Crawford retractable laundry reel
What’s more retro than hanging your laundry up to dry, outside or in? I bought a vintage Crawford laundry reel last year – I loved the graphics – and now I’ve discovered you can also still buy one new. The most energy-intensive part of doing laundry is running the dryer. If you’re game – use this instead. $18 at BuilderDepot.com.
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I just saw some 1940s reels on Etsy that I’d love to have. For indoors though, I use a folding rack. I like hang dried clothes so much better…and its cheaper when you’re paying coins for each load!
We’re fortunate to have a clothesline in our backyard, on the original metal poles. My neighbors get a kick out of seeing me actually handing laundry on it. But dry your 100-percent cotton sheets on the line, in the wind and sun, and you’ll sleep like you’re an angel on a cloud.
I went and bought one in Home Depot THEN I found an old one at an estate sale!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a clothesline Nazi. You wouldn’t believe how much I saved on my electric bill after the first month where I zealously hung laundry outside to dry instead of stuffing everything automatically in the dryer.
Allowing clothes to dry outside in the sun and fresh air will also naturally disinfect them.
I have another way to use this! I run a child care business and I have one that I attached to one wall and a hook to temporarily attach it to
another wall and I pull it out to hang art work to dry!
Does a super job and it is high enough so the kids can’t touch it.
I live where the winters are very cold so hanging laundry out to dry this time of year doesn’t really work but I love that I found another way to use such a simple device
I own two of the newer ones. I bring them inside in the winter and hang our clothes in the basement. We don’t even own a dryer, and all our wash is done in a Maytag wringer washer made in 1957. It’s a little more effort, but we save a TON on water and electricity. Clotheslines are, in my opinion, an absolute necessity for a retro house.
The Google Earth view of my home shows laundry on the line! Must have been taken on a Sunday