It's April, and as most of us know, April is home to Earth Day. I will admit some of the Green challenges out there I probably just won't do - like using coconut oil as a conditioner. Others I already do (having short showers, having a non-fertilized lawn, and turning down the thermostat). Some I decided I will try out like ditching the commercial dryer sheets, meatless Mondays, and committing to a green commute (a joke, as I don't currently have a commute).
I decided to try out making my own dryer sheets. I turned to Google and found a simple set of instructions to make my own dryer sheets on Pop Sugar.
First up - gathering my supplies. All that is required are cotton cloths, vinegar, essential oils (optional, really), and a sealable jar.
I purchased a package of j-cloths; I already had vinegar and a sealable jar. The tricky part was finding essential oils. I looked at my local grocery store. No luck on the essential oils there.
So, next up in my search I headed to our local eco-friendly store. They also didn't carry essential oils but I did have a nice chat with the owner about what I was doing. She had some good questions - including what kind of cloth am I using, and how many washes would they last. She also mentioned that just using regular cloths (I'm thinking old t-shirts would work) would work just fine. We also discussed wool dryer balls.
I eventually found essential oils at another eco/organic store in St. Albert. So now that all the supplies were gathered, I was ready to go.
Dug out my quilting supplies - rotary cutter to slice up the cloths, and the cutting mat to not slice up my table.
I used half of the cloths and then cut those in half too. If I do this again, I won't bother with the second cut, they are kind of small.
Mix 1/2 cup of vinegar and 8 drops of the oil (if you are using, it's just to scent them, so it's not necessary).
Pour the vinegar and oil over the cloth and close the jar. Simple as that. I did shake the jar up a bit to make sure the cloths all had some of the solution on them.
Of course, the big part of this is trying it out. I did two loads of laundry, the first load I put two of my dryer sheets in. Everything had quite a bit of static, so for the next load I put four in. It seems to have worked, way less static and everything is soft (but maybe it always is and I just hadn't noticed?). I can't say that the essential oil really made any difference. The clothes just smell like our detergent.
I threw all the sheets back in the jar, and I suspect I can probably get at least three washes out of each one. I can see that the sheets used in the second load were looking a bit worn, so three is probably the max. Overall, I think this was a success.
Next up, wool dryer balls?
Previously published at Shift Mama.
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