toys and clothes drying on the clothesline on a beautiful sunny day
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27+ DIY Clothesline Ideas for Inside and Outside Your Home

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If you’ve always thought a clothesline was just a fancy rope tied between two trees, think again! We’ve gathered together the most spectacular and innovative DIY clothesline ideas for inside and outside. We organized the DIY clothesline ideas with something to suit every space, budget, and level of DIY skills.

From robust family-sized outdoor airers to clever space-saving indoor clotheslines, you’re sure to find something within to spark your imagination regarding fitting a clothesline in your home.

Lovely clothesline drying clothes on a sunny day.

Sound good? Then let’s review them all!

Best DIY Clothes Line Ideas for Inside and Outside

There are many advantages to drying your clothes on a clothesline – not only do your clothes feel soft and fresh, but you save money too! When living a frugal homesteading lifestyle, investing in a clothes dryer seems unnecessary – especially since the wind and sun can do the job for free!

But we know that some people live in regions where outdoor clotheslines are not permitted (crazy, eh??!), so luckily, there are some great indoor options too.

Let’s take a closer look!

1. Simple Outdoor T-Post Clothesline by My Simply Simple

super simple diy clothesline hanger
We’re starting our list of cheap DIY clothesline ideas with this hidden gem from My Simply Simple. It’s a perfect backyard clothesline made from exterior-grade lumber. However, the authors also noted that they wish to use steel posts when they revisit these plans later. Learn how to build their simple clothesline project on their website. (My Simply Simple has excellent instructions and a detailed materials list.)

The clue is in the title – this robust clothesline is a magnificently simple design! Based on the classic wooden post design, it features three long lines to give you lots of space to dry your clothes. If you’ve never attempted a T-post clothesline project of this type, the detailed instructions will guide you every step of the way.

2. Pull-Out Laundry Basket Shelf & Drying Rack by Pneumatic Addict

Here’s a pull-out laundry basket and shelf from Pneumatic Addict resting between the washer and dryer. The pull-out laundry shelf also doubles as a nifty clothes hanger – perfect if you want to rely less on your drying machine and let your clothes air dry indoors. (We recently wrote an article about apartment homesteading – we think this clothesline idea fits right in!)

You know how much we love a space-saving hack. And this idea is genius! It features a pull-out clothes drying rack that sits above your washing machine. It also serves as a laundry basket shelf. So, even in the tiniest home, you can make a great space to dry your clothes that stash neatly away after use.

3. Simple Rustic A-Frame Clothesline by Gardenista

lovely homemade shelter island clothesline
We love this elegant Shelter Island Clothesline from the Gardenista website. There’s something hypnotic about watching fluffy garments dry while flapping gently in the wind. That’s what the creators of this next cotton clothesline dryer had in mind when they put it together. It uses cedar wood strips from Home Depot and stainless steel pins.

This beautiful simple rustic design is perfect for luxuriant gardens, especially if you have some mature trees around the edges. The clothesline is anchored at either end to two thick trees, then raised in the middle using two pieces of wood secured with a dowel pin. The simplicity of this homemade clothesline means it will not become a dominant feature in your garden, blending into the background when not in use.

4. DIY Ceiling Clothes Airer Rack by An Edited Lifestyle

We observed a bunch of clothesline ideas. And this one is unique among the others! It’s a clothes drying rack that hangs from the ceiling. Kudos to An Edited Lifestyle for developing yet another excellent indoor clothesline idea perfect for urban homesteaders or anyone who wants to dry their clothing, blankets, and apparel indoors. (The instructions are also detailed – perfect for an indoor DIY clothes-drying project.)

I dream of the day when we have one of these in our home! Growing up, we had one of these in our family home, and my mother and grandmother would use it every day – not only for drying clothes, but it also makes a great place to hang herbs to dry! Although you can purchase ready-made ceiling airers, this simple DIY tutorial means you can build one for a fraction of the price.

5. Space-Saving Wall Mounted Drying Rack by Erica @ Northwest Edible Life

wall mounted indoor clothes drying rack
Erica from the Northwest Edible Life deserves major street credit for showcasing this ingenious wall-mounted indoor clothes drying rack. The drying rack itself appears relatively small. However, that’s why it’s so clever. It manages to hold and dry a surprisingly-high amount of garments. It’s perfect for transforming a tiny corner of your room into a laundry-drying powerhouse. (The racks got made from baby jail panels. And they’re also foldable. Neat!)

Here is a borderline genius upcycling project. It turns an old baby crib into a tuckable wall-mounted clothes-drying rack! This design would work well indoors and outdoors. The clothesline design also avoids having an unsightly clothesline strung across your living room or garden.

With room for a whole load of laundry, this wooden clothesline is ideal for anyone with limited space.

6. Garden Pulley System Clothesline by Needham Channel

Look at this old-school pulley clothesline design from The Needham Channel. They show how to build a traditional outdoor clothesline without fancy tools, equipment, or window dressing. The tutorial is easy to follow and shows how to drill your clothesline holes, attach the pulleys and apply the clothes pins. (It’s perfect if you want an easy – yet highly functional DIY clothesline without the frills.)

I never understood the point of a clothesline pulley until I visited a friend with a large family and watched her hang out three or four laundry loads in no time! No more lugging heavy baskets of wet laundry along a fixed clothesline rope. Here, the pulley does all the work for you.

The tutorial is also easy to follow. The instructions remove potential confusion – including details for the specialty bolts needed to install a pulley clothesline system from scratch.

7. Ultimate Pegless Clothesline for Travel & Camping by Backcountry Adv Moto

Backcountry Adv Moto is showing the world how to erect a DIY clothesline on the go – without needing wood or steel posts. It’s a clothesline that fits in your pocket. We admit that it’s not the largest or most luxurious clothesline. However, it’s perfect for camping, hiking, and survival applications.

If you love outdoor adventures or traveling from place to place, this self-contained camping clothesline is ideal! It can be hung virtually anywhere in seconds and holds your clothes in place without pegs. Perfect for hanging a clothesline under trees next to your tent, and the cloth clothesline folds away neatly to take up minimal space in your pack.

Sea to Summit Lite Line Camping and Travel Clothesline
$14.95

This is an ultra-lightweight (1.3 ounces), portable clothesline with an adjustable length up to 11.5 feet - perfect for camping and travel. It's quick and easy to attach almost anywhere with the included hooks and tensioners.

You won't need pegs either - parallel cords with beads hang your clothes, towels, and other gear securely!

Get More Info
PAID LINK - We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
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8. Simple Indoor Curtain Rod Clothes Line by Fixit Fingers

Here’s another perfect indoor clothesline idea by Fixit Fingers. The clothesline uses low-cost materials that only cost around $20 – including a curtain rod from Bunnings. The curtain rods make it so you can dry clothes using shirt and coat hangers. The instructions are also clear and easy to follow.

If you’re not a fan of indoor clotheslines, why not use a curtain rod instead? This system is great for air-drying clothes indoors and can get installed by anyone with basic DIY skills. And, by hanging your wet laundry on clothes hangers, it will take just seconds to transfer them to the closet when dry.

9. Family-Friendly Outdoor Clothesline by More Like Home

sturdy outdoor clothesline with douglas fir wood and pine wood
Check out one of our favorite sturdy outdoor clothesline DIY plans from More Like Home. The design uses Douglas Fir and pine wood from Home Depot, a nylon clothesline, and a heavy-duty eye hook. We love how the clothesline design features clothesline strings of various heights – allowing everyone to join in on the fun. Neat!

If you’ve got little ones running around, they’ll no doubt want to be involved in whatever task you’re doing. So, why not make the most of this and encourage them to hang out their laundry?! This innovative outdoor clothesline design involves your entire family in the daily chores. And it also maximizes the number of clothing items you can hang in a limited area.

