apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Have you seen the www.laundrylift.com it is a great rack and it fits anyware. it is made of stailess steel so no rust or rout. absoultly cool:-)

Shower curtain bar, all the way!

I like the retractable clothesline. Fast and doesn't take up any space when you're not drying clothes.

Maybe a bit of an eyesore, but just wash the clothes that can't be thrown in the dryer together so you're not hanging things up constantly.

Since our bathroom has never seen sunlight and our kitchen gets lots of it, major drying extravaganzas take place on a rolling clothes rack from Target, which can be hidden if necessary. It comes apart for storage. But yup -- routine drying goes on hangers in the shower or on towels over the radiators. (In our climate, heat is on most of the year.)

My clothes take forever to dry in the bathroom, because there's just not enough ventilation. I've got a rack in my bedroom (metal; it doesn't snag like the wooden ones I've used), where there's room and it's not a public space, but I don't really like it there. I saw an ad for a system where you hang clothes on a bar above your dryer and there's something that gently blows warm air on them, and the whole thing hides behind doors. I thought it would be a great solution. It was really expensive, though.

You could get your boyfriend to stand there and hold them for you. You know like a scarecrow.

Bob - I said an attractive solution. My boyfriend is not attractive.

Thanks for all the other suggestions though.

I got wooden drying racks at www.Gaiam.com and use them all the time. They are kind of large so I plan drying times for when I won't be home. Never had a snag in the several years I've had them. I also put some things on hangers and hang them from the shower rod.

There's a company called "Nature Dry" that sells European driers that are more innovative, in my opinion, including one that you can put over the shower or in the bathtub. It's at http://www.naturedry.com Procrastinator that I am, I have been "planning" on buying one for a year now!

I had the same issue - decided to go with the "folding x-frame" from Container Store

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/index.jhtml?CATID=77008

I hang wet clothes on hangers to dry and smaller items (like lingerie) on the "Lingerie Dryer"

I face the same problem, and do not have a shower bar (just a shower stall and separate bathtub).

I guess I can put a drying rack in the bathtub, but that's still ugly.

I mounted a chrome retractable clothesline (see the picture in Maxwell's link above) above my tub/shower. All the water drips into the tub, so there's no mess. I leave the shower curtain open while things are drying to maximize air circulation and minimize drying time. If I have company coming over, I just make sure that the shower curtain is pulled close so my underthings aren't on blatant display. When the clothesline isn't in use, the hardware just looks like some sort of plumbing-related contraption to those who've never seen one before. (Although one person did think it was some sort of doorbell!)

I went with the multifunctional furniture route. I have a four poster bed with a wood canopy frame (kinda like this: http://www.claudiorayes.net/ but not as ornate & well, wood) that ended up being the perfect place to hang clothes to dry. I move them to the bathroom at night if they're still damp, which is a pain, but it beats having everything strung up in my livingroom / office.

I splurged and bought a spin-x dryer - it's not absolutely fantastic BUT it does get a lot of the water out, making air drying clothes much quicker/easier (about 1-2 hours for a full load, versus all day without spin drying clothes). I live in a condo and have my own washer but no dryer (brick walls, no venting allowed)

K

In my ancestral apartment, we had a ceiling-mounted wooden rack in the kitchen. I think my dad built it. It involved a cable and pulleys and could hold two or three serious loads of laundry. I took it with me when I moved but have never installed it. Some day . . .

They used to sell something similar, made of metal, at marthastewart.com, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore. That one was German or Scandinavian, I think. The closest things I found online today are the High & Dry rack at http://www.roughoutbowls.com/drying_racks.shtml and the Laundry-Airer at http://www.the1898house.com/index.html. These are both quite small, but they may suit you.

I use plain old rubbermaid wire utility racks that are mounted on the walls in my bathroom.

http://pics.livejournal.com/psymonetta/pic/0002d2wd

Jessica-
After that comment, don't you mean EX-boyfriend?

Well, I am thinking of making him hold my clothes like a scarecrow, but with a big doily on his head.

Just kidding. Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think I might do something bathroom related over the tub - that way you can just draw the curtain across to hide it.

I was toying with the idea of getting an expandable wooden rack, but then hanging a "curtain" type thing that would be attached on the top rail, down one side. So the clothes hanging on the other side would be obscured. You could even do side bits that fold out, so it all just looks like a screen. A lot of trouble though.

I put two extra shower curtain rods over the tub at "hanging" level.

I have a similar problem and my bathroom is so small the clothes would never dry. I have a wall mounted rack in an inconspicuous corner (and I have a SMALL apartment) and have a folding screen that covers it. When I'm using the "dryer", I simply plug in a fan, direct it up, and voila. Dry clothes while I'm alone and no one sees the rack when I have company. Nice screens are easy to make or buy. Good luck...

Note for KJS, who has a washer but can't vent a dryer outside - at Home Depot you can get something to vent a dryer indoors - the hot air is vented through a large hose sort of thing and over a container of water that the end fits into - the lint gets trapped in the water, and then you just empty the container. Don't remember what they were called, but HD would know. Mine worked fine.

My T-shirt in to big so how do i make small in the wash

i make my girlfriend hold my washing till its dry

it's true he does

move house and get one with room for a dryer, thats what i need to do

The Laundry Alternative also has a spin dryer, at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm

I'm a student at Pomona College in Claremont, California and recently spent a good amount of time looking into the various clothesline and drying rack options since Pomona is going to purchase some for student use and I wanted to get the best available racks for us.

In my research, I was shocked to find that there is NO good website explaining all the different clotheslines and drying rack options, so I made my own! It's a wiki page on the Tip the Planet sustainable living wiki that ANYONE CAN EDIT. You can check it out here: http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing I'm trying to spread the word so that the site becomes a clearing house for drying rack information, and people have to spend less time scouring the web for the best products. Have a look, share it with your friends, and by all means add your wisdom!

Take care,
Chelsea