So I am trying to find out the best way to have my kids dry their clothes after school...using the dryer ever time they come in is not an option. So do I use a coat rack, drying rack...please help me solve this delema...three kids means a LOT of wet winter clothes to hang up :)....we have a nice setup in our closet for the rest of the stuff but I don't want my closet full of damp clothes :)
Thanks everyone I have some good ideas now...
Our "mudroom" is our tiny entryway closets turned into shelves and a bench...nothing huge which is why we have a problem....I would LOVE to have a nice big mudroom...I'll keep dreaming though :)
The air inside is usually so dry in the winter that things that are hung up (bathroom, laundry room, mud room or basement) dry out fairly quickly.
Anything hung over a heating vent dries even more quickly.
When they come in super wet I hang them on door hooks and prop their gloves and hats over the furnace vents. The gloves and hats dry really fast this way.
What about an indoor clothesline in the basement or using sturdy hangers and hanging them off the shower curtain rod in the basement? When we were without a dryer for more than a week, I used my husband's chin up bar in a doorway to try items that would not fit on our drying rack.
I hang stuff in my laundry room.
I pull the boat liners out and put them next to a heat vent. Mittens too. OR I turn on the gas fireplace and lay stuff in front.
I have 3 kids too.
If you have enough space around your furnace to hang the clothes without it being a fire hazard i'd do that.
If you have a mudroom... And don't use it due to the damp... Bring in a little space heater & seal up the windows & leaks if you haven't.
If you don't have a mudroom, over the bathtub tends to work well.
I personally (in the land of wet & mud with no bleeding mudroom (long standing gripe)... Lob the worst in the dryer, and hang the rest in the bathroom. We have a entryway system, that's lovely for dry... But it would be a slogging quagmire if we used it for wet things. I have a heat vent in the bathroom (houses/apts that dont I bring in a space heater). That plus fan, plus the tub for drips in the bathroom... Works very well. Wet things waiting for the wash, go straight into the wash (like socks).
A mudroom is an "insisting upon" when I remodel.
4 kids here and we had wet swim wear in summer and snow gear in winter.
I installed an extra shower curtain rod up high across the middle of the guest bathroom shower. It's just a cheapo that stays up with a spring inside the adjustable pole. There were hangers in there for the kids to hang their ski pants, wet jackets or whatever to drip dry into the shower.
I put up another pole across the kids tub/shower, right in the middle but high enough so they wouldn't bump their heads when they showered. They would rinse their swim suits in the tub and hang them right above. It worked til my boys got too tall and the rod was in their way.
We also have hooks in the mudroom for damp clothing that is not dripping wet.
Everyone of my doors, bedrooms included, have over the door hooks that I have picked up at bath stores. They are always full of drying clothes items, such as towels and bathing suits in the summer and now winter coats and pants.
We drape ours over all the chairs in the house. Maybe not a great solution, but it works. And I try to keep the clothes dryer empty so that shoes can go on the shoe drying rack as soon as they come in the house.
I always wash wet stuff, it's been outside in the salt and melting stuff that has a lot of pollution from the air and off buildings. So I wash and dry that stuff a lot more in the winter.
I like a mitten and hat tree for the small stuff and hooks for the big stuff.
If they are still a bit damp in the morning I put them in dryer for few minutes.
I also always keep spear hats and gloves around
