Stove room clothesline

[Slow1]

Well, it took a long time to finally get done, but here it is. We've been drying thing in the area of our stove ever since we first installed one by hanging things over whatever was around... I like to avoid using the clothes drier (electric) and during the warmer weather we hang things outside but standing out there in subfreezing temps really stinks. Something about handling damp clothes in the cold that turns fingers to ice rather quickly.

Anyway, since we have this "wide hallway" area next to the stove I figured putting lines across the area would work. Extra humidity will be welcome too - hoping to run the load during day, hang before bed (while waiting for last load in stove to stabilize?), then pull it down in the morning while waiting for first load to come up to temp.

Naturally to pass the happy wife test the lines had to come down when not in use and whatever stayed up has to look at least halfway decent. So this is what I ended up with. Each line is independent - hook to hook across the room. Hooks can also be used without lines (obviously) for hanging the snow pants, coats, etc that were cluttering the area anyway.

Just thought you folks might like to see it... yes the area is a mess - I just got it done and didn't make it all pretty, welcome to reality when working on a project and just getting it done! heh.

 

[FLINT]

awesome!

we do the same thing. except our stove is right in our living room, so we run a clothesline right across the middle of our living room!! I don't care if it looks ghetto, but my wife takes it down if we are having guests.

sure dries the clothes quick and saves electricity and wear and tear on the dryer.

we also have a pulley clothesline outdoors for the warmer months - i'd love to get rid of the dryer completely - but the wife would never do it - you never know.....

 

[Jack Straw]

Good idea!
We have an old time clothes rack that works very well. We rarely use the dryer.

 

[Bobbin]

We will celebrate 19 yrs. in the house in June. I have never owned a dryer, something friends find amazing. We hang the laundry in the boiler room or on the racks that belonged to my grandmother arranged in front of the woodstove. A pair of dungarees dries in the boiler room in just under 3 hrs.. We, too, appreciate the extra humidity in the winter. I frequently hang things out on the deck, too. Even in the winter!

Being "dryer-free" is good. Welcome to the club!

 

[billb3]

socks drape over curtain rods well.

 

[cmonSTART]

My dear wife has a rack we set up near the stove when needed. It works very very well.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Yep, we have clothesline and drying racks in the living room where the stove is. The ceiling fan helps speed up drying time.
I like your idea of multiple hooks, I may have to steal that.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We too have a drier but it is extremely rare to use it. Clothes go outside to the solar drier when weather permits and in stove room when weather is a bit too cold.

We use clothes racks rather than clothes line. Incidentally, these are the same racks we took with us when we camped out in the desert SW 5 different winters. We did all our clothes washing and drying right beside the motor home and in that dry air it did not take very long for them to dry!

 

[Slow1]

I see that as expected I'm not the only one drying clothes near the stove - was glad to share the comments with my wife so she can see that it isn't a totally extremist thing to do. I'm sure she things I'm on the fringe already (and she's probably right in some areas, heh).

Kids are excited - they see it as a good way to hang sheets and make a tent (better than the backs of chairs). Guess everyone has their own priorities

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Hadn't thought of that, and it looks like a good way to help keep humidity up.. One thing we worry about when we go full wood heat is the loss of our humidifier that is tied into the heat pump. I don't think our dogs will be happy not having the humidity up, neither of them like to get shocked on the nose and head repeatedly..

 

[Slow1]

Humidity is an issue. We have a whole house humidifier that we can use - but it burns a lot of electricity so I am trying not using it this year. I kept a pot of water on the stove the first part of this season and put about 2 gallons of water into the air a day but that doesn't really seem to be enough to really make a huge difference. I'm watching the hygrometer now with the pot removed and seeing if I can tell a difference throughout the house and so far the difference seems negligible. Will see if the clothes hanging makes any difference either.