The Mighty Clothes Airer

All hail the mighty clothes airer. This is one of the time and environment saving gadgets in my life. I am not a huge watcher of daytime tv and this has decreased even more so with the demands of two little ones in my life who also love watching ABC Kids. But I did happen to catch a Dr Phil program about mums and the demands of household chores. It explored a couple of mums who just never got to the important things they were constantly struggling with the housework, taking kids to school in their PJ's and not putting much time or energy into themselves or their lives just slaving away for their families. Mums tend to never sit still I always seem to be attending to something whether it be washing, putting away clothes, ironing, washing dishes, cooking etc. etc. There isn't much time left for spending time with our children, partners or even a little time to ourselves.

"Don't sweat the small stuff" great advice from a good friend. We are living in a home not a museum I tell my husband. It's nice to have a clean and tidy house but at what price? Your children won't remember your pristine cleaned bathroom or your immaculately cleaned floors. The only thing they want from you is your time, love and attention. Ironing - this was one topic I took the advice on board from the Dr Phil program why iron play clothes? (someone in my family who shall remain nameless irons undies) and I have to say I was partial to ironed pillow cases and teatowels but not any more! - I don't iron a whole lot. Firstly when I wash everything, all shirts including the children's go on hangers on a clothes airer. I have an inside laundry - very lucky I know, so clothes can be hung on the airer morning, noon or midnight as I have been known to do but whenever I can fit it in.

Most of these shirts now need little or no ironing. They are easy to put away as they are already on hangers. I only iron the kids clothes for special occasions or if it's a cotton garment with lots of creases.

The airer saves me looking at the weather and wondering if it will rain or will I be home to pull the clothes off the line. I now rarely use the dryer, only if there is a large amount of wet weather and I run out of space. I can fit nearly two loads on the type of airer you see pictured here as I use all of the side wrungs to hang all of the shirts on their hangers, once I have draped all of the smaller items on the slats. I only use pegs on tiny things such as socks. Bibs can also be velcroed around the side slats.

This airer has made my whole life in the laundry a little easier. I spend minimal time on it and get a good result. It's fairly compact even with all of the hanging items and is easy to move around as it's on casters. Thing dry pretty quickly and in summer I wheel outside for quicker drying.

I think you can track these airers down at BIG W, Bunnings or Hills. I have seen three tier airers around since I bought mine maybe I'll look at an upgrade in the near future!