Laundry is probably not on your list of go-to topics for small talk at parties. In fact, Laundry is so monotonous and constant that many of us just do laundry on autopilot. While annoying, it must be done, and it must be done often. If you don't keep up with it, you can find yourself in a tricky situation. We've all been there, franticly trying to piece together an outfit because we've procrastinated on doing laundry. There's nothing quite like smelling a shirt you've already worn once (or thrice) to see if it makes the cut, or the joy of finding clean underwear you stuffed far back in the drawer and haven't seen in years. You get the picture.
Laundry has always been part of our lives (for better or worse), but hasn't stayed the same. Human imagination leads to new products that make our lives easier all the time. Inventors have worked their magic to bring us detergent pods (not candy), high efficiency machines, and even wifi-connected washers and dryers. Well innovation hasn't stood still and one of the latest laundry trends is actually very low tech. Wool Dryer Balls are changing the way millions of Americans dry their Spiderman underwear... uh... I mean normal plain white underwear.
The basic concept of a wool dryer ball actually makes a lot of sense. It's a dense round object that bounces around in your dryer, tumbling with your clothes and linens. As it bounces around, it collides with fabrics creating space between layers and absorbing excess moisture. These small balls produce big results! They effectively soften clothes, reduce static, and speed up drying time. If that's not cool enough, they are a complete replacement for dryer sheets.
Traditional dryer sheets and fabric softener rely on some pretty aggressive chemicals to get the job done. These chemicals remain on your clothes and linens, which means they come into direct contact with your skin for a prolonged period of time. Scientific breakthroughs have helped developed some pretty cool chemicals, but not all of them belong on your skin. Let's keep those chemicals in the lab and use simple wool to soften our laundry and reduce static in our dryers!
Stepping away from traditional dryer sheets means leaving behind synthetic fragrance as well. Fragrances and perfumes are highly irritating to your skin, they are also respiratory allergens, and hormone disruptors. You might think this is us on our soap box, and you would be right. We are super passionate about educating people on the dangers of synthetic fragrance. The beautiful silver lining of leaving fragrances behind is you can naturally scent Wool Dryer Balls with pure essential oils. Simply add a few drops of your favorite oil to your wool dryer balls 15-20 minutes before use. The subtle scents of nature's essences will transfer to the laundry.
The best part of making the switch to wool dryer balls from traditional dryer sheets might just be the energy savings. By reducing the amount of time it takes a load of laundry to dry, these balls are saving you electricity or gas. These savings are good for your wallet, and good for the planet! We've been using balls instead of dryer sheets to do laundry at our day spa for over a year. We have significantly reduced the amount of dry time per load. The savings continue to add up as each dryer ball is estimated to last for 1000 loads. That's approximately 4-5 years for the average person! As they age, they will unravel, letting you know it's time to replace them.
We were skeptical that these wool dryer balls were just another trend, here today and gone tomorrow. After experiencing them for ourselves, we knew the trend was based in results. We started with a test batch, drying sheets and towels in the spa gas dryer. We now have two sets of balls, one for the spa and one for our personal electric dryer. We use them with all our laundry; colors, whites, blacks, delicates, sheets, and towels!
We are excited to offer genuine New Zealand Wool Dryer Balls on our store. We carefully sourced this product as sheep are wonderful creatures and often mistreated. New Zealand has very strong animal rights standards, so their sheep are treated with respect. It would violate our conscience to use wool that was sourced from sheep who are harmed in the shearing process. We are grateful to have a source of wool that is cruelty-free!
While on the subject of laundry, we are on the hunt for the perfect non-toxic laundry detergent. When we find one we love, we hope to offer it on our store. We are using our high standards to narrow the search. If you have a non-toxic laundry detergent you love, please feel free to share it with us!
until next time
-Ben
