Sustainable clothesline choices and tips on eco-friendly drying

2022-06-24 23:34:32 By : Ms. Seven Wang

Slinging up a washing line, there are a few things to air out first. What’s the budget? A UV-resistant length of line with a tough, steel core, starts at just €16, but we can do better for a little more. Polypropylene and cotton rope has texture that gathers dirt, requiring more care when cleaning. Buy some eye-bolts and pulleys to secure and tauten the load and a Bettina Clothes Line Prop (2.4m extended) to both straighten the line and push it higher into the wind. 

Pulleys from €3.99, and poles from €9.99 from lenehans.ie, or make your own with a grooved, slender timber with one grooved end to bite the line. Adding more detail, do you want something fixed or retractable?

What’s the situation you’re considering for the line, and just how present to you mind it being in your garden, out on the patio or fixed on a balcony? Starting with the price of just a few tumble drying loads, there’s the Vileda Cordomatic 15m retractable, wall-mounted line from Argos, which just requires two fixing positions, one to carry the housing unit. It comes with fittings, screws and plugs for assembly, €17. 

If you want to go to two lines, you can mount two units or choose a two-line model like the Argos Home version, bringing the hanging space to 30m of rather close lines — something to watch for as slapping pieces against each other does impeded air from reaching the clothes, and will slow the job. 

A good retractable unit will include a wheel to keep the lines firm.

First up for premiere line solutions is a big blustery winner, The Ecodry Canopy, made here in Ireland in response to our petulant weather and the condensation and respiratory issues surrounding drying full loads passively indoors. Drying your fabrics, it’s distilled light and wind we are after to playfully toss those damp clothes, moving and massaging the fibres to avoid an atrophied, skin-sanding finish. 

Intense direct UV and no breeze are not ideal conditions, especially where you whack up a dripping load before work and leave it there for ten hours in June. Leaving tumble dryers running overnight, even on a tempting time-of-use smart-tariff, is deemed unsafe by every fire brigade across Ireland and the UK. The Ecodry was designed for weather in the West, where there’s enough rain to grow a potato in your ear.

Michael McAuliffe explains his compulsion to find something that could take the clothes outside but remove the stress of wondering what Wet Eireann had in store. “As a family, we were finding that our clothes were shrinking and fading from the dryer and that we were replacing school uniforms throughout the year due to shrinkage. With a child in the house with asthma and after doing research on the dangers of having clothes drying indoors, I realised that it can be a serious contributor to breathing difficulties.”

He came up with a highly robust, wall-mounted dryer under a lean-to style transparent roof. It’s worth mentioning, this and other canopy solutions are a premium price product rather than a cheap, sling-up tightrope. Created with highly precise laser cutting with handsome galvanised steel gables, heavy-duty reinforced wires and polycerate, the rigid Ecodry works year-round and can carry from 7.3m of line to a whopping 15m of the wet stuff with the 4.36m length model (equivalent to three standard or two large 8 — 10kg wash loads). Prices from €330, available on ecodry.ie, Facebook and Instagram.

Any design that sits tight to the wall and makes use of a squeak of space around the corner of a protruding bay, extension, or down a side alley (no good for anything but bins and bikes) has my vote. Keep in mind, where you’re under pressure, you can double up smaller units to tailor out any space. In Kerry, the well-loved Clothesline Canopy offers a range of units from €445 for an 2.43m line set up with three lines. The canopies can be modified for length and cost in €100 for delivery and installation in Munster, or you can go for a DIY install option if you’re handy with a masonry drill, clotheslinecanopy.ie.

When using this or any permanent roofed dryer without guttering, consider where the rain water will drain off to, to avoid creating a perpetually slipping spot on a pathway or patio.

Moving on up to what really delivers a laundry room with an open window without the indoor environment hassle, Lennon Lines of Monaghan, offer a greenhouse design on wheels which includes vertical siding and an open doorway. This gives a lot of suspension room, comfort when hanging out the load in any weather, and shelter from wind-driven rain, while the raised structure allows plenty of breeze to move around the lines.

The Lennon is made in galvanised, non-rust steel, it’s completely mobile, fitted with four wheels and brakes, and is covered in water sloughing heavy-duty plastic sheeting with safe edges for little fingers. The company suggests bolting the units to the ground when in position to avoid it being lifted and flipped in particularly stormy weather. Prices from €1,390 — €2,090, with greenhouse/clothes dryers hybrids from €2,390. Classic T-bar clothes lines from €210. Ask them about their customisable boot racks before you order. Delivery options available nationwide, lennonlines.ie.

For a compact space, the classic rotary clothes line with a sod-spear or concrete ground tube is hard to beat. Whirling briskly in the wind, it keeps the fabrics active and dries a large family load quickly and easily on a reasonably dry day. I like the fact that personal items can be shrouded discreetly on the inner circumference — great for urban gardens and patios. 

The length of the line is increased exponentially with multiple lines strung in parallel, with most able to carry three loads of washing in one go. Expect around 40m of line for the cheapest four-arm Brabantia (€119). 

Choose an umbrella system you can collapse and carry off for high days and holidays, and buy a quality brand with physically taut UV-resistant line. Brabantia offers Liftomatic action, allowing you to adjust the rotary clothesline seamlessly to your ideal working height (from 129 to 187 cm) and carry out easy hoists.

The wall-mounted dryers by Brabantia start in the same price brackets as a small rotary, but at 24m of drying real estate for a tightly engineered, pull out bracket dryer. They are superb value at around €120, and may well suite a rental balcony if your landlord allows you to insert a couple of wall anchors using the supplier drilling template. Suppliers include HomeStore & More. You really do get what you pay for in rotatory lines, so don’t be surprised if that cheaper Amazon buy starts wilting or rusting after just a couple of years use.

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