The Magic of Dryer Sheets
When I was growing up, all of our laundry was washed in the machine and hung up outside to dry. After growing up and living in Alaska, trust me when I say I know what "freeze drying" really means in the laundry lingo. There is nothing like bringing in your completely stiff thermal underwear and standing them near a heat vent to thaw. Except perhaps, whacking your little brother with said pair of frozen thermal underwear, but that's another story.
As many of you know, hanging your laundry out to dry--in warm or freezing weather--leaves it feeling a little stiff and scratchy. As a child, I never knew anything other than stiff-and-scratchy feeling laundry. Even when we moved back to the continental United States, we washed our clothes inside and hung them outside to dry.
When I finally moved out on my own, I was more than capable of doing my own laundry; however, I was completely mesmerized by the magical machine known as the dryer. Holy Moly Roly Poly, nothing could top the technological genius of the machine I learned to love in just thirty minutes.
The first time I pulled my jeans out of the magnificently warm and wondrous dryer, I nearly cried. My jeans had been washed and dried and it took only a little over an hour! And then, when I felt how soft they were, well--I cried. For my first month in college, I did everybody's laundry. I really was thrilled with the advent of the dryer in my life. I didn't think anything could be better than the dryer, until one day a wise senior showed me the miracle of fabric-softening dryer sheets.
Whoa.
If you think I am insane because I fell in love with the dryer, you should have seen me when I learned about the great and omnipotent dryer sheet. I was certifiable. This small piece of webbed, fibrous stuff that smelled like cleanliness was absolutely the best thing since Swiss cheese! The entire third floor of the Leymen Dorm was also grateful for the dryer sheet; it got their laundry washed for an entire semester--by me!
You'll be happy to know that I've grown up since those wonderfully naïive days of college. Living as a survivalist as I did during my childhood, things like dryers, grocery stores and various other technological wonders still fascinate me, but I no longer cry when my jeans come out of the dryer, and I seriously got over doing everybody's laundry.
One thing I haven't gotten over, though, is the great and wondrous dryer sheet. Over the years, I did fall in love with the scent of clothes fresh from the dryer. Ninety percent of that love was based on the incredible smell of the dryer sheets I've used. I love that scent. To this day, if I smell the scent of fabric-softening dryer sheets, I smile. It is because of their scent that I started using dryer sheets in various other arenas, and I thought I'd share some of the little tricks and tips I've learned about the great and omnipotent dryer sheet.
One of the first things I did with a dryer sheet that was not laundry-related was to wipe down the window sill of the dorm's laundry room. It was covered in a thick layer of dryer-lint dust, and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I am a clean freak. While doing laundry that day, I noticed the dust yet again and could not take it anymore. Since I had no dusting rag or polish with me, I quickly took a dryer sheet and intended to wipe the window ledge off and to make a mental note to bring a rag and some furniture polish on my next trip.
I did wipe down that ledge with the dryer sheet, but then I forgot about bringing the polishing gear the next week when I did laundry. Of course, once I sat down, I recalled what I forgot and I looked to the ledge with dread. BUT, lo and behold, barely any dust had accumulated in a week's time! At first I doubted that was the dryer sheet's handiwork, but then I began experimenting and I soon started dusting other window ledges within the building--with a dryer sheet.
Sure enough, my tentative experiment proved to be an excellent one. Since that time, I use dryer sheets to wipe all my window blinds, window sills, curtain rods, shower curtain rods, and any other extremely dusty but not daily polished items. Not only did the fresh scent of the dryer sheet linger for a time, making my home smell wonderful, but the dust did not collect nearly as fast.
My second trick with the dryer sheet was to place many of them in the sleeves of my winter parka. Whenever I packed it away after the summer, every pocket, the hood and both sleeves were filled with dryer sheets. Come wintertime when I pulled the parka out and wore it, it smelled freshly-dried rather than as though it had been stored away in an old attic somewhere.
Now I place dryer sheets in nearly every storage tote I have. Unless the contents get wet, rarely if ever do I smell the foul scent of dust, or worse, mildew on anything after it's been stored for a long time. I am careful not to place dryer sheets on photos or anything made of paper. Dryer sheets are chemically treated, so you must always check that the sheet will not interact with whatever it is resting against, including your own skin. There are chemical-free dryer sheets that can be purchased now for those with allergies, but for those who suffer no ill effects from dryer sheets, any brand seems to do the trick.
Those are pretty standard tricks to try with dryer sheets, and there are numerous others you can try. Do you have seat covers, either on your furniture or in your car? Slip a dryer sheet between the cover and the seat and you have an instant air freshener. Those infamously-stuffed-full, baby bags that parents carry around? Slide a dryer sheet into the bottom of the bag, or even into a side pocket to keep it smelling fresh. Your backpacks, carrying totes, and even laptop cases can all have a dryer sheet slipped somewhere inside for that added touch of freshness.
Are you heading out for an evening ride in your vehicle but hate the bugs that get squished on your windshield and headlights? Dryer sheets! Yeppers, dryer sheets will aid you in removing those stuck-on pests, and I guess if you want to smell your windshield afterwards, you can do that too!
And now for my very favorite trick. Once, while camping with friends in a very posh camping resort, we were doing laundry at the camp's laundromat. I had been walking back and forth and I sat down outside in a chair with a box of dryer sheets in my lap. The mosquitoes were ferocious that evening. Nobody was safe and no amount of bug spray seemed to work.
At one point, someone remarked that I had not been bitten once on either of my arms. Looking down, I saw I had not been bitten. For the life of me I did not know why. As we sat there trying to guess what the magic repellent was, I moved that box of dryer sheets. Within minutes the hungry mosquitoes were attacking me. That’s when two plus two began to equal four.
I kid you not; my four friends and I spent a week in Mosquitoville and didn't get bitten once more. Of course, we had dryer sheets rubbed all over our bodies, hanging out of our pockets, lining our shoes, stuffed inside ball caps and placed anywhere you could place a dryer sheet--but I'll be damned if those dryer sheets didn't repel the mosquitoes!
Every spring and summer season when the mosquitoes begin to bite, you'll see this insane, dryer-loving, dryer-sheet-worshipping woman outside with dryer sheets somewhere nearby. And once I left the dryer sheet box in my garage, where the mice always played, and guess what? Rodents hate dryer sheets! If you have a cat, dryer sheets are one of the best cat-hair-picker-uppers I have ever used! Do you like to sew? Try placing a dryer sheet behind the fabric you are working on, thread the needle through not only the fabric but the dryer sheet too and voila--your thread doesn't knot/tangle as easily.
Dryer sheets are my friend and over the years I've found that they do so much more than mystify a sixteen-year-old emancipated college student in a dorm laundry room.
Do I love dryer sheets, oh yes! Can I Gush about them for almost three pages? Definitely!