Saturday, February 26, 2011

Reusable Dryer Sheets

We do lots of laundry. Actually, to say we do lots of laundry is an grand understatement. Because of this never-ending chore, we've noticed how many dryer sheets we use and figured that there had to be a way for us to make them ourselves. Not only were we looking for a homemade option but one that was greener too. After all, all those dryer sheets just end up in our landfills after one use, and we knew there had to be a way to make reusable ones. Turns out we were right! We were first turned on to this idea by "Homemade Nana", and we think she found it here.
What You Need:
  • Strips of flannel (ours were scraps we had on hand but you can also use worn-out sheets or cut up that old shirt of your husband's!)
  • Scissors
  • A medium-sized plastic container with lid (we re-purposed a cleaned-out sour cream container)
  • A favorite brand of liquid fabric softener
  • Hot water
Pre-wash your flannel and cut it into strips that are about 3x5" (just eyeball it - no one is going to sneak in your laundry room with ruler). At this point you can hem your edges or you can be lazy like us and just cut them with pinking shears.

Place your strips into your container, making sure they all fit comfortably and the lid can go on.

Mix up a solution of 4 parts liquid fabric softener and 10 parts hot water. Pour the solution over the strips of flannel in the container, secure the lid, and shake it up to make sure the strips soak up the solution. Let it sit for at least two days...although to be honest we couldn't wait and used it the same day we made it!

When you are ready to do some laundry, just pull out one strip, squeeze out the excess solution, and throw it in the dryer with your wet clothes like you normally would with a commercial dryer sheet! Used strips can be put back into the container with the solution and used again!

1 comment:

  1. Doesn't this leave spots on the clothes?

    ReplyDelete