10. DIY Ceiling Mounted Clothes Drying Rack by Two Inspire

Want another excellent clothesline dryer for anyone apartment homesteading or needing to dry their clothes inside? Then see here. It’s a DIY ceiling-mounted clothes drying rack by Two Inspire. The design uses PVC pipes, hangs from the ceiling, and is perfect for suspending over your bathtub. That way – you can hang soaking wet clothing without it dripping all over your home.

This ceiling-mounted clothes drying rack is an innovative take on the traditional ceiling clothes airer. It uses clothesline rope and PVC pipe instead of wood to create a stylish drying rack. It’s perfect for your wet clothes and takes up zero floor space. The step-by-step tutorial is easy to follow. And the only tools you will need are a drill and a saw.

11. Laundry Room Clothes Drying Rack by Beauty That Moves

indoor clothes hanging rack
Beauty That Moves made one of our favorite indoor clothes hanging racks. It’s ideal for homesteaders needing plentiful drying space. We also love how they built this elegant-looking clothes dryer using materials from within their home – a recycler’s dream. (The only exception was a clothesline – simply because they didn’t have any on hand.) They get major bonus points for the low-cost economy!

If you’ve got a spacious basement, a multi-tier drying rack means you can dry multiple loads of laundry indoors – ideal if you live in a climate where the weather changes from one minute to the next!

This drying rack tutorial clearly explains every aspect of the design, so you can pick and choose which features to use when constructing your basement clothesline. It is also robust enough to hold heftier items like bed sheets and towels, which seems like a hassle when you need to dry laundry indoors.

12. DIY Outdoor Fold Down Clothesline – by DIY At Bunnings

Here’s an epic fold-down outdoor clothesline tutorial from the famous Bunnings Warehouse. The design is practical, space-saving, and one of the simpler clotheslines to create. The instructions cover the tools you need (nothing out of the ordinary), measuring tips, drilling, and installing.

If you’re drying clothes in a small yard or on a balcony, the last thing you want is a fixed permanent clothesline taking up the whole area. This simple yet effective wall-mounted clothesline features two racks. The two racks offer you the option of using one or both, depending on how much laundry you have.

And when your fresh air-dried laundry safely packs away, the rack folds flat against the wall, freeing up your precious outdoor space.

13. Bamboo Clothes Line by Balcony Garden Dreaming

nifty bamboo outdoor clothesline
This clothesline hanger looks cool! It’s one of our favorite outdoor clotheslines from Balcony Garden Dreaming. The design looks elegant, fashionable, and chic. Plus, it uses bamboo! The bamboo drying racks also appear to be free-floating magically. It’s easily one of the bedazzling clothesline ideas. And (surprisingly), the instructions seem tremendously straightforward.

This bamboo clothesline makes you look twice! These outdoor bamboo clotheslines may appear suspended in midair, but they are suspended from a wooden pergola using an invisible fishing line. Functional, low-cost, and creative, this clothesline would look beautiful in any tropical-themed garden!

14. Fold Away Indoor Clothes Rack by Gem & Em

foldable drying rack design
Want an indoor clothesline without needing too much space? Then check this foldable drying rack design by Gem & Em! The design looks easy enough to duplicate using wood, clothesline rope, screws, and hinges. (It also looks super chic – and is perfect for inside your bedroom, office, or spare room.)

You can make this custom-made DIY fold-away clothesline any size to fit the space available. It gives you a compact yet effective way to dry your laundry. It would work perfectly indoors or outdoors. You can also make it on a rock-bottom budget using scrap wood.

This design would look great painted with a pop of color. Turn it into a fun feature for your home or backyard!

15. DIY Pulley Clothesline by Practically Functional

outdoor pulley clothesline hanger
Practically Functional knocked it out of the park with this breathtaking outdoor pulley clothesline hanger. The clothesline appears super strong. And we love how it uses an old-school pulley system, so the clothes are easy to hang, access, and move without fuss. The instructions on the website are also stellar – and they promise you can complete it in around 20 minutes. Perfect!

Have the intricacies of pulley clotheslines always been a mystery to you? Then here is one of our favorite DIY clothesline ideas. The detailed tutorial explains it all, starting with how to set up the pulley through to using spacers and tensioners to keep the lines from sagging.

