Through-the-Roof Clothes Line

It’s summer in California – perfect weather for drying clothes on the line, especially considering previous summers’ electricity shortages. But it’s such a pain in the neck! Who wants to haul a hamper full of wet clothes out to the backyard in this heat? As a result, many of us continue the wasteful practice of drying clothes in the dryer.

I have often been envious of people who live in apartments where you can attach the clothes to the line through the window and winch them out over the street. I suppose I could do the same in my house, but there aren’t any windows near the washing machine, and I would like the convenience of transferring clothes directly from machine to line without need for an intervening hamper. Therefore, I plan to take the following steps:

1. Attach a 50-foot mast to the top of the house with a pulley wheel at the top.

2. In the roof, near the base of the mast, install a remotely operated trap door.

3. Cut a hole in the ceiling directly above the washing machine.

4. Rig up a rope that goes over the pulley at the top of the mast, and down through the trap door and hole in the ceiling to the washing machine. The rope should have loops attached to it that can be use as attachment points for clothes hangers.

After that, I will be able simply to take each clean-but-wet article of clothing out of the washing machine, put it on a hanger, hang it on the rope, and pull it up through the ceiling. Imagine my entire wardrobe towering up to 50 feet above the rooftops, drying happily in the sunshine.