Most people think of air drying clothes in an apartment building as hanging them on a clothes-line.
However, some people don’t have a terrace or a balcony with that luxury. At times, it’s not possible to do that.
However, there are other ways you can dry your clothes.
Ways to Air-Dry Clothes in Your Apartment
Here are some easy and effective ways to air dry clothes if you live in an apartment.
Wall-Mounted Folding Rack
You can get this to hang over your dresser drawers or somewhere else in your room.
It unfolds whenever you need to hang something up. It has space to hang 8-10 pieces of laundry at once. That’s typical for a week’s worth of clothes.
You can hang clothes with hangers on the rack or without them. After you’re done drying the clothes, you can fold the rack up again and it’ll be totally unobtrusive. This way, it won’t get in the way of your normal routine.
Some great places to hang the folding rack include the hallway, the kitchen, or even the dining room.
Most folding racks can become completely invisible if they match the color of your walls or your surroundings. Hence, it’s important that you get one that matches your apartment.
Invisible Drawer Dryers
If there’s something even more unobtrusive than a wall-mounted rack, it’s a drawer dryer.
These completely slide into the drawer spaces when they’re not in use. You can just pull them out when you’re going to dry some clothes and simply slide them back in afterward.
These can hang about 4-5 laundry pieces at one time. If you’re creative, you can double that figure.
If you’ve got kitchen drawers to spare, these can be pretty useful there. Have a carpenter come to upgrade them into drying racks.
Also, you can use drawers that are unused in spaces like your own room or your office.
Laundry Rods
Hanging laundry rods are just like having some rods from your closet fitted around the house. They can be hung in your laundry area or your kitchen.
You can use hangers to hang your clothes on them to dry. Make sure that you get sturdy rods that can withstand the weight of the laundry.
You can also get swish hangers in solid wood. These double as a design statement as well; if you’re into showing off the aesthetic of your apartment.
It’s a good idea to have the rod match the aesthetic of the home so as to be unobtrusive.
Remember that if you get a wooden rod, you should paint it with a polyurethane coating. This will prevent it from rotting.
Ceiling Mounted Pulley Racks
A pulley rack can be reeled up and down by using a drawstring. This can hang anywhere in the house where the ceiling is high.
Consider hanging it over your washing machine. This will make the washing and drying process pretty seamless.
There are loads of ceiling-mounted pulley racks available at convenience stores or super-stores. Again, get one that matches the aesthetic or the color of your house.
This will allow it to blend into your surroundings.
Retractable Accordion Racks
These are pretty similar to the wall-mounted folding racks. They are instead, retractable.
They can be fixed at any point in your home including your room, kitchen, or dining room. They’re pretty great for small homes or bachelor pads.
They appear or disappear with finesse and blend into the surroundings.
They can be ideal for placing over a washing machine to make the wash more seamless. You can open or close them up whenever you need them.
They can hold 11-12 pieces of laundry depending on how creative you are.
Pull Out Vertical Racks
This is perhaps the most obtrusive option out of all that are listed. The pull-out vertical racks can be installed into a closet or a cupboard.
However, they can become a hindrance when they’re being used. They can slide in and out of the cupboard they’re installed in.
When they’re not in use, you won’t even notice they’re there. However, when they’re in use, you’ll have to watch your step around them.
They can’t be installed without the presence of a carpenter.
Alternatives to Air Drying
There are several alternatives to air drying. The most basic solutions involve simply buying a clothes dryer.
However, others can involve using some ingenuity and creativity.
Using a Dryer
A dryer is perhaps the most universally adopted way to dry off clothes in the west. Most apartments and homes have one.
In fact, there are 89 million dryers in the United States. The majority of these are electric and the rest use natural gas.
Compact Dryers
Compact dryers are the most common type of dryers used in the US. They occupy a volume of less than 2.5 cubic feet in most cases.
They’re also pretty portable since they weigh around 40 lbs. They also cost hundreds of dollars and last for nearly a decade.
Tumble Dryer
You won’t need to worry about creating a drying system or manually airing your clothes if you have one of these.
You can simply dry your clothes at the press of a button.
They’ll come out soft and warm. You can even control the heat settings.
Hair Dryers
This may sound unorthodox, but it’s an idea that has actual merit. You can’t just use a hair-dryer though. You need to dry them off for a while through a heating vent or through your fan first.
Most clothes are too wet right out of the washing machine to hair dry off immediately.
Make sure that the drying area you’re using is free of water and clutter.
You’ll need a lot of room to do this. Out of all the processes listed here, this may take the most time depending on how you use the hair-dryer.
The best option is to lay down all the clothes on a flat surface and dry them off at once. Then flip them over and do the same.
The downside to using a hair-dryer to dry off clothes is that they use too much power. The carbon footprint from that alone can be very harmful to the environment.
Electric Laundry Drying Rack
The electric laundry drying rack is a very cheap solution that has gained some popularity in recent years. You can find it for under a hundred dollars in the open market.
These are designed for limited living space; hence it’s perfect for apartments.
The electricity from the rack heats the clothes and also gives them plenty of surface area to heat up. This doubles the dose and lets the clothes dry from all sides equally.
Once the drying rack is open, it looks like a coat hanger.
There are many slots that can be used to attach clothes hangers. Hence, they can dry evenly.
Because of the open movement between the clothes, the air around your home can also dry them. The open space also allows the clothes to remain wrinkle-free.
Using a Clothesline
This is perhaps the most common option. However, it’s not feasible for those without a terrace or a balcony.
Those that do have this option needn’t worry about any other. Other than birds or the occasional rain shower, there is nothing better to dry off your clothes.
Of course, if you live somewhere, where it rains often, and where birds are plentiful, then you may want to check other options.
Miscellaneous Options
There are certainly other options that you can avail of to dry off clothes in your apartment.
These don’t have to relate to dry them off in the sun or outside in the wind. Instead, you can use various items in your own home without having to install anything.
Heating Vent
The best thing about apartments is central heating. Due to this option, you get free heating to warm up your apartment.
These heating vents may not be the best to look at, but they offer a creative way to dry clothes.
You can combine a collapsible folding drying rack with a heating vent. That’ll dry your clothes fast and keep them warm as well.
Just remember not to turn the heating up too much, like with the hair-dryer. Better for your clothes to slowly warm-up.
Using Fans or Cooling
Remember that evaporation occurs at any temperature. Hence, you can simply hang your clothes on any spare chair or table and have them dry off underneath a fan.
This a really basic hack which many bachelor and college students use and it works pretty well.
The trick is to do your laundry at the end of the day. That way, your clothes can dry off during the night and you can fold them up first thing in the morning.
Using any of these methods to dry off your clothes is viable. Just remember to use common sense and choose the one that suits your situation the most.
Finally, remember to take cost, living space, and need into account before you make your purchase.
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