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The $5 Indoor Clothesline

Sarah Rae Smith
Sarah Rae Smith
Sarah Rae Smith has lived all across the Midwest and currently calls the bratwurst-laden city of Sheboygan home. She seeks out kitchens that make the best pie and farmers with fresh eggs.
published Mar 30, 2009
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If you’re anything like us (renters without a backyard), a clothesline has always seemed a bit out of reach. Well not anymore! We hit the hardware store and built our own indoor, $5, removable and best thing since sliced bread clothesline. It’s easily adaptable for almost any space and costs less than lunch!

There’s no denying that clotheslines are magical wonderful things that reduce our energy bills and leave our clothes smelling summer fresh each and every time we use them. So when we moved downtown from our house in the suburbs, the lack of a backyard had us down in the dumps about not being able to dry our clothes in the fashion we had become quite accustomed to.

After a notepads worth of scribbles, visions of complex systems of levers and pulleys, we finally came to a rather simple conclusion to make it happen. We are lucky enough to have wood posts in our loft to work with, but this would work just fine through drywall and into a stud on opposing walls.

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 or 3 Large Screw Eye Hooks ($.49/ea)
  • Length of Rope ($$ depends on length)
  • Carabiner (we found ours for $.99 at Home Depot)
  • 1 Small Cleat Hook ($.49-$.99)

    In our space because our ceilings are high, we are able to double hang our clothes line. This allows us to dry two full loads of laundry at a time. If you don’t have enough space to double hang, all you will need it 1 large screw eye hook instead of 3. Here’s a ridiculously crude drawing of what our set up looks like.

    (Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

    We simply hook the carabiner onto an eye hook, thread the rope through the next two hooks and then finally wrap it around the cleat. The whole thing sets up in under a minute and comes down with the same speed.

    Never again will we mess with drying racks which never seem to hold enough or truly seem to be wide enough to allow clothes to dry quickly. It’s been a great addition and we dry everything except towels on our line now. Those we still head down to the dryer for a little bit of extra fluffing in the dryer!

    Maybe you have space to put one in your bathroom? Maybe you have space for one across the top of your kitchen? Where ever it might be, there’s ALWAYS room somewhere! We hang our clothes at night and take them down in the morning and unless you knew what you were looking at… you’d never know we have a clothesline ready to go up at a moments notice!

    (Photos by Sarahrae)

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