Anyone Have a good laundry drying solution?

[NatureGirl1]

Hi, we have a 25' Flying Cloud. We're going on our first long trip - 3 weeks. So far, all of our trips have been at best long weekends. I thought before our trip, I should figure out what are the annoying things we deal with during our little trips & come up with a better solution.

I did invest in some over the door hooks - meant for holding a hairdryer. I plan on using them to hold our bath towels using the shower door. It's a great fit because they're narrow.

However, I know I need some idea of how to dry my laundry (really towels) outside in the air. We will be at sites in National parks where the sites are tight & I'm sure they'll protest if we set up free-standing or large wash lines. We often bring a collapsible clothes rack and set that outside, but it's always in the way when it's inside and it does indeed collapse occasionally when it shouldn't!

My parents have a 5th wheel with a ladder rack. They always set up some cool wash line on that. But as you know, there's no rack on the airstream. The tiny line in the shower will not suffice.

Anyone ever come up with a good solution? Thanks for any input!

[NatureGirl1]

Oh, and of course our awning is crank out - never used a line there, not sure if it would work...but in some of those tight spots (Yellowstone for example) I don't think we can count on the awning being open.

[AldeanFan]

Most places we stay, provincial parks, state parks and private parks, have laundry facilities so I do a load of towels every few days.

[mandolindave]

The longest I have stayed out is two weeks. I bring enough clothes, and hang towels on awning supports. ( side tip : a towel soaked in the creek, draped over a cooler, makes your ice last much longer )

I'll need to address laundry for my long road trip. When convenient, I'll use a laundermat. ( sp ? )

I saw a clothes washing product that attaches to a 5 gallon bucket, but I may just use a plunger, and string a rope to sun dry. A spare towel should get me through rainy days.

In places where I don't want a tacky clothes line, I have been draping wet clothes over my lawn chairs. The thing is…places that I would feel tacky about a clothes line, will usually have laundry facilities. Who cares if you are in the boondocks. You're out of luck at Walmarts and such. but you'll only be there a short time.

[sailorii]

If you have the rear awning, it offers another, homemade alternative. Cut a 1 1/2" wooden dowel(closet clothes pole) the width of the awning. Screw a stainless eye in each end. Bend a hanger out of 1/8" rod to hang on the awning "axle". Varnish dowel. Works great.

[Lily&Me]

I've seen a fair number of campers with those collapsible drying racks behind their rigs, and if I had room I would carry one.

I'm a big fan of the heavy duty suction cups for Christmas wreaths that you can find for about $1 each at WalMart around the holidays.

They are great for extra hanging in the bathroom, can also attach to the outside of your rig to hang towels in the sun....sun is best, in my opinion, as it gets things really dry and deodorizes nicely.


Maggie

[Mikeyman]

Don't know if you've ever seen this guy, it's called the Scrubba Bag. Check it out: https://thescrubba.com/ I've used this quite a bit, and it works great. It won't really solve your problem with drying, although you can get the clothes pretty dry by squeezing out the bag. For us, we always just line-dry outside. I have a yellow rope I tie between two trees, or some part of the trailer and a tree and kick it old school.

[Sbb]

I use the bike rack. Not a fan of campground clotheslines. Sometimes they forget to take down and can be a danger.

[A W Warn]

We carry enough underwear for 2 weeks. Most of the time we do laundry at a laundromat at least once every two weeks. If needed, socks and underwear get washed by hand in the sink. Shirts and pants get worn 2 times unless they get soiled.

We hang wet clothing and towels on plastic hangers on our awning arms if weather cooperates. We hang our towels across the support for the accordion door if the weather is bad or when we are traveling or away from the camper.

We use quick drying towels, the Cannon brand. I think DW has found them at Sears and Kmart. We like them so well that we use them in both trailers and at home. They are very absorptive, but usually are dry enough to fold and store after hanging a couple hours. They dry so quickly that they do not get a funky smell so they can be re-used. We carry 4 bath towels for the two of us when we travel. Last week we returned from a 6 week 7500 mile trip out west to Glacier and Yellowstone. Never had an issue with damp clothing or towels while we were on the road.

[Someday'59]

I am also a huge fan of quick-dry towels.
There are 5 of us and I just don't feel like we have room for big fluffy towels.

