Getting Washing Dry

angelatgraceland

In my last house I had radiators and yes, the air was rather dry at times, although I never needed to humidify it. This house has warm air central heating and is open plan and while we dont have any condensation problems I just hate that "damp" feeling. I think I became sensitive to it from growing up in cold damp houses with basically no heating. I remember the pulleys from Home Economics class-its the only time Ive ever seen one. My old neighbour had a Flatley though and no way would she have changed it for anything. I must admit I was quite impressed when I saw it-monstrosity though it was. Ive got a small rail in my airing cupboard where I can hang shirts for a day or two to finish them off-this is working well-it frees up some space on my airers which are all full every day now with all of this rain.

kiwichick

lin473 wrote:

I have a variation of the pulley -type drier in my kitchen .It is attatched to one wall and a four-line airer is pulled across and hooked onto the other wall.Very simple to fit,and dries all the 'smalls' of my family of seven.The drawback is that I have to climb onto a stool to load and unload the clothes as it cannot be lowered and raised like a wooden pulley.
Very cheap-mine cost less than a fiver from Morrisons.

I have one of these too. It is fitted in the bathroom and goes from one wall to the other right over the bath. Clothes can be finished off in there overnight ifthey are damp but it does take a day or two to dry straight from the WM. The best bit is that thel aundry is outof site of visitors-until they need a wee that is :rotfl:

nearlyrich

JackieO wrote:

I have just had a thought ,does anyone remember back in the 1960s there used to be a dryer called a Flatley.It was a white box about the size of a fridge and the top opened up and there were a row of wooden bars that you could hang your clothes on.I can remember drying my kids nappies in them.I don't know if it's possible to but one anymore though

My Mum had a Flatley, there were 4 of us under 5 in the early 60's so she had a lot of washing to dry, however the Flatley was horrendously expensive to run, we had a slot electricity meter and it whipped through the shilling...She was hard done to thinking about it, top loading washer, not automatic, just an agitator then a mangle to wring the clothes followed by pegging it all outside, only on Mondays in the street where we lived. (Local bylaws) the back yard wasn't bug enough to swing the proverbial cat so no room for hanging washing there. No radiators, we just had one coal fire in the living room, my memories of childhood include a damp fug of drying washing LOL. She had a couple of clothes airers including a pulley on the ceiling.

First thing I did when I started work was buy her a tumble drier.

HOLsale

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

But if the pulley is a certain width, then how do you get it to match up with the joists? Sorry to be thick!

in the states joists and studs are 16inches apart in all modern homes (built after the 1900's or thereabouts)

i just did a quick google search using 'joist spacing uk' and a few sites said that the typical joist spacing is also 16" so that gives you an idea of where to start

you can buy a stud finder that will also make you aware of electrical lines and pipes i beleive at your diy shop, only about £10 and well worth it so you don't electrocute yourself or drill a hole through a pipe (pipes do tend to be fitted through joists) it would be useful for all picture hanging projects as well

anyway once your find your joist you can hang the hooks from there. i recommend drilling a small, shallow and narrow hole first, then start turning the screws/hooks in manually. this gives it some purchase and makes it easier to go in but don't do it too wide or too deep or you won't get enough purchase overall if you see what i mean

Gingham_Ribbon

That's very helpful. Thanks for taking so much time!

Aril

My OH strung a couple of washing lines across the back of the airing cupboard door where I can dry small bits and pieces if necessary
Aril

grownup1

Might be obvious, but duvet covers and big towels dry really fast over the banister rail at first floor level because of warm air rising (have to find a way of hanging them if you don't have a horizontal section). The other advantage is you can avoid some ironing if you smooth them out to dry this way.
Thanks to all the posters on this very timely thread!

black-saturn

grownup1 wrote:

Thanks to all the posters on this very timely thread!

Thanks for calling it a timely thread. I currently have 3 loads of washing drying in various places around the house. It's all been hanging there since yesterday morning and is still quite damp so it will probably be another couple of days before it's dry.

I cant hang things on a banister as my stairs have a wall on either side. Good idea though.

HOLsale

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

That's very helpful. Thanks for taking so much time!

no problem, nice to know all those years of watching 'this old house' and 'home time' (in the states) didn't go to waste :rotfl:

HOLsale

black-saturn wrote:

Thanks for calling it a timely thread. I currently have 3 loads of washing drying in various places around the house. It's all been hanging there since yesterday morning and is still quite damp so it will probably be another couple of days before it's dry.

I cant hang things on a banister as my stairs have a wall on either side. Good idea though.

if you've got any rooms with a decent ceiling height you can do what we did when we lived on skye (we didn't even have a washing machine there, we did the clothes in the bathtub doing the 'welly dance' then used a mangle!)

we bought one of those outdoor type retractable clothes lines. we hung it up above head height level and then placed cup hooks (bent in til nearly closed) at either end of the room about 8 inches apart. basically if we only had a little bit of washing we'd just pull the cord out so it hooked up on the opposite wall. but if we had a lot we could sort of zig zag back and forth using the cup hooks to guide where we wanted the cord to go until we had enough line. you may need a chair or a step stool to stand on to hang your washing but your washing will dry quickly because it's close to the ceiling where all the warm air goes!