Amazeballs or Just Balls?

Laundry was one of my least favorite chores for most of my adult life (it still kind of is, but now because of the utter volume that kids create…I just don’t understand). That was because I lived many years without a washer or dryer in my apartment unit or building and doing laundry always necessitated a trek to the laundromat, sometimes in the rain and snow, often with a very heavy load up and down stairs in buildings without elevators. At some point along the way, I stopped using a dryer because (1) it was cheaper (every penny counted), (2) those industrial dryers were not always kind to my clothes, and (3) I figured it saved energy (I always had some conservationist leanings). Lugging a wet load up stairs was never fun though…but I just considered it exercise. And then for many years, I kept up my non-dryer use (or my dryer non-use?) as it just made sense since I really didn’t NEED to use a dryer—a drying rack was always sufficient. I think many Americans don’t realize that dryers are not used by the majority of the world, including developed, first-world, industrialized nations, and those people do and look fine without them. All of this to say that the more eco-friendly step to take in clothes drying, would actually be to not use a dryer at all. But…I know that it is certainly not as convenient for many…not at all. I started using a dryer again when I actually had one that I didn’t have to pay for and had one that was in my building and I am still using one as it seems even more inconvenient not to (no…I know…not impossible) with kids. Even so, I thought I should at least use wool dryer balls. I have read about people loving them who think they are indeed…amazeballs. But do they really work?

Wool dryer balls supposedly reduce drying time by absorbing moisture and getting in between your clothes to aerate the load more. They also supposedly reduce static cling. I think they do help with static, but I have never cared so much about static and, this may sound dumb but, I don’t have the best static observation skills. I recently read that sticking safety pins through each ball helps absorb the static like a lightning rod. I’m gonna have to try this. As for reduced drying time and therefore reduced energy, the jury is still out for me. I am going to try harder to keep track of the drying time, but in regular busy-life fashion, I usually just turn the dryer on and come back to it several hours (or days) later, so I don’t even really know how long it went for. You can also supposedly add some essential oils to them for fragrance and I have not tried this yet either as I don’t care for fragrant laundry. I think for people who use dryer sheets for fragrance and static, these should definitely be tried. Those sheets generally have so much perfumes and chemicals and just create more waste as a product itself anyway. I am going to keep using them because I have found enough information to convince me that even if they help just a tiny bit, that tiny bit is more than nothing. And until I find myself in a place (mentally and physically) where I can air dry my clothes some, most, or all of the time, every little bit helps.

FYI, they come in different colors and sizes (as pictured). I use the gray ones for colors and darks and the white ones obviously for whites. I am not sure it matters a whole lot, but if they shed at all, I know it would be a serious pain in the ass to get tiny pieces of white lint off of your colors and darks as well as dark lint off of your whites.