We like these:
https://www.amazon.com/Packtowl-Orig...ecompleatcarry

[greghoro]

The main Zip-Dee awning has a knob (called the ratchet stud) on each rafter arm (the one with the claw end) that is used to relieve the spring tension when stowing the awning.

I have a long rope with loops on each end that I string from each of the knobs for a clothes line.

Also good for hanging a cloth to diffuse the brightness from the scare light at night.

I have the optional rear and road side awnings and am planning to replace the bolts holding the arm to the roller assembly with a stainless hook eye to provide additional hanging capacity.

Also installed some coffee cup hooks in the bedroom area to string ropes so I can dry towels while in transit. Again, the ropes have loops at the ends so they are easy to put up and take down and no one notices the hooks until I point them out.


Greg

[OhLook_SHINY]

I ordered this the other day (Amazon Prime day). It hasn't arrived yet, so I can't tell you how well it works, but it got great reviews. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015242TKW...FESNGVM61KVM3R


(Also heard recommended recently: a salad spinner for getting out the extra water in your hand-washed delicates.)

[TomKirk]

On my '77, my windows have aluminum frames. I hang towels on open window with small plastic clamps (aka, large clothes pins) from Harbor freight. Works like a champ.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-12-in...amp-69292.html

Tom

[loudruff]

Make sure to check park/campground rules. Some places don't allow clotheslines. I have a couple of them that can be strung inside around different Byam hooks etc. I have small vinyl clamps (from Harbor Freight) for clothespins. They have multiple uses, since they are heavy duty.

[dmoore]

Back in our Airstreaming days, and there were many, we made good use of a couple of "camping towels" that we picked up at REI (if my memory serves me correctly). They absorb incredible amounts of water and you can practically wring them dry.

[Ziggy2]

We mounted the main unit on this inside one of our cabinets nearest the heater. The little receptacle is mounted on the opposite side of the trailer. It's great for damp towels and wrung clothes but you don't want something too wet that will drip.

https://www.amazon.com/KINGSUPER-Sta...thesline&psc=1

[3wd67rg]

Because of space issues as well as quick dry issues, I decided to go with REIs backpacking towels. They absorb a ton of water and dry lickity split, they are soft, feels like drying yourself with the softest suede leather you can imagine. Really great for beach/river use because they brush away sand so easily, and the sand NEVER sticks to the towel at all.

I already had a few from backing, and I began buying more. I cannot say that my Chris was totally on board with it at first, so I bought two fluffy cotton towels that matched the colors of the backpacking towels, plus I bought six big cotton washclothes in the same colors. Avocado green, rust orange, and deep purple. We have 4 large backpacking towels, they take less space than a single cotton towel, and 4 hand towel sized backpacking towels. I can put all my bathtowels, hand towels, and washcloths into the drawer under our microwave and still have room for other things like TP, bars of soap, etc. I hang the towels to dry by a loop in the corner. It's dry in an hour or two depending on how wet it got. And Chris is totally on board with it now.

As for drying anything else, I put things on hangers and just hang them on various hooks throughout our AS. The owners before us put a closet pole in the shower, removable, to hang stuff to dry. Because that is where the litter box is between showers, that was taken out. Just not an option. Maybe for you though.

[Seemore2006]

It's not pretty but it works - in the FC you can just lift up the overhead doors And hang plastic hangers on the bottom ledge - I only do this if desperate to dry delicates - curtains pulled and right before bedtime! The tension rod in shower is good too and if you can find a place for installing 2 cup hooks where you can loop a rope that works too. I've also resorted to large Command hooks on inside of closet doors - open them up and voila your dryer. I try to buy things that can be dried at Laundromat to avoid the hoarder laundress look.

[MomcatA]

I picked up a couple of hot yoga towels at Marshalls. Very lightweight and absorbant- kind of like a big chamois, and it dries quickly. DH hates his, so I have 2, which I love; he can hang his "traditional" towel on the inside over-the-commode-door towel rack we got at Camper World, or over an awning bar.

[Sparky55]

I bought thin cheap bath towels from Walmart that dry quick. I can store 4 of these towels in the same space as two of the nicer ones.


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums