Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Are Dryer Sheets Necessary?

A month or so ago, I ran out of dryer sheets. Around here, if I skip a couple days of laundry, I am behind for a week. So, I thought, "Whatever, I will just go without. What difference does it make anyway?"

Well, I have gone without for a month or longer. While Chris was home alone while the kids and I were at the lake, Chris actually (shocker) did a load of laundry! When he went to dry, he was shocked to find we did not have any dryer sheets.

Today I was at Target and was planning on picking up some dryer sheets. The smallest, tiniest box was like $4 or something. Seriously, for a piece of smelly paper? I wondered, how necessary are they anyway. So, I did not buy any and decided to Google..."Are dryer sheets necessary"

This is what I uncovered.

No. Dryer sheets contain a lot of chemicals just to prevent static. Fabric Softener is the not necessary either. It is full of chemicals and makes your clothes smell good, but at what cost exactly? Soap, clearly, is totally necessary. I splurge in this department and buy Tide Free. I may try Target's brand free now just to try it. But Tide works for us. I did read, which I already knew, that one does not have to use as much soap as the manufacturer recommends to get clothes clean.

I am not missing the dryer sheets at all at this point. With that said, it is summer. Things get dryer in the winter, so perhaps I will return to buying them then. For now...I learned that I have been wasting money and trees for a while now. Considering Addi and I require Free detergent and Dove soap, dryer sheets are like the worst things I could have been using anyway (who knew). So, I will now be saving just a few bucks by skipping the whole process. Now...if I could line dry my clothes (oh...clothes line dried smell amazing!) I would be in great shape. PS I have not used fabric softener in years!

Links on the articles I read...very interesting:
Not necessary
What are they for then? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100325215317AAav5QZ
Not Necessary article 2

I know I know...big nerd girl here. But, while I investigated this, Addi and Asher fell asleep at nap!

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