Monday, December 15, 2008

DIY: Bamboo Clothes Drying Rack

During the winter it's a little more complicated to hang dry clothes since it has to be done inside the house. You can save electricity though by not using a conventional clothes dryer, but instead by mooching off your winter heat source with a DIY rack! I made this bamboo clothes rack with only three materials : 1. bamboo cut from my back yard 2. jute twine 3. scissors !
Because the bamboo I had available was very thin I used the twine to tie a few pieces together for greater strength. I made four poles total to hold the cross bars for hanging clothes.
Then I made a tee-pee triangle shape out of the four poles, creating two support beams for the right and left sides. And tied thin bamboo across - laying flat in the open triangle up top.
I added two more bamboo beams across the lower half to hang more clothes - with the twine you can add as many levels as you want, as long as you don't overload the bamboo with too much weight in wet clothes.
Here is where I need the advice of a builder, engineer or 3-D thinker... it is perfectly fine to hang clothes on, but I had to lean it up against one wall to get it completely sturdy - does anyone know what should be added to make this entirely stand alone and supported?
In the meantime, this is one bad ass drying machine! Works like a charm and holds a surprising amount of weight! If you don't have bamboo, you can try using tree branches too - it's all about using resources you have right around you and FREE.
Make sure to place your clothes near your winter heat source so they can dry fully & quickly. :)
xoxo

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Beware of roaming pandas....

Anonymous said...

I just screwed hooks into my door and window frames and hung lines from them.

Make sure the hooks and screws are strong enough and that the wood trim has been properly secured to the walls - wet laundry can be heavy.

I leave them up all the time, but they could be removed whenever necessary.

If you're renting, easy enough to fill in the holes with wood putty after.

Bort said...

instead of two bi-pods for the main support you should use two tri-pods this should be free standing and a real bitch to build.

Miss Voodoo said...

Nick -
I wish a panda would roam into my house, i think that would be the coolest thing that ever happened to me! :)

Linda -
That is a really good idea, i thought about using hooks too but didnt have any around...and money is that tight. Hooks with lines would make it easier to hang sheets and larger stuff if the hooks were really secure, like you said.

Bort-
Now why didn't I think of that? So simple...i may have to add that third leg on each side now! Thanks for the suggestion.

Anonymous said...

I think the main problem with its sturdiness is that it is middle heavy with the wet clothes. It needs to have a pole tied on to each side of the bottom running the length to sturdy the bottom, then another 2 poles in the middle tepeed and tied to the top and bottom pole.

Lou Cheese said...

Nice leg warmers! (and CB too) ;)

Miss Voodoo said...

Nick- you might have to show me a drawing of that...

Lou Cheese - Thanks... the socks are fair wage and the magenta leg warmers are alpaca wool!

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Mr. Laundry said...

Helpful post for the readers that are in village areas, this bamboo clothes drying rack idea will help them for drying clothes.

hanging clothes drying rack

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