The huge advantage of this clothes-drying system is that you can set it up anywhere you’ve got space to hang two screw hooks or brackets at the appropriate height, so it should work in a wide range of situations.

16. Space Saving Closet Clothes Drying Rack by Amazing Home Hacks

Don’t have much indoor space for drying your clothes? Then here’s a clothes drying rack perfect for your closet! Amazing Home Hacks can show you how to get it done. For under ten bucks! And also under ten minutes! (We think the clothes will take a little longer to dry. But you can’t beat this design for under $10.)

When space is at a premium in your home, you may want to use every available corner to hang clothes! However, for under $10, you can fit a simple clothes rail between your closet doors, perfect for drying smaller loads of laundry on clothes hangers. And when the laundry is dry, lifting it into the closet takes seconds. A bonus if folding laundry is one of those laborious chores you’d rather avoid!

17. Trellis Clothesline by Mom All The Time

A clothesline is a necessity we can’t avoid, but there’s no reason why it can’t be multifunctional too! Instead of a standard T-post system, this design incorporates a trellis at either end of the clothesline.

Growing highly-scented jasmine or clematis along this design would make your laundry smell spectacular! Or, for a more practical use, a crop of climbing beans or peas would love to scramble up this trellis.

18. DIY Folding Clothes Drying Rack by The Merry Thought

chic indoor drying rack
This DIY indoor drying rack from The Merry Thought reminds us of an artist’s easel! It’s light, portable, and helps dry your shirts, towels, and linens without taking up much space.

Here is a super-cute DIY folding dry rack clothesline that, in our home, would see constant use. It is ideal for drying extra laundry from a large load, those delicate items that need to get dried out of the sun, or your children’s soggy pullovers after a splashy walk in the rain.

The small size makes it easier to maneuver and reposition than larger airers, and it fits nicely into smaller spaces without taking up the whole room.

19. Wall Mounted Fold Down Drying Rack by Be Creative

We agree that this DIY clothes hanger idea looks tough to make. But Be Creative makes it look easy! (We love their fancy metalworking skills. And their watermark is a nice touch!)

If you’ve never worked with metal before? Then the idea can feel a bit daunting! Metalwork is a skill that takes a while to master, but if you’ve got someone more experienced on hand to help you, this detailed tutorial is a great place to start. The result is a robust wall-mounted clothes airer for a fraction of the price of any store-bought version.

20. Retractable Multi-Line Indoor Clothesline by Just About Home

foldable cabinet laundry line clothesline
Liz and Peg from Just About Home published how to transform an indoor space into a clothes-drying powerhouse. They use a retractable clothes drying system. The best part is that their laundry line clothesline tucks neatly within their cabinet when it’s not getting used. Perfectly genius!

Think you don’t have space for an indoor cupboard clothesline? Think again! Start by fixing a retractable clothesline inside a cupboard or closet. Then, all you need to do is pull it out when you need to use it and stow it away again afterward. This system would work well near a window, giving you fresh, air-dried laundry inside your home.

21. DIY Metal Outdoor Clothesline by Raise Your Garden

one inch metal clothesline
Here’s a powerful outdoor clothesline that holds a ton of clothes. And it looks like one of the sturdier designs on our list! The clothesline design calls for using 10-foot steel pipes and quick-dry cement. Check out their one-inch metal clothesline tutorial on Raise Your Garden for detailed instructions. Plus, a complete materials list.

This metal outdoor clothesline system is a nifty new take on the traditional T-post design. It uses metal instead of wood to create a washing line that could last many years. This family-size outdoor clothesline is perfect for anyone with basic DIY skills.

Start with galvanized steel poles and connectors. U-bolts and quick links make attaching the rope a doddle, and tighteners can loosen or tighten the clothesline rope.

22. Solar Clothes Dryer System by Simply Loving Living Life

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/69665125478032571/
We found another unique outdoor clothesline design on Pinterest. It looks (P)interesting. No doubt! (When we first saw this DIY clothesline design, we knew it looked ideal for those living in the tropics – where a drop of rain comes unannounced.)

