Fabric softeners work by coating your laundry with oils and other ingredients that stay on the fabric, leaving it soft and static free. But it also leaves a water-repelling residue and possible carcinogens on your laundry. Fabric softener will also deposit on the inside of your dryer or washer; so if you use fabric softener on your other laundry, the softener will deposit on the cloth diapers when they are washed and dried. The residue will make your cloth diapers less absorbent, as well as deteriorating any water-proof laminate. The residue can usually be removed, but damage to laminate is irreversible.
To remove residue, run three hot wash cycles with a cloth diaper safe detergent followed by a rinse. Prevention is the best option, helping you to avoid frustration and wasted money and resources. There is another option to keep your laundry soft when using the dryer.
Wool Dryer Balls
In the quest for a non-toxic solution to save resources and avoid fabric softeners, the wool dryer ball was created. The wool dryer balls work by bouncing around in the dryer and “beating” the contents, allowing the warm air to circulate into the fibers of the laundry. This can reduce the drying time by 25-45%!
Wool is a natural material that has zero toxins. These dryer balls are fragrance free, non-toxic, and naturally anti-bacterial. You will typically need from 4-6 wool dryer balls for your dryer.
Here are some great made in the USA options:
- Buddha Bunz: http://buddhabunz.com/store/Default.asp
- Eco Sisters Recycled Wool Dryer Balls: http://www.abesmarket.com/recycled-wool-dryer-balls-set-of-2.html
- Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&q=wool+dryer+balls
- Stoney Mountain Farm: http://www.stoneymountainfarm.com/pages/product-list/wool-dryer-balls.php
- Wooly Rounds: http://www.woolyrounds.com/
- WooldDryerBalls.com: http://wooldryerballs.com/
Written by Sonya Choron 12/21/11
Ughhh! We share laundry with two other units, one of which is laundry crazy. Three older adults do no less than 15 loads a week and they use both liquid and dry fabric softeners. I don’t think they’d give them up so we can have absorbent diapers and long lived covers. Is it a deal breaker for us and cloth diapers?
BTW, this is our first child and she’s expected in May. We are trying to figure out what to do for diapering early…
I’ve also been thinking about using wool dryer balls. I had a pair of plastic ones that have lasted me about 6 months.
The plastic dryer balls also wear out and break after awhile.
I am still battling with fabric softener issues. We moved into a house in May where the previous owners not only had a fabric softener bar in the dryer {easily removed} but they also used liquid softener in the washer. Which was gross on so many levels to have to try to clean out, it was everywhere in every nook and cranny. I still probably don’t have it completely purged of it. I have had {and still have to an extent} major stink issues since moving in here and using the machines here. Not fun.
Hey, thanks so much for this. Just the other day I was trying to figure out how to make my own wool dryer balls, so you have perfect timing.
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