apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i got these at bed, bath, and beyond. they come alone or with a retro looking box of detergent. too bad my husband keeps forgetting to take them to the laundromat!

Or to be really green, you could just hang your laundry to dry. I don't understand people's dependence on dryers. They're expensive to buy and run, or to use at the laundromat, they're bad for the environment, and they're not very good for your clothing either.

i also got these, used them a few times and cannot say that i have seen any difference in the softness of our laundry nor in the drying time.

i only make it to the laundromat about once a month, so when i go, i end up using 6 dryers(!). these are a cool idea, but i'd have to buy 3 sets (if it's one ball per load), which isn't really a cash saver...

I'm a sucker for scented laundry and have recently switched to dryer sheets from Method- seems that they're at least a little better than the conventional sheets, hopefully?

allison, i agree with you completely- i much prefer to hang my laundry...but do you have any ideas for families with clothes/sheets/towels who live in a tiny nyc apartment?

I bought these and use them. I have not noticed once bit of difference. I have start using them with dryer sheets.

Who doesn't like a good fluffening?

Check out the comments on AT:SF when we wrote about these last year. . .

http://sf.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/072006/green-ideas/dryer-balls-010810

I have to say tennis balls do pretty much the same thing: beat up your laundry while it's taking a tumble in the dryer.

A comforter, winter puffy jacket, bath towels - they all seem to do nicely with a tennis ball (new, please, not the dog-slobber variety - which are charming in their own right but not for this purpose).

I don't throw a ball into every dryer load, but sometimes - with the stuff that goes flat - I do. (And they're pretty cheap.)

Yup. I've got them too, and they do nothing except make a tremendous clatter banging around in the dryer. No increase in softness, no reduction in static.
As for line drying, I prefer it too, but not in -20º weather, which is where the temperature hovers for a big chunk of the year here.

"Or to be really green, you could just hang your laundry to dry. I don't understand people's dependence on dryers."

HELLOOOO.... just where do you "hang your laundry to dry" in a small apartment in New York City?? Not everyone lives in a house with a clothesline out in the backyard!

I understand that NYC apartments are small and finding room to hang laundry to dry can be difficult. But somehow, every tiny flat I've visited in London manages to incorporate a fold-down drying rack or multiple strand drying line somewhere. Above the tub was a popular spot.

Gaiam.com sells a wall shelf drying rack that would work for apartments. Click on my name for a link.

And some of us live in places that are HUMID and have a great deal of RAIN.

We did line-drying growing up and I have many memories of mouldering clothes taking days to dry in the basement.

From my laundromat days, I am not going to schlep pounds of wet clothes home (the wetness, the nastiness, the weight) if there's a dryer available.

personally, i'm a fan of the ecover or seventh generation fabric softeners that you use in the wash, not in the dryer. they work well, smell nice, and reduce static cling, and they are made from biodegradable vegetable oils as well! i highly recommend them. i've not used dryer sheets in years.

I dry laundry on a folding rack in my apt here in NYC -- with out ridiculous overbundance of heat -- the laundry is dry in no time!

meant: with our overabundance of heat

I used these faithfully and sadly they make absolutely no difference. A great example of a clever product idea that looks good and appeals to our green values. If only it worked.

As for line drying in a tiny NY apartment--I fill up my drying rack with just the clothes that aren't supposed to go in the dryer. I can't imagine how you could dry a whole load of laudry on one. And believe me, there's no space for another. The solution of doing laundry more often would just mean wasting time by doing laundry less efficienty, and wasting electricity on running less-full washing machines.

Have been using these faithfully for the past 12 months, and am pretty happy with the results -- we used to have problems where heavy loads of laundry (towels, blankets, jeans) would come out still somewhat damp after a full drying cycle -- with the dryer balls I don't have to add time to the drying cycle to get everything dry. But, they do make a racket in the machine, and don't seem to do anything for static.

I live in a smallish one bedroom with the closest self-serve laundromat a good 7 min walk away... So I got a WonderWash handcranking washing machine (click on my name to see it) from Laundry Alternative. I also got the Mini Countertop Spin Dryer there.

It works remarkably well for what it is... I washed socks last night and one pair, notoriously colored greyish from wearing black boots, came back out its original light green!

I use the Method Home washing liquid and softener. The softener is no great shakes, but it smells great. I line dry using a foldout wooden drying rack, but my sister (who lives in Asia) got me a couple of those plastic wheel things with clothespins attached to the spokes, and it hangs off the shower curtain rod in my bathroom - those work really well for drying delicates, shirts and socks. The dryer rack works for my jeans, sheets, towels etc. (And yes the WonderWash actually does sheets too...)

I had to line dry all my clothes when I was living abroad and I have to say that after a few months, they became pretty stiff and uncomfortable to wear. And anyway, now that I'm back in NYC I don't think I'm going to be carrying my wet laundry two blocks in the cold and then up to my fifth floor walk up any time soon!

Speaking of "green" and "laundry," has anyone tried those soapless washer balls? I can't imagine clothes coming clean without detergent of some sort.

I have the dryer balls and after using them for a while, one of the three 'tumbler fins' (what do you call those things?!) in the dryer broke loose and eventually fell off, after much clanging about. I didn't really notice much of a difference in drying time, but it made sense to have the clothes lifted and separated. I've stopped using them so the other two fin things don't get loosened.

I've been using these dryer balls and the OxiClean detergent ball for about 3 months now - I highly recommend both. I've definitely noticed a difference in the fluffiness of towels - what sold me was when I put away a dryer ball dried towel next to a dryer sheet dried towel and the ball dried was about 25% thicker.

