So… dryer balls. Have you heard of these things? You use them in place of dryer sheets. I wasn’t so sure about this idea, so I did a little reading. Here are a few reasons why making a switch might be a good thing for your family:
Sure they smell amazing, but there are so many chemicals in traditional dryer sheets! A lot of the chemicals can affect our central nervous system. Scary stuff. Here is a list of the seven most common chemicals that can be found in dryer sheets. If you’re brave enough to read it, that is!
There has been this really great push encouraging us to use more recyclable materials, bring our own bags to the grocery store and to opt out of as much junk mail as we can. (Now if I could get them to stop sending me bills of any kind! 🙂 )
Which brings me back to dryer balls. How do they compare?
I have only used mine for about two weeks now-and honestly there are some good parts and some drawbacks. First off, I love knowing that I’m not drying my kids off with towels that have been tumbled in chemicals. However, the wool balls will obviously not have that Spring-fresh scent. I read a few tutorials that said to add a few drops of essential oil, which I did. But I was too chicken to put them in with regular clothes because I didn’t want to risk oil marks. Our towels smelled awesome. I used an all natural lavender-a very calming scent.
I found that tumbling with dryer balls, no matter what load it was, seemed to make the clothes less wrinkly and much more soft. I’m definitely willing to trade silky feeling of dryer sheets for this just plain softness factor.
Some of the dryer ball articles said that they wouldn’t reduce absorbency of towels the way dryer sheets can do. And you can use them with cloth diapers. They also said that it decreased drying time which would mean saving on utility bills.
I do know that dryer sheets, especially the sensitive kind that I used to buy, were spendy. My three larger dryer balls cost a bit less than $6 to make.
Wool is a renewable resource and doesn’t add to the landfill.
So, if you want to give them a try you can either purchase them, or make them rather easily as I did.
DIY Felted Wool Dryer Balls
Here is what you need:
- 100% Wool Yarn -Make sure you try to find something that is not washable-which would prevent the felting process. I found a skein that called for hand-washing. I did have to run mine through the washer & dryer a few times to get them to felt nicely.
- Scissors
- A pair of old pantyhose. I’m not much for pantyhose, but I found one of those mid-calf pantyhose-like socks
- Essential Oil (optional)
Pretty self explanatory! Start with a little knot and just keep rolling. Mine ended up about 4″ across. When you get to where you want to stop, just tie it off using one of the other strings of yard already across the ball.
Slip them into your pantyhose and tie off between each ball with left over yarn tidbits.
Wash in warm/hot water, and dry on high (right in with your clothes is just fine! Like I said, I repeated this a few times until I was satisfied with the amount of felting. And when I started using them as dryer balls, they turned darker in color and the felting increased dramatically. I’m pretty happy with the results!
Have you tried dryer balls? How did you think they measured up?
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I have heard that the wool dryer balls are so much better for the environment but have not tried them. I have looked for them around town but nowhere to be found. This is great that you can make your own.
I haven’t tried them yet but now you have me really interested in trying them.
I had no idea it would be so easy to make felted wool dryer balls. These things are all the rage in the cloth diaper community.
That is SO FREAKING COOL!!!! I wanna do this now!
I have heard of these before but have never tried them. I wasn’t sure if they would really work. Night have to try them out.
This is SO cool!! What a great idea! 🙂
I will have to try this!! I am all about reducing chemicals and not spending money on dryer sheets. 🙂
I havent tried these yet. I use old tennis balls in our dryer and it works fine although it doesnt offer any softening at all. I might give these a try.
I’ve never tried them! I need to go read that post! I use free & clear ones, I wonder if that helps!
i have not tried this but am up for trying it. it seems more environmentally friendly and i am all about that.
I haven’t tried them yet but now I really want to make them. Think I will head off to the craft store tomorrow to pick up wool yarn. Thanks for the step by step instructions. Pinning this now 🙂
I have wool dryer balls and LOVE them, but have never made them myself. This looks so incredibly easy! I’m going to have to try it now. Thanks!
I love my wool dryer balls. I actually have all the materials to make a few more. I like to have around 4 per load.
We have wool dryer balls, but they cost more than $6. I’ll have to give this a try!
I am allergic to wool. I wonder that would be a problem if I made this and used it. Thanks for the idea to research more!
i made these a long time ago. The worst is when one decides to unravel in the dryer LOL
I can’t believe I was considering buying them before. You’re brilliant. I’ll definitely make some!
This is so cool. I wouldn’t have thought about making my own. The whole time I was looking at this all I could picture was my three kittens playing with it.
I have never tried wool balls. What a neat idea!
You know kim was just talking to me this week about her doing this! I think this is pretty cool but I am not sure if I have the patience.
I have been told these are great to use, but I haven’t tried any yet. I need to make one and give it a try – we are doing our best to be more ‘green’ at our house as well!
Awesome! I’m totally going to make one of these this weekend and see what they are all about!
I need to try this & love that it is easy to implement.
These sound fabulous! I’ve never tried felted wool dryer balls before but I am going to give these a try. I’m all for avoiding chemicals. God knows we are surrounded everywhere we go so I like getting rid of the ones I can in our daily environment. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I have not tried Wool dryer balls, but I heard that they work very well and last longer than regular dryer sheets. I would like to give them a try and see how they work for me.
This is neat! Love it!
I had never thought of making these myself. I had seen articles on them but really never read them till now. good information on how bad dryer sheets can be so will have to make our own too.
I have never tried dryer balls before.
I have been wanting to try these for a while now. Thanks for sharing such a great diy!
We cut out dryer sheets years ago because we couldn’t afford them but I’m so glad since recently I found out about all those chemicals in them. I haven’t tried wool dryer balls but would love to if they help with static.
I’ve heard about these for a while and really need to set some time aside to make these! Great post!