No, we're not really going to make homemade dryer sheets. But when we ran out, like everything else we've run out of in the past month or so, it led to two questions:
1) Do we really need this product?
2) If yes, can we make it ourselves with less chemicals -- or more cheaply?
Of course, we should be air drying our clothing during our Year of Less. However, let's be realistic. It's January in Vancouver. Nothing's going to air dry until July or so.
Okay, so we're going to dry. Is it necessary to use dryer sheets to have soft clothes? Well, not really. But it's sort of nice when they're not all staticky.
I did some googling and it turns out that you can get soft, static-free clothing by doing two simple things. First, add a tablespoon or two of vinegar to the fabric softener drawer in your washing machine (if you mix it with the soap, you neutralize the soap -- so don't!). Then, when it comes time to dry, use some of those rubber/plastic dryer balls. We already had some, so it wasn't an added purchase.
The end result? To be honest, it's no different than if we'd use dryer sheets full of chemicals. Another successful experiment and forever-change in our household! (And, I found that we still have a bunch of dryer sheets in a place I hadn't looked before. I suppose we'll still use them up, but we'll definitely not buy them ever again.)
In conclusion, it turns out that dryer sheets are pretty unnecessary. It makes a person stop and wonder how many other products we've been subtly convinced to buy through clever advertising...
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