Dryer balls can reduce drying time by 30 per cent. (Credit: Jennnifer LeBrun)
At my house we prefer to hand dry most of our clothing, but we do still throw some things in the dryer – socks, underwear and towels for the most part. And currently we do use dryer-sheets for these loads, mainly to get rid of static cling. For those that don’t know, these dryer-sheets are loaded with many synthetic cancer causing and hormone disrupting chemicals (read: Toxic Chemicals in Your Dryer Sheets and Fabric Softener), and of course these chemicals end up embedded in your clothing, and ultimately are absorbed by you. This is not good. Not to mention the wastefulness of single use throw away dryer-sheet.
Well I am going to test out an alternative that I have read about several times in the past (but for whatever reason haven’t tried yet), wool dryer balls. Not only are they designed to take care of the static cling and reduce wrinkles, they also can reduce drying time on most loads by as much as 50%! That is a lot of energy savings. Your dryer is an energy HOG and as an appliance is one of the top energy consumers in your house. Oh, and they are reusable ;-)
So I am buying some today and will update this post with details after we have used them for a while.
You can read more about dryer balls here (read: Wool dryer balls shrink drying time).
I am buying my “100% Canadian Merino Wool Dryer Balls, handmade in Vancouver, BC” from www.ULAT.ca