Making a Portable Clothes Drying Area in your RV Shower
Scott
Trip Date 08/24/2018
Posted On 02/01/2019 17:52:18
Camping | RV | RV Hacks | Where to Dry Wet Clothes in your RV | Make your own Drying Rod for your RV | RV Shower Drying Rod | RV Clothes Line
While enjoying our new RV both in the summer and on longer trips, we discovered the need for a
swimsuit and clothes drying area. The shower is perfect for this sort of thing, but ours didn't have a
rack or clothes line, so I decided to design and build my own.
If you tend to take longer trips in your RV, enjoy refreshing swims or take advantage of RV resorts
with hot tubs, you probably need a place for your wet clothes to dry. This post will show you how to
make an easy clothes drying area right in your shower. It's completely portable and doesn't take
much space at all to store - you can quickly and easily hang it only when you need it.
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Just a Few Parts Needed
The bathroom in our RV has a corner shower with a curved sliding door. The advantage of using the
shower for a clothes drying area is that it is out of the way and most importantly, it's drip-safe. To
make the perfect portable clothes drying rod, all you need are:
some short lengths of closet rod;
nylon cord;
over the door hooks; and
plastic hangers.
The Parts
Luckily, I had some left-over closet rods and nylon cord, but both would be easy to find (and relatively
inexpensive) at a local home improvement store. (They'll probably even cut the rod to size for you
too.) While browsing in a Dollar Tree, I noticed a package of two plastic over the door hooks for just
$1.00. I was sure that they would work great to clip over the existing shower top and I'd be able to
hang my home-brewed drying rod from the hooks.
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Putting it All Together
I started by tying a loop at the end of the rope so that I could hang the assembled unit from the over
the door hooks. The next step was to drill a hole about one inch from each end of the two rods - just
make sure that the hole's diameter is big enough to thread the cord through. The last step is to
thread the cord through the holes and tie four more knots. My wife suggested that the space between
the rods should accommodate hanging shirts on clothes hangers so that she could dry some of her
drip dry only clothes.
The Assembly
Once the rod was assembled, the next step was hanging it in the shower. I quickly put one of the over
the door hooks on the far corners of the top of our shower. Then, I just slipped the nylon loops over
the hooks, and it was ready to use - just add plastic clothes hangers!
Just "Hook It" On!
Putting it to Use
When we've done laundry while traveling, we've noticed that having an outdoor clothes line is
generally not allowed in RV parks. The addition of the shower drying area has been perfect for drying
all of our wet items - both those not appropriate for the dryer and more frequently, it's been great for
hanging our swimsuits.
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Having two layers of drying area has definitely been useful at times. While the drying rods work great,
the spacing is not ideal. (As I assembled the pieces, I did some crude measurements, but did not
adequately account for the knots that would be needed plus a little extra gap space.) The good news is
that I can easily fix that by cutting another longer piece of nylon cord. If we really need more drying
space, I'll fix it, but it is currently working just fine as it is.
The Dry Rod Hanging In The Shower
One advantage with this simple design is that the height of the rods are somewhat adjustable. To
raise or lower the rod, all I have to do is loosen the knots and move them up or down, and voila, it's
adjusted.
Just Knot It!
Once our clothes are dry, all I have to do is roll it up and store it in the under the bed storage area.
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Favorite RV Hacks
This clothes drying area was so easy to assemble, and very cheap too. What are some of your favorite
hacks that have made RV life even better?