Easy Indoor Clotheline Follow-up

We replaced the existing indoor clothesline with an easy DIY clothesline when we installed the dry bar cabinets.  Our solution was simply a removable, heavy wooden dowel spanning the distance between the closet and furnace room walls set into brackets.  The total cost for this quick project was under $10.  The true test to whether this solution would meet our needs came with the first couple of uses.

We don't hang a lot of clothes but certain items for one reason or another are always air dried, usually on plastic clothes hangers.  There may only be four or five articles that need hanging in our average sized dark load unless it is athletic wear that comprises the entire load.  Once dried, the clothes are easily transferred to the appropriate closet. 

My concern was reducing the drying space from the existing 30' to about 4'.  Even though we never used the entire 30', the space was there if needed.  I hung nine articles of clothing from a large dark load which is about the average.  There was plenty of room for the clothes.  By morning, the clothes were dried ready to be put away.

Overall, this very simple, low cost, DIY solution meets our indoor drying needs nicely.  I leave a hanger on the rod to hang wet T-towels and dishcloths that are then placed in the laundry basket until there is enough for a load.  We have extra capacity, front loading washer and dryer so I do a load of laundry about once a week to ten days.  It takes awhile to accumulate enough whites for a full load! 

Dry Bar Cabinets Installed

While I have plans of painting a couple of rooms, we are working on several smaller, weekend projects over the next few weeks.  The utility room is L-shaped with the refrigerator and dry bar spanning the wall adjacent to the entrance.  The back, long arm of the L has a large double door closet, the washer and dryer.  Across from the washer and dryer is the very small furnace room that really is just big enough for the furnace, hot water tank, central vacuum canister and shallow shelving.

The total area is small but for the most part quite functional.   It does need a bit of organizing and could use a fresh coat of paint.  The ceiling is a drop ceiling.  Some of the tiles need replacing, another of our planned easy weekend projects.  We would like to update the lighting as well.  It is currently two fluorescent double bulb fixtures in the L-shape and a bare bulb fixture in the furnace room.  All come on at the same time.  The ample sized closet is very much lacking in light so we would also like to add lighting there.  So there are a number of small, inexpensive projects planned that will make the space better suited to our needs.

We brought our relatively new (bought in 2005) Whirlpool refrigerator to our new home in 2011.  We installed it just inside the entrance to the utility room.  Then as luck would have it, my husband found a base cabinet with countertop included on clearance at Home Hardware.  He installed it the same day creating a much needed dry bar.  We do a lot of entertaining so need the extra storage space for that purpose.  And so the dry bar sat where it quick became the perfect hotspot for horizontal clutter.  There was the fear that glasses would accidentally get knocked off during heavy use.  The horizontal clutter spilled onto the top of the refrigerator.  In short, the dry bar while providing much needed storage was not functioning in the way we envisioned it.

My husband went to Home Depot where he found pre-finished cabinets.  He bought two of the cabinets for an easy, DIY solution to our dry bar area clutter problem.  They were very easy to assemble and hang.  Doors are available for the cabinets.  We decided to leave the cabinets open for the time being to see how we like it.  My concern is of course dust even though we like the way the cabinets look without the doors.

Once the cabinets were installed, we washed them down and started organizing the glassware.  We also took the opportunity to do a bit of decluttering.  Some of the glassware went into the donation bin.   That little bit of decluttering has spurred the start of house-wide decluttering.