Closets and Wardrobes

[Carol]

Lee wrote:
> > Perhaps it's the use of the term "Airing Cupboard" in OOTP which,
 I was under the impression, refers to a linen closet in US-Speak. So,
it might follow that clothes go into a cupboard which might be a
built-in wardrobe which means "Closet" in American houses.

<snip>
 
Goddlefrood:
> 
> Some, but an airing cupbaord is usually only used for bedclothes 
> and towels. And I won't get into water closets just yet ;-)
>
Carol:
But isn't an airing cupboard used for drying wet clothes on a rainy
day when you can't hang them outside? If so, I imagine that they've
been replaced by clothes dryers in most UK houses. (I vaguely remember
having this discussion once before, something about UK clothes dryers
not having much power or being smaller than U.S. clothes dryers, which
are quite heavy duty. I can dry a comforter in one. (Do I need to
define "comforter"?)

A linen closet, of course, is also used for bedclothes and towels
(which nobody I now really calls "linens" anymore) but for storing
them, not drying them. (My mother used to have a fold-up drying rack
to dry socks and underwear on rainy or snowy days, but she used it in
the kitchen. It wouldn't fit in the linen closet, which was
ceiling-to-floor shelves.) I assume that an airing cupboard is large
enough to walk around in. I'm guessing that it contains a clothes line
or drying rack and possibly an ironing board. (No doubt I'm completely
wrong, but I've never seen one.)

Carol, who, as already noted, was not thinking of airing cupboards but
of the cupboard under the stairs