This clothes dryer fits a phenomenal amount of clothes drying room into a small space, spanning outwards from a sturdy center post. And covering it with a canopy has a few powerful benefits. Your clean laundry gets protected from rain, UV light, and those pesky bird droppings which can ruin a nice clean shirt!

23. DIY Caravan Clothes Line by West Aussie Wanderers

The West Aussie Wanderers sought to create a DIY clothesline idea for under twenty bucks that would make their life on the road easier. It looks like they had an astounding success! (This portable clothesline design is for homesteaders living in an RV, camper, or anyone living the outdoor life.)

I wish I’d come across this idea when we lived in our campervan! Just a couple of tubes and some rope are all you need to make a made-to-measure clothesline to attach to your awning, perfect for air-drying your clothes without the risk of an unexpected shower.

This system would also work well in a garage or on a pergola. Or even from one fence rail to another.

24. Crib Spring Indoor Clothes Hanger by A Diamond In The Stuff

crib spring drying deck
A Diamond In The Stuff figured out the best way to transform leftover baby cribs into an epic indoor clothes dryer. It’s a crib spring-drying deck! It’s not as spacious as some of the outdoor clotheslines. Nor will it accommodate an overflowing load of laundry (or two.) But it’s unbeatable if you have a leftover baby crib collecting dust.

I adore a clever bit of upcycling, and this crib clothesline idea is simply genius! I often see crib springs dumped by the bins, making me wonder how to recycle them. Well, it turns out that you need four ceiling hooks and some chains, and you’ve got a great place to hang your clothes!

25. DIY Rotating Clothes Drying Rack by Build It Solar

custom diy clothesline drying rack
Ken from Build It Solar wasn’t impressed with the outdoor clotheslines from his local hardware stores. So, he built a custom model – a DIY drying rack! It features easy-access hanger holes and a two-inch conduit post. It also folds away neatly when not getting used.

This rotating clothes drying rack is a slightly more complex DIY challenge. But if you’ve got your heart set on a rotating clothes airer, this detailed tutorial will help you build one for a fraction of the price of the store-bought version. It also folds away after use, helping you maximize your drying space – even in the tiniest yard or garden.

26. Fold Away Deck Clothesline by Instructables

deck clothesline design
We found this deck clothesline design on instructables.com – one of our favorite sources for outdoor DIY projects. It uses extended deck posts to hang the clothesline rope without fuss. It looks simple and elegant. (The deck posts got extended using gate hinges. The hinges allow the clothesline posts to fold down when they’re not getting used.)

Need an easy-access patio deck clothesline? If you’ve got a patio, deck, or even a couple of handily-placed fence posts, this clever adaption means you can have a washing line erected in seconds. All you need are a couple of hinges, two lengths of wood, two hooks, and some rope, and hey presto – you’ve got a space to dry your clothes!

27. Wall Mounted Outdoor Clothesline With Canopy by Outdoor Canopies

diy clothesline with a canopy
We’re finishing our list of clothesline ideas for inside and outside your home with one of our favorites for a rainy day. It’s a DIY clothesline with a canopy! The designer mentions the struggles of drying laundry outdoors in Ireland. The frequent precipitation can ruin your laundry. Quickly! This canopy makes things easier.

While we homesteaders know better than to grumble about the rain, it can make drying laundry a chore! On those showery days when you can’t decide whether to put the washing out, having a canopy can make all the difference.

The great thing is that this can also double up as a sheltered space to store garden furniture, bicycles, and BBQs when not in use.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading our favorite DIY clothesline ideas for inside and outside your home!

We hope these DIY clotheslines and homemade dryers help you spend more time outdoors. Or make better use of your indoor space. And most vitally – we hope they help you save cash on your electric bill.

Also – let us know which DIY clothesline idea is your favorite! Or maybe you built an indoor clothesline or indoor clothes dryer idea you can share with us.

Either way – we thank you again for reading.

Have a great day!

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