Homemade Clothes Dryer Racks

It is sometimes difficult to get all the washed clothes hung out to dry on the clothesline when the weather won't cooperate. We have been running the wood stove for months now and it seemed like a no-brainer to use the heat of the wood stove to help dry clothes when mother nature wasn't cooperating. So, I built two clotheslines or clothes racks at a safe distance from the stove, and it is working very well.

Now we can still dry our laundry even if it's raining or snowing.

I built two clotheslines, one for each wall next to the stove. I used 2x2 inch pine cut down to two 36" pieces for each the sides and two 28" pieces for each of the ends. Also used were extra 28"pieces for the wall and in case I mess up, which happens more than I'd care to admit.

The finished 36" x 28" rectangle is on hinges so that it can lay flat against the wall when not needed.

Two 2" hinges attach the clothes drying rack to a 28" long 2x2 screwed into the wall. I used metal reinforcements on the corner, which were also glued and screwed for added strength in the lap joint....overkill perhaps.

The ceiling joists didn't line up to end supports screwed into the ceiling, so I had to mount a 2 x 2 on the ceiling in order to have something solid to screw the eyelets into.

Holes were drilled every 6 inches to feed a continuous piece of green clothesline through the rack. Fencing staples were used to tack the ends. 

One load of laundry will fill up both clotheslines, but the clothes dry really quickly with the wood stove burning.