DIY Dryer Balls {Update 2}

Hello lazy moms!

I thought it was about time to give you all another little update on my DIY dryer ball experiment.

(Go here if you missed my original DIY Dryer Ball post and first update)

I’m happy to report that my tennis balls and foil balls are holding up very well in the dryer.  As you can see from the following picture, my foil balls got quite a bit smaller and smoother since you last saw them.

To see the picture in its original size, please refer to my initial update post.

I know many of you have asked about the noise factor of these balls bouncing around in there.  The foil balls are definitely louder than the tennis balls were when they were wrapped with foil originally.  Maybe that’s why someone tried wrapping the tennis balls with foil in the first place, because that was quieter for sure!

Up until about three days ago, I didn’t have a single problem with static electricity.  THEN, I had my very first clothing item come out of the dryer statically charged.  It was one of those billowy polyester type blouses. But it’s been the only piece of clothing to have a problem so far.

I’ve heard that if static starts to become a problem, you can just add more foil to your foil balls and that should take care of it.  Again, I will keep you updated as we head into the colder months!

I also wanted to start tackling a different problem I’ve been facing with my new dryer balls… a lack of a “fresh-from-the-dryer” smell.

I’m sure most of you know that tennis balls don’t exactly smell good.  I guess if I had to describe it, I’d say they smell like fuzzy rubber.  (Is that an official tennis regulated smell?)  But while our clothes weren’t coming out smelling like fuzzy rubber, they just weren’t coming out smelling like anything really!

So to add a nice clean scent to our clothing, but still avoiding something synthetic (we’re going all-natural here, folks!) I stopped by a local health food store and bought an essential oil that I thought had a nice “clean” smell to it.

My first attempt at giving our clothes this nice smell, was a bit strong!  I put 4 drops of jasmine oil on each tennis ball, not really knowing where to start with it.  The next day Lazy Dad went to pull out a shirt from the dryer and he smelled like flowers.  BIG TIME.

Whoops!

And also… hahahaha!

So until the smell died down a bit on the tennis balls, I took some of the tennis balls out of the dryer and just tossed our clothes around in the dryer with one or two instead.  This ended up being just fine and gave our clothes a nice clean scent that wasn’t overpowering.

However, Lazy Dad suggested I add the essential oil scent to the fabric softener compartment in the washing machine and forgo the use of it in the dryer all together, so I may try that in the future.  I’ll let you know.

Speaking of the fabric softener compartment….  Even though I had started using the Jasmine essential oil on the tennis balls, I still felt like my clothes just weren’t fresh enough.  After a little bit of wear and maybe a little bit of sweat, the clothes got very “gummy” feeling and held odors pretty easily.

I’m also one of those people that doesn’t were antiperspirant, but just deodorant (I made the switch years ago for reasons I won’t go into now) (You’re welcome).  However, I am a pretty big sweater. (Didn’t you want to know that about me?)  So I often can’t hold on to clothes from year to year because they tend to have an odorous smell about the armpits.  (Well this is embarrassing!)

SooOOooOO, after much Google searching, I again found a natural (and cheap!) solution to my problem.  Vinegar!

I have been adding 1/4 cup of vinegar to my front load washing machine’s fabric softener dispenser, and I can’t even begin to describe the difference this has made!   But I’ll try!

My clothes smell better, they lost that “gummy” feeling, they feel fresher!  It’s truly a little miracle worker on clothing.  AND, despite what you non-vinegar-in-your-laundry people are thinking, your clothes DO NOT come out smelling like vinegar.

(And did I mention it is CHEAP?!)

So yes!  This is my new line-up of all-natural laundry cleaning friends:

Do I DARE attempt making my own laundry detergent?!

Nah…. I’ll stick with the natural plant-based ones I already use.  I have to draw the lazy line SOMEWHERE, people!

With Lots of Love, Essential Oils, and Vinegar,
The Lazy Mom

P.S. Please do share in the comments below if you are a user of any of these items in your laundry room, and what your experience has been using them!


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