Posted in Home, Home Archive, Home Tips | Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
“Hey babe? Have you seen an aluminum foil ball about yea big?” I gestured with my hands as my husband looked at me blankly and shook his head.
“Where was the last place you had it?”
“Oh, it was in the dryer. Have you seen it?”
eyebrow raise. blank stare. smirk.
“Uh..no.”
Sexy is pretty much used to my crazy household experiments, so nothing really phases him anymore. Now, obviously, the green thing to do is to hang all of your clothes dry. And…well.. We’re working on it. Right now I would say about 30% of our wardrobe gets hung dry.
The rest do get thrown in the dryer along with various implements because, well, fabric softener is kind of toxic and dryer sheets are messy, (not to mention a fire hazard). And I figured I could live with a little static cling. That is until the day the kitten decided to hop into a fresh load of warm clothes, only to get zapped so badly, his hair stood on end and he shrieked.
I’ve shared a few of these tips on the Savvy Brown FB page, but I thought I’d do a little post outlining how we dry our clothes here at the House of Brown.
Dryer balls – I love these things! They’re basically rubber balls with little round spikes on them that knock around the dryer along with your clothes, softening them up as they go. They help a bit with static cling too. You can buy some here if you can’t find them where you are.
Damp Scented Rag – I came up with this on a whim. I really like the smell of lavender in my clothes, so I took a washcloth, wet it just so it was evenly damp, and then poured about 6 or 7 drops of lavender essential oil across it. I wet it a little more and wrung it so the oil was evenly distributed and tossed it in the dryer with my sheets. They smelled heavenly, and while the dryer was running, the house did too! I use microfiber towels like these cut in half.
Aluminum Ball – Apparently, aluminum helps attract static electricity, so throwing a crumpled up ball into the dryer helps get rid of all of those socks sticking to your blankets. (I’ve been trying to find another use for the leftover aluminum foil in my house anyway, so this was the perfect excise.)
The best part about the dyer balls, the rags and the aluminum ball is that they’re all reusable!
Great ideas! I’ll definitely have to try the scented rag idea bc I’d love to have other scents in my clothes. Lavender is nice, or something fruity. Thanks!
@Dealney Thank YOU! For reading and commenting…
Love it! I am always looking for a way to save. We hang dry the majority of our clothes as well. It helps them last longer.
Seriously? Aluminum Foil? That’s great.
I’ve also used wool felt balls you could probably infuse them with lavender too.
These are al great ideas! I never heard of using aluminum foil, but i will try this out
Thanks for the aluminum foil idea! I love it and can’t wait to try it. I’m so tired of static cling! LOL!
Use For Aluminum Foil
Instead of throwing foil away, use it to clean oven or outdoor grills. Spray on some DW40 oil and scape off will a balled up piece of aluminum foil.
Thanks for sharing! I haven’t bought dryer sheets in over a month and was about to break down and buy some because the static is starting to get to me.
@likeramona Everyone’s dryer is different, so if one ball doesn’t make a big difference, try two! Thanks for commenting!
@Madam Butterfly Wow thanks for the info!
Awesome tips, as usual!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!
wow i never knew dryer sheets were a fire hazard! welp i won’t be using those anymore.
@jasmine I was just as surprised as you were!
@ShelliDawn you’re welcome! Thanks for commenting!
We are a dryer ball household but, the aluminum foil ball is genius! I’ll have to try it. Thanks!
@Cam We use both now! What I’ve discovered is that the more the aluminum foil ball is used, the more compact it gets, and the better it seems to work….
We use tennis balls in our dryer to keep our clothes soft and toss a couple lavender sachets in with each load to lightly scent our laundry. Outside of not over-drying the load though, we didn’t really have a great solution for preventing static. I am so excited to try your foil ball recommendation!
Hmm…never even thought about this one. Great tips and awesome website!
@Belle Thank you so much!
This is very helpful!!
I’m going to try the aluminum foil ball and hope it works!
FYI, please don’t use essential oils anywhere near your poor cat! Cat’s bodies cannot process essential oils and over time your cat will have toxic levels of essential oils stuck in his/her body. Instead, use an organic lavender hydrosol, just a few drops should do the trick.
[...] the comments on the above post on Money Saving Queen’s site, one reader wrote that she uses balled up foil instead of fabric sheets to prevent static electricity. My oldest cat loves playing with foil balls. I have to supervise him [...]
I have just heard about this and am glad to find someone that has actually tried it.
I use wool dryer balls (natural and last longer than tennis balls or plasic balls with nubs). But, they aren’t great with static in the Winter.
I am excited to try the tin foil – if it works my husband will love you!