usethings drying rack

A timber drying rack for washing that is suspended from the ceiling. Our drying rack lowers for loading then hoists up to dry or air clothes - where the warmth is, and out of the way.

Convenient and easy to use.

usethings drying rack’s elegant all-timber construction carries a big load in a small space and hoists easily to the ceiling on quality sail rigging.

 

order now and solve winter drying

 

Energy / carbon smart

Avoid expensive to run, energy-hungry electric tumble dryers. Use the warm air in your home - no running costs - zero carbon emissions... no shrunken shirts!

No stress

Leave clothesline hassles outside - no rushing to beat the rain or nightfall. Your washing dries gently out of the way and you retrieve it when it suits you.

Solid & durable

Hand-crafted in long-lasting hardwood, with through joins, steel fixings, durable sailing cord and sailing pulleys. Built to last a lifetime.

 

 

usethings drying racks are now made with plantation sugar gum from SMARTimbers co-op.

Available Australia-wide in easy-to-assemble kit form.

Our rack is 1500mm long and 800mm wide, with 6 rungs.

usethings drying rack kit $280 + delivery

Comes complete with all rigging, fixings and clear instructions - a drill and screwdriver are all you need. Renters don't worry, only 5 screw holes to install - easy to patch-up when you take your rack and move on.

 

ORDER BY EMAIL - CLICK HERE

Payment by direct debit or cheque

Delivery costs:

Melbourne $12

Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney $15

Brisbane, Hobart $20

Perth $35

email for other area prices

usethings@usethings.com.au

Also available from usethings store - 8 Templeton Street Castlemaine

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10am to 3pm

We aim for all our products to be like the drying rack: sustainable in production, distribution, and use.

Our drying rack is a modern take on an old idea - a timber drying rack suspended from the ceiling. The rack is hand crafted by Tim - a shipwright who specialised in traditional shipbuilding and loves rigging and knots.

 

If each drying rack displaces an electric dryer with its 2kg of carbon emissions per load, at 100 loads a year one rack would save one tonne of carbon every 5 years. This is real and practical change - we see this as a move towards sustainability -  a convenient way to dry in all weather without the impacts of electric tumble drying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The impacts of laundering clothes-

From the Care to Air challenge:

“While examining the lifecycle impact of a pair of Levi’s® 501’s, [Levi’s] were surprised to find that almost 60% of the climate impact happens in the laundry phase – after a consumer takes them home – and nearly 80% of that impact is due to the energy intensive method we chose for drying. The single most important step we can all take to reduce the climate impact of our jeans is to choose air drying. Energy from the sun and the wind is free, as opposed to the average clothes dryer, which is the second biggest energy using appliance in the home after the refrigerator.”

From Sustainable Fashion and Textiles by Kate Fletcher:

“The washing and drying of a polyester blouse, for example, uses around six times as much energy as that needed to make it in the first place. […] The message here is stark: the biggest gains in environmental performance for many fashion and textile pieces can be made by tackling the impact arising from their washing and drying.”

Sustainability

 

Our working definition of sustainable is: that only the function of the product be available to future generations at no cost to them in degraded environment, climate or societies.

From working as a sustainable design consultant – looking at products and manufacturing and shaving off parts of the impacts of business-as-usual, I realised we needed to wholly re-conceive products, production, and even economics. usethings is our exploration of this path and the drying rack embodies the products we offer – useful things.

Some of the details of the drying rack and our business:

1. •The primary impact of clothing in Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is the energy, water and waste products involved in cleaning clothes. Our drying rack reduces the energy consumed and associated climate impacts of drying compared to electric dryers. Another advantage is the increased life of clothing without tumbling... all that lint is fibre coming out of your clothes.

2. •Sustainable packaging - the kits are sent out in recycled cardboard and jute twine packaging. To be honest it’d be quicker to use packing tape, but I use old fashioned brown card, twine and knots. This does the job and is recyclable or compostable. Packaging is the biggest portion of our home waste, which inspires us to offer this packaging solution for our kit. Distribution in kit form means there is little wasted packaging space giving efficient transportation - more units per load.

