Outdoor clothes line / airer - suggestions?

[23holi]

Recently moved into a house with a garden (having always been in flats and drying clothes indoors). I'd quite like an unobstructive way of drying clothes outdoors. There's nothing in the garden at the moment, its all flat but has a tree. Rather than having a rotary airer, I quite like the idea of a retractable washing line/ tying a bit of rope from the tree to somewhere else - but where?! there's nothing I can easily tie it to. Any suggestions?

Airers * not Sirens.

Yep they're definitely strong enough! Ours are in the fence posts rather than the fence panel, and I regularly have towels etc hung out and I've never had a problem with the weight of them x

No, you don’t get marks from the wall. The trick is to hang smaller items to the lines nearest the walls, socks, undies, tea towels, kids vests etc. The bigger items like towels hang on the lines furthest away from the wall. Your breezy spot sounds the ideal place for one.

You may get more bug marks on the washing pegged under the tree when the tree is in leaf.

Be careful using fence posts, if they are concreted into the ground they might be OK but if not it might damage them, I did this in my old house and the weight of washing pulled the fence over (luckily the fence belonged to me).

We used to have long lines going from the house to our garden shed (built of bricks not wood) and switched to a rotary a few years ago. The long lines looked much nicer with the laundry flapping on them in the breeze and were almost invisible when not in use but the rotary holds a lot more and is easier to load/unload as you stand in one place and don't have to walk ip and down from your basket so we put up with its ugliness. We don't tend to take it down apart from cutting the grass as we use it so often and can't be bothered to carry it all the way to the shed and back.

That is the best diagram I’ve seen OP. Looking at both side returns, could a wall mounted airer fit on either of those, providing the side walls are brick. You’d have to measure the depth of the gap between house and fence and allow room for yourself to use it. I think the dimensions of the airer is given on the website. I got mine from Argos.

I would just go for a rotary airer. They are light to pick up (even our giant Brabantia one) and can be stood in a corner when not in use. I love an oldfashioned washing line as much as the next person but you really need to stretch it beside a path or patio so you don't walk over the garden. Then you have washing flapping in front of your bifold doors.

Best laundry solution I've seen is to have a plastic-roof carport/ walkway on the sunny side of the house and have permanent lines set up there.

If I were buying a free standing rotary line I would go for the Lakeland own free standing rotary line as it is taller.
I have a free standing rotary line that appears about the same height as the Leifheit one which isn't tall and it means some things drag on the ground.