Did I ever tell you about the time I went for about a year and a half without a working dryer? Our boys were little, money was tight, and our dryer went out. Replacing it seemed like a bad idea at the time since buying groceries was also necessary. A dryer? Neh. I could do without.
And so I did. For over a year. In the spring, summer, and fall I used a clothesline. In the winter though? Oh boy. I had a tiny wooden clothes rack that my mom had used in college. That held a few things, but otherwise I hung or draped clothes and towels and little boy socks all over the house on any surface I could find. It worked. We survived. In the big scheme of things, it wasn’t a terrible hardship.
Eventually we bought a used dryer that is still working for us. (We always buy used appliances, by the way. We’ve learned that people are often trading in their “old” model for whatever is the latest and greatest. “Used” doesn’t always mean “dead.” Usually it just means “costs less.” We’re all over it.) We do at least two loads of laundry each day, so I’m very thankful for a working dryer now!
But for all the clothes we prefer not to put into the dryer, I’m excited to now have the Homestead Drying Rack that Homestead Store sent us a few weeks ago to review. This guy puts my tiny little drying rack to shame. Check it out:
What I like most about this rack is how the rods are so efficiently spaced away from one another. It makes for much easier draping and drying, offering many places to hang our clothing. It’s big, but it grows up instead of out so it doesn’t take up any more space on the floor than my smaller one did. (They also carry an even bigger one, the Homesteader Drying Rack, which looks marvelous!)
Now that the boys are older, they have quite a few items of clothing they prefer not go into the dryer. We’re going to be getting years of use out of this gem, I can tell!
Can’t put the nice basketball uniforms in the dryer, of course!
Homestead Store offers several different sizes of drying racks, and originally I selected the small Tabletop Drying Rack thinking of saving space. I’m so thankful they came back with the suggestion that I try their bigger and most popular Pioneer Drying Rack instead! That is the way to go for a family as big as mine. We put it in our school room (hence the U.S. map on the wall), which works well for us now that the boys are older and only use the school room as a hub for all our books and software (and guitars and video equipment and microphones and…).
One thing to note: Putting this drying rack together was a two-man job. Matt and Elias (our 14-year old) worked together on this project that took just a little longer than we anticipated. It was worth it though. The rack is super sturdy. I have no doubt it will stand up to years of use.
A Homestead Drying Rack Discount!
Homestead Store is offering us all a 10% discount on all drying racks! Use the code homemaker10 for the discount. This offer is good through March 31, 2016. Be sure to check out their Facebook Page while you’re at it. They share some really fun info there!
Special thanks to Homestead Store for being a site sponsor this month and for providing our family with this wonderful drying rack