ceiling clothes airer - is it worth keeping?

ahfh1

Hi,

The house I have my eye on has a ceiling clothes airer in the kitchen, similar to this:

http://www.blackironmongery.co.uk/acatalog/victorian_ceiling_clothes_airer_rack_207.html#a414

Is this worth keeping, because surely the smells from the kitchen would stink out the clothes drying on it?!

Why do people tend to put these in the kitchen where your clothes are prone to grease and smells?!

Cheers

cbrown372

Tradionally they would be in the kitchen as it would be the only room in the house that was heated I guess.

I had one in the hall in a top floor flat which was ideally situated, as the heat from the radiator dried the clothes in the winter and in the summer I left the bathroom window open to get air through the flat. If you have a utility room it would be the ideal place nowadays.

knowloads

They will be back, if you have central heating, re-fit the rack in the stairwell or spare room. FREE DRYING. When I was a lad every house had one. The kitchen had the range (heating and cooking), and as you probably don't cook 24-7, there is always time to use the rack overnight and between meals as it were !

Eeee, watching black and white tele at my mates house with his mother hanging darned, home knitted woolen socks on't rack, and then they drippped all over you, so his dad gave you a sheet of t' Manchester Evening News to stop yer getting wet......... and you tell kids of today an tha don't believe yer !!!

TomsMom

My d-i-l has one in her kitchen and hangs the pots and pans on it!

elsien

My SIL has one over the aga :rolleyes: (she's posher than me) and the family don't noticeably smell of food cooking, grease or anything untoward.

I dry my clothes on something similar in an open utility space off the kitchen and unless there's something my best friends aren't telling me, I'm not especially whiffy.
I don't have a tumble dryer, so it saves me a fortune.

MakeitandMendit

Some of my earliest memories are of the ceiling clothes horse at my aunties' house. They had it in the parlour (an old terraced house with a back kitchen and the slightly higher level parlour - or breakfast room). They used to hang their stockings off it! Very elegant!.
As to having it in the kitchen with grease and smells - I don't think that was ever a big issue in old fashioned warm kitchens where the rack would hang over the range - you'd hang the clothes up overnight when nothing was cooking and they're dry in the morning - and it was only to cover for those days when it was too wet to line dry - which of course is much the best way.
The sad thing is that in the USA now there are areas of the country where line drying is practically a criminal offence - tumble-driers rule OK! There is a movement (called the Project Laundry List - a pressure group fighting for the rights of Americans to dry outside on washing lines - they are viewed as positively subversive in the land of the brave and the (not always so) free!
Clare

babyblooz

I have one of these in my kitchen, but not over the cooking area. I just bung the clothes in the tumble drier for ten minutes as soon as they have come out of the machine, then when they are hot and steamy, I put them on the airer and they are dry by next morning. Never noticed a smell to any of them, and big bonus is much of it doesnt need ironing. I would never get rid of mine. It saves me a fortune. I wash pillows in the bath and when they have stopped dripping, I dry them over the slats as well. Wet raincoats go over it, everything seems to end up there one time or another.

never_enough

Keep it, they're brill. I love mine, it's one of the first things that goes up in each new property. We've always had them & none of us have tumble driers. Even if you dont have a range you are still using the general heat that has risen. Your washing wont smell, with something like an aga most of the cooking is done inside one of the ovens, very little is done on the hotplates. One of the benefits of a range is that you get no cooking smells from the oven in the kitchen (it all goes up the chimney)the downside being that if you are forgetful you can't smell something like biscuits starting to burn! Many friends without ranges use them in their kitchens & I have not noticed any of them smelling either!. However the best way to use (as someone else said) is to put the things on there overnight, they will be dry by morning.

I have seen them in utility & boot rooms, spare bedrooms & even a bathroom & garage once.