With weather turning cooler and most of us digging out our heavier clothing, laundry just became a bigger task. Heavy, warm fabrics mean extra drying time. The furnace isn’t the only appliance driving up that energy bill! One way to go green and SAVE GREEN in your laundry room is to make your clothes drying process more efficient with dryer balls.
Plastic dryer balls and tennis balls can leach chemicals when they reach high heat, as well as cause extra static, so it is a good choice to go with natural fibers like wool. Plus, with so many of us trying to reduce the plastic in our lives, why not go with wool? Wool is the perfect material for dryer balls since it is renewable, natural, and absorbent. Since Wool can absorb up to 30% of its weight in water, the balls absorb a lot of moisture from your fabric while tumbling about. Depending on how many balls you use, you can reduce your drying time by anything from 20% to half. Dryer balls also gently pummel your fabric, softening it. This is great for hard water. You can also add drops of essential oils to your balls to add a light scent and even cut down on static.
*Wool Dryer Balls shown c/o Eco Nuts
Wool dryer balks offer so many benefits:
- Dry on low (save energy)
- Dry in half the time (save energy)
- Forgo dryer sheets and fabric softeners (fewer chemicals and expenses)
- Avoid plastics and off-gassing
Wool dryer balls like the ones by Eco Nuts, are great for cloth diapers as well. Most seasoned cloth diapering parents know not to use just about any fabric softeners on diapers since it can cause repelling. If you have hard water and end up with crunchy diapers, you can soften them up in the dryer for a few minutes with your Wool dryer balls. We have about 20 balls in rotation at our house. They tend to travel around lodged in shirt sleeves or hiding inside toddler toys, so we like to have more than we need at any given time. One of our four year old’s chores is to wander around the house collecting stray balls and returning them to the laundry room. The more balls you use, the quicker your fabrics dry, so you want more than just a couple.
Some balls are bigger and more efficient than others. Eco Nuts wool dryer balls are the largest I know of, since they are closer to softball size than tennis ball.
Since they can save you time on drying, charges on your energy bill, and save you even more money on softeners and dryer sheets without chemicals, I would suggest anyone consider using wool dryer balls for their laundry needs. They work great with heavy loads of jeans or towels. One word of caution: Dryer balls can cause pilling on some fabrics like wool and other animal fibers, so avoid using them on a delicate load.
You can find high quality wool dryer balls at Eco Nuts in four packs for $22.99.
*I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I need to get some of these then.