Sunday, November 20, 2011

Use Dryer Balls and save $$ and the environment.

I have spent today making drying balls. These little beauties are non polluting  and quiet. They are made from NATURAL, RENEWABLE FLEECE. yes the stuff the sheep grow. They will also break down in your compost after they have served their purpose. They should serve you in your dryer for years if they are treated right.
These are used in you clothes dryer instead of fabric softener and clunky tennis or plastic balls.

 Those plastic alternatives  give off toxic fumes when they are heated in your dryer.
So wool dryer balls keep the indoor air clean and fresh.  If you have small children, pets and birds in your home, this is am important consideration.  Chemical poly-dryer sheets off-gas harmful chemical scents even when they aren't in use.  When they are added to your dryer the scented chemicals permeate your clothing — increasing the chance of allergens, polluting your home and even outdoor air.  The smell increases the chances that your kids will develop chemical allergies.  Two of my kids did.
Those ugly plastic dryer pods will save you money over buying disposable dryer sheets, but they are a toxic alternative.  Being plastic — a petrochemical — they will off gas into your home during the dryer cycle and you may not even be able to smell the danger.
Wool dryer balls are the safer alternative.  Not only do wool dryer balls not give off harmful, toxic fumes in use, they absorb odours from your clothing, making your clothing fresher.  
  Wool dryer balls save you money by reducing the energy required to dry your clothes.
The larger your wash load, the more you save.  Using 6 dryer balls the size of a tennis ball will reduce the time it takes to dry your clothes by 30 to 40%.  Heavy loads like work clothes and diapers benefit the most from the use of wool dryer balls.
Wool absorbs 30% of its weight in water without feeling wet. So the more dryer balls you use in your wash load the less time it takes to dry your clothes.  Magic money saver.
Wool dryer balls remove odours and static from your clothing.
Chemical dryer sheets add a chemical scent to your clothing, masking odours and polluting indoor air.  Natural wool dryer balls absorb odours from your clothing, leaving it smelling fresh, without the pollution or chemical risks to your health.  They are naturally anti bacterial.
Wool dryer balls last for years with regular use.
Ugly plastic dryer pods will become brittle and break down with constant use.  As they off gas into your house with their toxic fumes they are breaking down one layer of molecules at a time.
 This will shorten the life of your dryer, too. Wool dryer balls, on the other hand, will stay firmly felted with constant use.  When you want to freshen them, you just add them to a wash load and dry them again in your dryer.  With regular use, you don’t need to worry about moth damage to them, but if you are storing them for the summer, because you’re switching to line drying, you can put them in a cloth bag for storage and firmly close to exclude insects.  They will last for years.
  Wool dryer balls break down static energy in your clothing because wool balances the electrons in your textiles.
Those dryer sheets contain silicone which coats your dryer and your clothing with an invisible film that damages your dryer, and prevents your clothing from naturally absorbing water — a bad thing for diapers, towels, socks, and t-shirts.  The silicone is how they reduce static in your clothes.  Liquid fabric softeners do that same thing using silicone.  The dryer pods are also made from a composite of silicone and plastic — not a healthy alternative to the dryer sheets.
Natural Wool dryer balls break the static energy, naturally, because wool is naturally anti static.  Static in your clothing actually robs you of energy.  Switch to wearing natural clothing — get the polyesters out of your wardrobe — and you will have more energy.
 Wool dryer balls are beautiful and make you happy when you take them out of the dryer, with your clean laundry.
If you’re happy, you have more energy to do the mundane tasks, like folding towels or diapers, so its a win -win proposition.  Whether they are made from natural coloured wools or naturally dyed wool, they are attractive, and compel you to touch them, squeeze them and even play with them.  They’re balls, after-all, not ugly, blue thorny pods.
If you do 5 loads of laundry and dry it in the dryer each week, you can save  $25 a month or more by using  safe natural fibre dryer ball instead of chemical alternatives.
Here is how I make mine.
I use snowball size hands-full of fleece, I wrap this like a ball of sting with hand spun yarn. I then put them in a panty hose and tie in between them sort of sausages. These I wash with whites in a hot load ( the only time I use hot water is to make the balls. Then into the dryer they go.
Now they are dry, I take them out of the panty hose, and I needle felt them. They can take about 20 minutes each.
I then hand wash and gently wet felt them, rinse and let dry. 
These make attractive tree ornaments, ans can be strong on strong cord as a baby carriage ornament.
If you don't want to make them, I will do it for you.
For a modest investment of $20 for 4 balls, you can have years of safe clothes friendly drying, and be kind to your home, family, pets, and the universe.
And I know just the place to buy them palea@telus.net

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