3. •Green power - our office and workshop are powered by 100% green power (new wind capacity).

4. •Durable - I recently re-installed one of the first drying racks in the owners new house. Originally installed seven years ago; it was in perfect working order. The original drying rack made for our home is still in daily use after 11 years, and the production units are superior to this prototype.

5. •Use what exists - as Esio Manzini says. The drying rack is an old idea. What we’ve done is design one for contemporary production and distribution using the best parts and materials from our sustainability perspective.

6. •Simple knots, physical joins, screws - easy to repair or replace (not throw away when one part fails). Of all the racks we’ve sent out or installed, only a couple have had accidents and broken rods. We simply send out a new rod - it’s designed to be easily replaced. usethings drying rack does require some skills to assemble and install - we are opposed to the dumbing down of products that require no interaction from the owner - you have to tie the knots but this means there is no moulded cord joiner to fail. See our knots page for help with tying.

7. •Plantation timber - the sugar gum comes from the western districts of Victoria where it was planted as windbreaks on farms and also coppiced for fire wood. Now SMARTimbers - a Central Victorian landholder co-operative, are producing air dried timber and building products. The species is from the Flinders Ranges in S.A. so grows fast in the good soil and rainfall of Victoria. We have it machined for the dowels and end frames. Initially we used Vic Ash but where uncomfortable with that as sustainable forestry, so we are very happy with the sugar gum - its strength and great finish. If you’ve ever stared up at an old growth Vic Ash you’ll appreciate us leaving them alone.  One problem with eucalypts is the high tannin content. We now supply a sleeve to completely seal the tannin in, see images right and below.
   

8. •Waste - you will notice blemishes in the timber and some wonky rods, we use all structurally sound timber in order to reduce production waste converting as much of the tree as possible into product.
   

9. •Local supply chain - local producers and services form our supply chain, in Ballarat, Castlemaine and Melbourne. The exception is the cord where no similar was found in Australia. We searched world-wide for this particular surface-finish cord as it offers good grip to ease the hoisting of a wet load of washing.
   

10. •The sailing rigging - a local company supplies us with the simple yet robust pulleys that offer smooth, noiseless running and low friction. The pulleys are rated to 300 kgs which is 20 times the sort of load in the drying rack and there are 4 of them sharing this load. These will never fail under this load; we wouldn’t consider using anything less.
    

 

Some of our customers have taken the time to email us -

“Thanks for the kit which is now assembled, suspended, and carrying a load of rapidly drying clothes. It very much enhances the room and is of great practical use. We particularly appreciate the design, the detailed instructions and the quality of the associated fittings – a very good product.”
 
"Just a quick email to say how impressed we are with the drying rack. It was very easy and quick to assemble with great instructions, and it has been a life saver with two small children during a fairly wet summer. We have been showing everyone we know and highly recommend it."
 
"We purchased your fantastic clothes drying rack at the beginning of the year, it has been a godsend this winter.
We have clothes on high rotation, drying by the fire. We love it, thankyou"

 

Images of the new tannin sleeve:

 

 

After  experiments with various finishes - even nasty 2-pac and solvent ones, we decided to go with a translucent polyethylene sleeve. Polyethylene is one of the most recycled plastics, same as milk bottles, and will give life-long protection from the tannins in the rods. The end frames are coated with a water based clear finish - this may still allow tannin through so we recommend drying white articles on the rods. If you have one of our original racks, contact us and we'll send out a set of sleeves free of charge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drying racks are also called:

Old fashioned drying racks, old fashioned clothes airer, wooden clothes airer, ceiling mounted clothes airer, Victorian clothes airer, indoor clothes rack, wooden clothes horse, indoor clothes drying rack, Edwardian clothes airer, ceiling clothes airer, hanging drying rack,  ceiling clothes drying rack, wooden drying rack, laundry drying rack, indoor clothes line, clothes airer dryer, indoor clothes airer, hanging clothes dryer, clothes pulley, wooden clothes drying rack, Sheila Maid, Kitchen Maid, creel, and Chinese laundry.

 knots   tables   stool   australian design   counterbore   coat racks    sustainability  usethings store  usethings design sustainability  tinker  weblog