Outdoor Retractable Clothes Line… Used Indoor… Brilliant!

Let it be known that I live in a lovely one bedroom apartment. I have more than enough space for my dog Maya and me, but I still have to come up with creative ways to do certain things. Things like hanging clothes to dry in such a way that doesn’t give Maya a direct access. You see, she likes pulling on clothes and subsequently chewing on them (I’ve lost many a dish rag to her chewing).

In the summer, there’s no problem since my patio is pretty big. So while my clothes are drying outside, Maya is inside. But the winter brings another set of challenges. I found this really cool retractable clothes line that is normally used outdoor but I decided to use it indoor. Home Depot offers one very similar to what I have. Check it out here. Love it!

Looking at my apartment, I chose the longest distance where I could securely hang clothes. This area is between the front door and the patio doors, which goes diagonally through my living room and dining area. When not in use, the spool fold nicely against the top of my front door, where I screwed it and the hook by the patio doors is barely noticeable.

A couple of my friends have laughed at my ingenuity and my dad just shook his head smiling with pride when I showed him what I’d done. It’s pretty clever, you have to admit!

So, just to make sure you aren’t having images of me going about my day ducking and weaving between the clothes hanging across my living room, I actually do my laundry at night. Then, when I’m getting ready for bed that is when I pull out the line and hang my clothes. The next morning everything is dry, I take it all down and retract the line. No harm, no foul plus I get a warm feeling all over because I saved money and a lot of energy!

Did you know that clothes dryers typically account for about 6% of residential electricity consumption? By hanging just 25 % of those laundry loads to dry, you could save about $30 a year on your electricity bills.