Unsurprisingly, vinegar is a great replacement for dryer sheets! Either add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the wash cycle for softer clothes or dampen a washcloth with vinegar and throw that into the dryer. White or apple cider vinegar works.
If you're out of dryer sheets, use vinegar on a washcloth instead. Yes, it works. No, your clothes won't smell like salad, we promise. Just lightly dampen a wash cloth with apple cider vinegar and throw it in the dryer with your clothes.
Pour in 3 parts hair conditioner to 1 part vinegar into the jar. Place your cloth (cut up into dryer sheet sizes) into the jar and shake thoroughly. Wring cloth out, and hang for drying. Once they are dried, the sheets are ready to go into your dryer and can be re-used!
Wool Dryer Balls: Wool dryer balls can be used as an alternative to dryer sheets. The wool balls absorb moisture from the wet clothing in the dryer. In turn, the wool balls provide a more humid environment in the dryer and reduce static electricity. Bonus—wool balls also reduce drying time and fluff clothes.
Vinegar and Hair Conditioner
This recipe makes a scented DIY dryer sheet. To use it, shake together 3 parts of hair conditioner with 1 part of white vinegar in the container. Add the fabric squares and shake again to saturate them. Then remove the squares from the mixture, wring them out, and let them air dry.
Air Vents and Fans
To freshen indoor air, place a dryer sheet inside your cold air return vent or allow air from a box fan to flow through a dryer sheet.
Using white vinegar in the dryer is another great trick for eliminating static. Simply spray a clean washcloth, sock, pre-cut piece of cloth or any other garment with vinegar. This item is then tossed into the dryer with everything else.
Use Aluminum Foil: This is a classic trick that really works. Simply tear off a sheet of aluminum foil, ball it up and toss it into the dryer with your clothes. Voila! No more static.
Using white vinegar in the dryer is another great trick for eliminating static. You can simply spray a clean washcloth, sock, pre-cut piece of cloth, or any other garment with vinegar. You then toss this item into the dryer with everything else.
White vinegar also has natural whitening capabilities and is an effective fabric softener. Try adding half a cup at the beginning of the wash cycle. Alternatively, you can soak the sheets and pillowcases in vinegar and warm water prior to placing them in your washing machine.
You can rest assured that using white vinegar in laundry is much safer, just as easy, and much cheaper than any store bought fabric softener or dryer sheets.
Mold and Mildew Removal: Distilled white vinegar is powerful for removing mold or mildew from fabrics. Odor Removal: Using vinegar in laundry is also excellent at removing product buildup that can trap odor-causing bacteria, causing freshly laundered items to come out of the wash, smelling less than clean.
For static-free loads of laundry, two or three inch-thick balls of aluminum foil should do the trick. Rip off a few sheets of foil, crumple them up tightly and toss them in your dryer. Your clothes will come out sans static, all due to an exchange of electrons. Here's how it works.
Make your own dryer sheets.
Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil, such as lavender, to a coffee filter to make an economical dryer sheet. Your clothes will smell great, and your homemade dryer sheets will even reduce static.
Instead, try aluminum foil. Roll up a sheet of aluminum foil into a ball and throw it in the dryer. This helps to reduce static electricity and keep clothes crisp. Plus, it will not leave any grime on your clothing, and it can be reused for 1-2 months, which can save a lot of money on your laundry!
Water molecules reduce static electricity build-up, not just in your hair but also in your home. Dry air encourages more static electricity, so adding moisture to the air will solve that problem. Try using a small humidifier in the area of your home that tends to feel dry.
Add Vinegar to Washer Rinse Cycle
Simply add ½ cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener compartment of your washer to reduce static in the dryer. This natural fabric softener relaxes clothing fibers so they're less likely to cling together during tumbling. Less cling means less exchange of electrons and less static.
Acetic acid makes vinegar an excellent tool for pest control, repelling some of the most common backyard nuisances and even killing weaker insects. It's most effective against ants, spiders, and mosquitos. You can keep spiders from entering your home by spraying vinegar around your property's perimeter and entryways.
Baking soda reduces static electricity by acting as a barrier between negative and positive charges. It can eliminate static electricity in carpets, upholstery and other fibers when mixed with water and sprayed directly.
The reason for this? Most dryer sheets contain the ingredient linalool, which can be found in plants like lavender, basil, and coriander, all of which naturally repel common garden pests. Similar studies found that this ingredient is also useful for repelling bugs like mites, weevils, beetles, and German cockroaches.
Can You Dry Clothes Without A Dryer Sheet? In a nutshell, yes! You absolutely don't need to use dryer sheets when you dry your clothes. Fortunately, if you decide to forgo dryer sheets, that doesn't mean you have to live with static cling and stiff clothes.
Adding a dry towel to wet clothes in the dryer can help to absorb excess moisture and speed up the drying time. This is because the dry towel acts as a wick, pulling moisture out of the wet clothes and into the dry towel. Furthermore, adding a dry towel can also help to fluff up and soften clothes!