Lower Your Energy Bill With This Simply Brilliant Laundry Room DIY

Completing household chores doesn't just require physical energy, but it siphons electrical energy from your appliances as well. While your dryer may make laundry day easier by rendering your wet clothes dry in just a matter of minutes, it can also send your electric bill through the roof. If you use your dryer about three times a week, it's probably costing you over $65 a year to run. If you want to reduce your energy bill, stop running your dryer every single time you clean clothes and create a ceiling drying rack above your appliances instead. For this project, you'll install two cup hooks in the ceiling, attach leather pulls to them, and place a wooden dowel through the pulls. The items required will all cost you less than $30, which is less than the number on that electric bill, and your savings will only continue to increase over the years. 

Aside from the obvious cost and energy benefits, installing a DIY drying rack will also help you create a functional laundry room by utilizing wall and ceiling space instead of floor space. Yes, drying clothes the old-fashioned way requires patience and won't offer you the convenience of having them dry within the hour, but your clothes are probably better off. This is because placing fabrics in the dryer can cause them to fade and get damaged easier. Using a rack is gentler on your garments, so you may want to complete this DIY as soon as you can. 

For this DIY, purchase a pack of cup hooks from Home Depot for about $7, some leather cabinet pulls from Amazon for around $10, and a wooden dowel from Lowe's for about $10 (or cheaper, if you get a smaller size). The size of the wooden dowel depends solely on your needs, so choose whatever length you desire. You'll also need a pencil, stud finder, and power drill.

Start by screwing the cup hooks into your ceiling where the trusses are. To find these ceiling beams, use the stud finder. Once you've found the perfect spot for one of the hooks, mark it with the pencil, drill a hole there, and screw the cup hook in until it's secure. Move further down along that beam and mark another spot for the second hook, then repeat the process. Ensure that the space between the hooks is smaller than the length of the dowel. Finally, attach the leather pulls to the hooks, fit the dowel through them, and hang your clothes hangers on your new drying rack.

You can customize this drying rack by adding another hanging dowel to create more space for additional garments. Further, if the wooden dowel doesn't fit the aesthetic of your laundry room, paint it whatever color you desire or opt for a metal one instead, like this $10 stainless steel rod from Amazon.