Outdoor clothes drying - washing line or rotary drier?

[LadyMetroland]

Love the smell of freshly dried washing from outdoors but currently all I have is a clothes horse on the lawn with things draped over it. Obviously then clothes often get blown off or entire horse collapses onto lawn.

Rotary driers seem expensive and a bit of a faff with concreting in the base

But washing lines are a mystery to me - have been googling them and can only find two flimsy posts sold by homebase or argos. No decent info online about them eg how they are put in ground etc. Also, although i have a large garden, there aren't any useful trees or walls to put one end of the line onto - so would probably have to have two posts which might be a bit of an eyesore.

Does anyone have any outdoor drying recommendations? Are there other options I'm not considering?

Our problem is that the garden is sort of above our house as we're in a very hilly area. Line couldn't stretch from any kind of wall on the house as it would be stretching uphill, so would need two heavy duty poles to be sunk into the grass (windy area too). Really like idea of long line with washing flapping now I think about it. But seemingly impossible to find anywhere that sells decent poles etc.

Rotary may end up being better option but I agree they're a bit of an eyesore. Does anyone have any links with recommendations?

Hoping my neighbour reads this thread and it inspires her to stop chucking her washing over the fence between us to dry it... I am sure her sheets touching my plants has killed them with the chemicals in the washing stuff.

I like a line but only have a short one but it is pulling on the fence posts so may go back to a rotary one.

I have a rotary dryer because I can hide it away out of sight behind the apple tree. I am as fond of outdoor dried clothes as anyone but don't think line fulls of everyone's undercrackers and socks on display does anything positive for any garden.

When I was little all the houses in our terrace had double layered lines. The top one was hoisted with pulleys high up in the air. It seemed miles up but I suppose because I was small

I long for one like that. Not sure who you'd get to make you one though

I prefer a line, but currently have a four sided rotary. I think it dries better on a line, I only use every other line on the rotary or else the washing touches each other and there isn't enough air circulating to dry it.

I mentally invented an umbrella type gadget PigletJohn for a rotary dryer. This one had a sensor like the ones on car windscreens that sets off your wipers automatically. If it started to rain, a pole emerged from the center and once high enough sprung open to form a big umbrella. The pole then retracted down to cover the tops and sides of the dryer.

Dragon's Den, here I come......

When I saw your title I thought you meant Outdoor Clothes drying - eg how to dry a Mountain Equipment duvet coat, to which I was going to reply in tumble drier on a low heat!!

HeyYoniYoni

I had some old aunts who lived in Lowestoft, where there used to be lots of trawlermen, and all the houses in their street had washing hung on old masts, where they lowered the line at each end to hang it, like bringing a sail down, then wound it back up to flutter in the breeze at upstairs height.

I expect there were shrouds to hold them upright, but I don't remember.

My rotary isn't an eyesore, because when it's not in use I whip it out of the ground and stick it in the shed. Simples.

The only problem is that every spring it takes me hours to find the metal ground spike before I can hang out the first wash of the year - the hole gets swallowed by the lawn every winter.

(before you ask, yes, I do wash clothes in the winter, I just don't hang them outside).

Sheets and towels are dead easy - just fold in half and go round spiral-fashion, pegging as you go.

put a short wooden peg in the ground spike, then it will be easy to find.

That's what I need then. Masts. I wonder if there are any on eBay

I do love a line of washing.

I got 2 cast iron poles from a local salvage yard. You can hang large items from the top line and smaller items from a line that goes about half way up. Mine are painted green and have a pineapple on the top.

I've got a cover for ny rotary dryer. means i can hang out and dry washing even if it is raining. is brill.

does it look like a beach umbrella?

I'm having the same issue just now. Sorry for jumping in but can anyone with a line tell me if they need a wooden pole thing in the middle to make sure the line stays up? My parents have one of these lines and always prop it up with a pole in the middle?

Is it because their line is too long? My garden is only small so perhaps it wouldn't sag in the same way?

www.rotaire.com

sorry can't do links from my phone

You only need a prop if your line is long and not even then if you put the longer things towards the ends and short things in the middle. My DM used to have a prop but it broke and she never bothered replacing it, just tightened the line more often.

I keep thinking I should put a line up because I don't like having to fold my duvet cover and sheet to fit them on the rotary airer. But we have a handy shed with external structure and trees.

It would be less work to sink a single rotary airer than two or three poles for lines.

Jacaqueen, i love the sound of your poles. I would love a proper old fashioned line but have to make do with a rotary dryer.

I think you do need a pole to stretch the line upwards. We call them stretchers in the part of Scotland i come from. If the line is long it will sag with the weight of washing unless you have the line really tight on a ratchet system.

I dream of having a spare field (ha ha) so I could have 4 clothes lines set in a square formation.

Great idea about the ikea bags for laundry. I need an excuse to go there.

I'm having similar dilemmas just now I used to have 3 lines strung between fences but have had extension built and shed is now in the way

Am considering a rotary but when I had one before it kept falling over even with the ground spike.

I have a sort of extending metal pole for mine. Even when the line looks taut, the pole can raise the middle by five feet or more.

PigletJohn, every autumn I put a stick in the rotary line hole in the lawn so I can find it again in the spring, and every winter a small person says "oooh, a stick, I'll have that".

I resorted to DS's metal detector last year.

I used to have to use one of those things for finding hidden pipes and wires in walls when we had a rotary, couldn't leave a stick in it as it was right in the middle of the lawn and would have been a tripping hazard.

Idiunt57 thank you so much for the link to Rotaire.com- only last night i was describing to my family 'my' invention idea- an umbrella for a rotary line. Hadn't got past the dreaming stage of invention though.

Thanks for the advice. I just hate the look of rotaries and it is a fairly small garden. We've never had one before though so sticking my washing outside on a clothes horse (airer) was exciting enough!

You can buy clothes props in B&Q you'll need one to lift a line.