And the detergent ball is a huge convenience - no more measuring powder or liquid - just leave it in the machine. Gets clothes and even muddy dog paw towels perfectly clean.

Never use fabric softener with pure cotton garments or linens. Fabric softeners are oily, waxy substances and will actually reduce the absorbency and permeability of cottons, which sort of defeats the purpose of items like towels and cotton underwear to begin with.

Fabric softeners should be reserved for synthetics, where static cling can be a real issue. Wool too, but most woolens don't get washed and tumble dried.

My current rental has a pretty ineffective clothes dryer. So we got a drying rack from Target and use that for most things. Some things dry stiff though, and those go into the electric dryer for ~10 minutes on low, which fixes them right up. When it's sunny we set the rack out on the porch, but right now it's over a heater vent.

Louisa:

Interesting idea ... a detergent ball. But I think there's some sort of magic thingamajig that's supposed to work without any detergent at all.

Sunspot:

I used to have a friend we teased about her "water-repellent" towels ... now I know how they got that way!

I have these and they work exactly as claimed. I don't use dryer sheets, my stuff doesn't come out nasty and hard, and drying time is definitely decreased--by about 10 mins, I'd say.

I use the Nellie's brand, which are more football shaped. I also use their "green" detergent which works just as good as any other detergent I've ever tried.

I live in Manhattan, and have a 10*12 bedroom. I always dry my clothes on a compact wooden drying rack I bought at BB&B. The only times I use the coin operated dryer in the basement is when I'm drying sheets or my duvet cover. The roommate and I have agreed not to leave personal effects in shared spaces (living room, hallway) so all of the drying happens in my smallish bedroom. What fits on the drying rack goes there, what doesn't goes on hangers and are hung from my doorframe. Unless it's unusually wet outside, the clothes are dry pretty quickly. I suppose the clothes end up a bit stiffer than they would have been had they gone into a dryer, but to be frank I never really noticed the difference. I'm surprised so many people are horrified at the idea of not using a dryer - in the country I lived in for half of my life nobody owned a drying machine. And the weather was much wetter than it is here in NYC, too.

I think I would stop line-drying if I didn't have a laundry room in my building though. Hiking five blocks with a bag full of wet clothes doesn't sound pretty.

A small apartment is rarely a reason not to dry clothing by hanging (though anything under 300 sq.ft, like maxwell's, might be pushing it unless you've got high ceilings to make use of). You don't need a line outside, though those are awesome. I have always dried my clothing on a line or rack whether this was at home with my parents, in my tiny dorm room during university, or in any number of small apartments since. There are many small-space-friendly options from folding racks, to retractable lines to hangers on the shower curtain rod. It is very common in Europe to have drying cupboards near the hot water heater, or on a pulley system on a ceiling so it can be hoisted up out of the way.

During nice weather, a folding rack on a balcony works well, or even just by a sunny open window. In the winter, a radiator or heat vent is a good location to set up a line or a rack. I generally drape sheets over the back of two chairs and they dry pretty quickly, though YMMV depending on the humidity where you live. If I don't want to leave them out, I just fold sheets in half so they fit over my drying rack, which doesn't make them take much longer.

Hanging your clothes to dry is better for the planet, better for your pocketbook, and better for your clothes. You can make it work if you care to.

I always hang my shirts and pants to dry. Saves having to iron them. The trick is to pop them in a dryer just 'till they get hot, but are still quite wet, then take them out and hang them on a plastic hanger. You can smooth the wrinkles out as you're hanging them. No extra work involved - you were going to hang them eventually, anyhow - and they'll come out looking almost as good as they would if they were ironed. (Better than they'd look if I ironed them, because I'm terrible at it.)

Your clothes will last a LOT longer this way, as it's the dryer that really kills them, not (typically) the washer. Even here in relatively damp Santa Monica everything is dry within 24 hours.

i have used these for a year now and they work!!!
no itchy scents and my towels are fluffy and absorbent. no silicone in my lint trap so the dryer is more efficient
sherr

Am I the only one who is vaguely disappointed that P(2) passed over this item?

With respect to air drying in small spaces--if you have space for your own washer, I highly recommend one of the European-style washers instead of American style. They are front-loading, but the important part is that they spin much much faster (not all front-loaders you can buy here actually spin as fast). This means the clothes dry much faster, because they are a whole lot drier when they come out. (They also have drum-created wrinkles after a good hard spin!) I could air dry an entire load of heavy things like jeans overnight on a rack in my apartment when I had one like that; the equivalent load takes maybe twice as long now.

From an ecological perspective, they also use far less water and require less detergent per load.

An added bonus of air drying--those jeans that you love but which are really too tight? They are just a little looser when air dried!

I accidently ran into them at Bed Bath and bought them right away! My son and I have excema and cannot use the chemicals on our skin. We can only use the natural, botanically-based stuff on our skin...these are cheap as well!

Oh my gosh, the static these things leave behind! When I reach into the dryer to pull out clothes, it feels like I've stuck my finger in an outlet. I'm trying to be greener, and I was so excited about these, but I can't say they do a thing.

I'm saying nothing...

Why would you line dry your clothes? They are stiff, it takes forever, it takes up a lot of space, and they have terrible wrinkles in them. I have a basement and a backyard and I would not line dry my clothes. What a pain. These seem like a nice idea if they reduce drying time, but I would not stop using dryer sheets because I like the scent.