LooHoo Wool Dryer Balls — Natural Static Reducers (and They’re Kind of Fun!)
For a while now, I’ve been trying to decide how to manage my household and protect my loved ones against chemical exposure. Some days I feel like it’s a losing battle. I go in and out of phases and drive my husband nuts. One thing I’ve never paid close attention to is what I’m using in the laundry room. When Evan was born I switched to a chemical-free detergent and stopped using fabric softeners for his loads. The biggest nuisance has been the static when I pull his laundry out of the dryer. You know how it is — static so bad you can practically smell it?
LooHoo recently sent us its wool dryer balls to try and, boy, am I glad they did! These balls are each about the size of a baseball and have the same texture as a tennis ball. Each are made of 100 percent wool and are unscented — but you can drip some of your favorite essential oil onto them if you prefer a scent.
I did my first load without any oil as a test run. The clothes came out STATIC FREE! The box mentions these reduce dryer time, and while this may be true, I wasn’t really able to monitor it. My machine has a sensor, so I don’t pay close enough attention to dryer times to compare. (A good time to test that theory would be when you need a crib sheet or special blankie washed and dried immediately!)
I also read that the LooHoo dryer balls help fluff as well, so I threw our down feather pillows in to see what would happen. They were unwashed; I just took the pillowcases off and tossed them in one at a time on no heat for 20 minutes with all three balls. I added about two drops of essential oil to one of the balls because I didn’t want it to be too over powering. It was heavenly! Our pillows flatten really easily, and this was a game changer! I’m thinking about doing this weekly — yes, it made them THAT fluffy!
Beware, though: When taking items out of the dryer it can turn into a game of fetch. My mister was extremely helpful getting the balls back into the machine. Win for mommy!
You can grab a five-pack from the LooHoo website for $42, which is enough to get you started for medium and large loads in a regular-sized dryer. They last for hundreds of loads though, so you’ll get your money’s worth and keep a lot of dryer sheets from landing in the trash! Plus the reduced drying time hopefully cuts down on energy costs just a bit.
Do you have any tried-and-true products you love in the laundry room? Try to reduce chemicals in your house? —Jennifer