Environmental product of the week: Dryer balls

I asked for some of these for my birthday which means that I’m now officially getting “mom” gifts even though I’m not a mom. So far, so good. I can’t judge their quality all that well because I’ve only done 2 loads of laundry with them and both loads had something fleece in them. I don’t find that fabric softener or dryer sheets can de-static those suckers so I wouldn’t expect it of my dryer balls. I did amuse myself by sticking staticky socks to myself that were attached to the fleece à la Robert Fulghum.

So the deal is: they mean that you don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets which both use a lot of chemicals and dryer sheets are super bad for dogs like Kip who like Kleenexes and such – as in, they can kill them. They are also supposed to reduce the drying time by separating clothing items to allow better airflow. As my dryer is in the basement, I haven’t done a scientific study of this yet but I did cut the time down and my clothes are still dry. The best part – my clothes don’t smell. I mean they don’t smell mountain fresh, they don’t smell cool breeze…they don’t smell. In my opinion, clean clothes shouldn’t smell. I would think they would be good for sensitive baby skin too. The worst part – they do make more noise in the dryer until the balls make their way into the clothes which muffle it. As I mentioned, my dryer’s in the basement so it’s not a big concern.