Introduction
There are numerous laundry hacks that can help you reduce the laundry bill. They can also help you extend the life of the laundry machines. If your dryer is damaged, you can even search for “dryer repair near me” and hire professionals to fix it. However, do you know about dryer hacks that can save your clothes? Let’s check them out.
The Hacks
- Tennis balls – Depending on the size of the load, you can throw in a few clean and unused tennis balls in the dryer. Tennis balls act like agitators. They are soft, flexible, and bouncy. That means when the dryer drum rotates, the tennis ball bounces around and fluffs up your clothes, fabrics, and other items. While the effects aren’t very prominent on regular clothes, tennis balls work like magic for warm clothes. For instance, if you have puffy jackets, comforters, and stuffed animals, tennis balls can return them to their puffy state.
- Aluminum sheets – Traditional dryer sheets are pieces of fabric coated with a thin film of chemicals. When clothes are heated up inside the dryer and rub against each other they create static. This can increase wrinkles and also reduce the lifespan of your clothes. When you use dryer sheets with the load, the chemical film on those sheets reduces wrinkles and static. They can also make your clothes smell great.
However, there are quite a few drawbacks that come with traditional dryer sheets. The chemical residue left by them on your clothes can be very toxic. They aren’t good for your clothes or the local water supply either. Instead, you can use aluminum sheets. Get to the kitchen and bring out the aluminum roll for packing leftovers. Next, crumple that sheet into a ball. Throw the aluminum ball with the dryer load. This helps to reduce static drastically without the use of any harmful chemicals.
Aluminum sheets can also save you a lot of money. While a pack of dryer sheets may cost a few dollars, you will run out within a month. On the other hand, aluminum dryer sheets are reusable. You can turn one into a ball and use them for several months. This saves you a lot of money in the long run.
- Use half the dryer sheet – If the harmful effects of dryer sheets don’t bother you and you find them too convenient you may stick to these products irrespective of the number of articles you read about them. In that case, it’s best to go for the next best option. Instead of using an entire dryer sheet, cut them in half and extend their use.
As long as you don’t overload the dryer, half a dryer sheet is as good as a full-sized dryer sheet. They do a similar job while saving you money. Moreover, this way you get fewer chemical residues on your clothes. This protects your health and makes those clothes last longer.
- Dry towel – Your dryer is a complex machine. However, it’s not difficult to figure out how it works. When you put wet clothes inside the dryer, moisture comes out of them as they are spun at high temperatures inside the dryer drum. If the moisture level is too high, drying takes a long time since the air gets saturated.
You can quicken the drying process by simply throwing in a dry towel with your dryer load. A towel is designed to absorb as much moisture as possible. When your clothes leave moisture, some of it is absorbed by the towel and that keeps the overall moisture levels inside the dryer low. This helps to quicken the dryer time and extract moisture from the entire load quickly. When drying time is reduced, your clothes spend less time being agitated at high temperatures and go through less wear and tear.
- Use a salad spinner – There are certain items you need to keep out of the dryer. This includes delicates, spandex, and other such materials with plastic and elastane material integrated into the fabric. At high temperatures, these fabrics shrink down and may be completely ruined. It’s best to wash these fabrics by hand and then line dry them.
However, when you’re in a hurry that’s less than ideal. Instead, you can use a salad spinner to dry them. Most of the moisture inside the dryer can already be wrung out with a good old twist of the hands. You can get rid of the rest by putting those items inside a salad dryer and spinning them at high speeds. The centrifugal force does a great job of getting rid of the residual moisture. At least, it’s much better and quicker than hanging your clothes.
- Make a list of forbidden fabrics – While spandex and delicates can be dried in the salad spinner, other larger fabrics can’t. However, they also suffer from the same flaw. If you put them in the dryer, they would be ruined. It’s either the shape or the texture that falls victim to the dryer heat. To make sure that you don’t put those fabrics inside the dryer, make a list and stick it on the dryer window. Here are a few fabrics that should never go inside the dryer:
- Lace
- Suede
- Bathing suits
- Chiffon
- Tights
- Rayon
- Spandex
- Silk
- Velvet
- Use scented oils – As mentioned above, dryer sheets remove wrinkles, and some even add pleasant fragrance. While aluminum sheets can get rid of the static and wrinkles, they don’t make your clothes smell great. To achieve that without the use of harmful chemicals, you need to add scented oil to the load. Mix in a few drops in a bowl of water and sprinkle it on the dryer load.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned hacks can save your clothes in the dryer and can also save you money in numerous ways. Use them the next time you go into the laundry room. If your dryer is damaged or needs to be serviced, you can search for “dryer repair near me” and hire professionals for the job.
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