Clothes Drying Racks, Clothes Lines, Folding Clothes Dryers

Drying clothes and linens the old-fashioned way saves dollars, reduces carbon footprint and allows for off grid freedom.

There’s just something about the fresh smell of linens hung to dry outside.  The Amish still make and use drying racks and clotheslines to air dry the family laundry.

At times the weather may not be cooperative so both indoor and outdoor drying options are a must.

Cottage Craft Works .com carries all types of Amish folding drying racks and outdoor clotheslines on their self-sufficient living online store at http://www.cottagecraftworks.com

There you will find several indoor and outdoor drying solutions from portable clothes lines, Amish pulley mounted clothes to the folding floor and wall mounted drying racks for indoor drying.

Accordion Wall Racks

Accordion wall mounted drying racks take up very little space when they are folded yet, they provide several feet of drying space when they are extended.  Accordion wall racks are very handy in mud rooms, laundries, and garages.  

Folding Umbrella Wall Clothes Drying Racks

A heavy-duty folding umbrella rack provides up to 20’ of drying space yet it only takes up an 8” wide x 36” wall space when it is folded.

Cottage Craft Works also offers an economy version and a heavy-duty umbrella folding clothes rack that is smaller but perfect for towels in a kitchen or bathroom area.

Folding Floor Clothes Drying Racks

Most will recognize the traditional floor folding drying racks. These simple folding racks fold up accordion style allowing them to be stored easily. 

When expanded, they can be set over a heat register of in front of a window.  The larger sizes provide up to 40’ of drying space in one compact area. They are also handy for drying spices, flowers, and herbs.

Suspended Ceiling Clothes Dryer

These vintage ceiling mounted clothes drying racks have been used for centuries in the UK and Europe.  Some gravitated to the US and will occasionally show up here in Antique stores. The space saving concept works extremely well in small homes and apartments. 

Generally, they were hung from the kitchen ceilings where most laundry was done in vintage times.

Today they work well in small spaces, porches, garages, and basements. Heat tends to flow upward to the ceiling area so these racks are very efficient for quick drying of clothes without taking up valuable floor space.

The drying rack uses rope and pulleys to lower for loading and unloading of clothing and linens. 

Pulley Mounted Clotheslines

The Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish communities have developed an ingenious pulley mounted clothes line that allows the fresh laundry to be strung from the back laundry room door without ever walking outside.  

This comes in extremely handy for Northern states where wet springs followed by winter snow and ice can make it very difficult to hang out clothes on a traditional clothesline.

Patterned after pulley mounted clotheslines from earlier times mostly found in city apartment buildings, these Amish designed systems are designed to handle up to 150’ of clothes line often strung from the house to a barn or pole.

Driving through these Amish communities during weekly wash days will likely yield a display of flag like bright colored Amish woman dresses combined with white linens.

Portable Clothes Drying Lines

This system provides a solid outdoor clothesline without the permanent post. Even better it can be wheeled full of clothes around the yard or in and out of a garage.  

Made of square aluminum tubing that comes apart for compact storage it looks like a giant hammock frame when assembled. 

The lines provide up to 72’ of drying lines in only a 12’ x 8’ space.

A great clothes drying solution for rental homes, vacation cottages or summer camp.

Small Garment and Sock Drying Ring

Once you start using this little compact drying systems you will wonder how you ever done without it.  Hang it right outside of a back door from a soffit to quickly hang up dish rags, tea towels, socks and baby tops, bibs and delicates.  

Made from two aluminum rings equipped with clothespins hanging by chains from a single hook. Also, perfect for drying herbs and flowers.

Cottage Craft Works at www.cottagecraftworks.com is a full line online old fashioned general store chocked full of quality practical wares and goods used during vintage off grid times.

 

Folding Floor Drying Rack

Ceiling  Mounted Clothes Drying Rack

Amish Portable Clothesline

Folding Accordion Wall Drying Rack

Amish Small Garment and Sock Drying Ring

Clothes drying rack, folding, wheel, wall mounted, portable clothesline

Whether you’re living off grid, don’t own a clothes dryer or are just wanting to save some money, our old fashioned clotheslines and drying racks can save you a bunch of energy grabbing dollars per year.

Cottage Craft Works .com is a sustainable living back-to-basics general store with many Amish clothesline, drying rack, and wheel clothes line options.

Air drying clotheslines are a necessity for some living off grid, a convince for others who don’t want the hassle of dry cleaning and a way to feel more energy efficient while reducing their carbon foot print for many.

A clothesline can be as simple as stringing a rope or wire between two substantial objects such as a structure, a pole or a tree.  Although trees seem to harbor birds and while birds are great to have around they are not so popular dropping on freshly washed clothes.

Cottage Craft Works .com offers a wide variety of clothes dryers for both indoor and outdoor use.  These clothes drying racks and lines are mostly made in the USA by Amish and used in the Amish self-sustaining way of life.

Folding clothes racks either self standing or wall mounted are also very handy and functional for drying wet coats and gloves making them perfect for mud rooms and entries.

Almost every household can use a clothes drying rack or clothesline. Many different types and styles are available even for the most compact spaces in homes and apartments.

Denim jeans, blankets, coats, and other heavy weight items can be hung to air dry instead of taking over an hour to dry in traditional clothes dryer. 

Drying racks can are also multi functional for other drying needs on a homestead such as drying flower herbs, noodles, and more

Wall Mount Folding Drying Rack

British Style Ceiling Mounted Clothes Drying Rack

Folding Clothes Drying Rack

Folding Floor Drying Racks

Wall Mounted Drying Rack

Wheel Pulley Clothesline

Portable Clothesline 

Amish Compact Wash Line-Clothesline Pulley Kit

Pulley equipped clothesline allows easy access to outdoor clotheslines without ever having to step off a back porch. 

This becomes a rather significant advantage for those who don’t want to tramp through and track in wet grass and mud from an early morning dew. Even more so for those who totally depend on outdoor clothes drying year round even with deep snow on the ground.  

The concept of a pulley driven clothesline concept is not new. Pulley mounted clotheslines were widely used between multi story apartment buildings long before automatic clothes dryers were available.

The operator can stand in one place preferably at the back door to the laundry room and completely load and unload a clothes line.

The Amish have taken the pulley concept a bit farther. Having large families and multiple wash loads the Amish have built a heavy duty pulley system to extend a clothesline up to 150’ away from the house.

The outbound pulley can be mounted high up on a building or post to allow the clothes to be well elevated up off the ground out of reach and conflict of other activities and animals in the yard.

There’s even an optional elevator pulley system to raise the operator pulley so that it also lifts the clothesline up and out of the way on the house end.

Cottage Craft Works.com is a unique back-to-basics general store providing hard to find old fashioned products used before electricity was widely made available.  

Many of the products are handpicked from deep within the Amish communities from all across the US where they are still being made just like they were at the turn of the Century.