Clothes Airers and Ironing Boards

If you are hanging up the washing in the UK you will need an indoor as well as an outdoor airer as it is most probably raining. Until the 1950s indoor airers were generally made from wood, and were either free standing like the clothes horse your mother had, or were overhead airers on a pulley like your Grandmother had. Overhead airers have again become popular but rather than hanging washing they are used to hang kitchen utensils and decorated with dried flowers and hops.

By the 1960s wood was out and plastic coated, lightweight airers were in. These are freestanding, or specially adapted to fit over the bath or on to radiators.

The main thing to consider is the space you have available for hanging your wet washing. Those old style wooden overhead airers give you about 24 feet of hanging space and can be pulled up out of the way if your ceiling is high enough. Some modern plastic airers stand on the floor and are pulled up to various heights to give hanging space rather than folded out like the old wooden clothes horse.

Meanwhile, if the sun is shining its best to hang washing outdoors. Until the 1970s most gardens had a permanent washing line and a prop to lift the line and make sure your clean washing wasn’t dragging on the ground. Long lines of billowing white sheets on a Monday washday are childhood memories. Many washing lines have now been replaced by a rotary drier.

A rotary drier takes up a relatively small amount of space and is ideal for smaller gardens. They need to stand up to the British climate so are made of galvanised tubular steel or aluminium. As the line is strung through the arms at different points they give over 100 feet of hanging space.

To keep them in the ground, rotary driers come with a spike to be driven down into the earth. Then the actual drier can be put into the tube and lifted out when required. You can also buy plastic covers to keep your drier clean and dry when it’s not in use.

Pegs

Remember those old one-piece wooden dolly pegs? These have mostly been replaced by plastic pegs with two sides connected by a galvanised spring. But new one piece plastic pegs are now available and these are unbreakable.

Ironing Boards

Ironing boards have folding stands that are usually made from coated tubular steel. And a board on top. The cheapest board is chipboard, followed by a steel pressing with holes or vents, and better boards will have a metal mesh structure. Most have a metal ‘rest plate’ at the wider end to stand the iron on in between ironing.

For the best ironing results, vents or mesh are best as these allow steam to travel through, preventing damp garments from retaining steam and therefore creasing. Most ironing boards offer a choice of heights which means your different sized family members can do their own ironing comfortably.

Boards are covered with an ironing board cover which can be replaced without replacing the whole board. You can choose from an increasingly stylish range of colours and patterns – most are made from 100% cotton.

Our UK ironing boards are traditionally smaller that those in America and Europe but some suppliers now offer boards in larger sizes.