Washing Lines

Solve Laundry Day Woes With Clothes Airers and Clothes Horses

If you're tired of seeing jumpers and tee shirts strewn around your home, you may want to invest in a clothes drying rack, also called a clothes airer or a clothes horse. This is a cheaper and more environmentally friendly way to dry your laundry. From collapsible models to a heated airer, you can find new and used clothes horses on eBay.

There are several different types of clothes airers. The one you want will depend on how much laundry you have and where you want to place it. The different types include the following:

• Wall-mounted: These can be indoor or outdoor. They usually fold down to the wall so you can pull them out as needed. There are many sizes available.
• Stationary: If you see a clothes horse designated as stationary, it probably means it is outdoor. An outdoor stationary clothes horse is anchored to the ground with some sort of peg, usually metal.
• Portable: A smaller clothes airer can be portable and collapsible. This is a good choice for smaller areas or if you don't hang many clothes to dry.
• Heated: A heated clothes airer plugs into the wall and heats the bars on the dryer to speed up the drying of your clothes. There are many models available, from small portable ones to larger, full-sized ones. A heated airer uses less electricity than a tumble dryer and is useful for when the weather doesn't allow outside drying.

A clothes dryer that has shelves can definitely be used for shoes. You can also hang them on the ends of the arms if your airer has arms. There are models that have shoe hooks on them as well. If you know that you will have shoes to dry, you can find electric clothes airers that have spots for shoes. These will dry your trainers much faster than a non-heated dryer.

When you look at the product description, it will usually tell you how many kilogrammes of wet clothing the horse can hang. It should also tell you how many metres of drying space the airer has. There are many variables to this, such as how many items you are laying flat compared to how many are hanging. Also, if you are drying children's clothing, you will be able to fit more on the airer than if you are washing larger adult garments.