It all started with a bottle of Jennifer Lopez Still perfume in college. Every time I would sports it on, I would break out in a rash. Meh. It’s a fluke, I thought. But no, every time.

Now, a number of years later, my daughter and I are both very sensitive to fragrance, which is in everything. I actually carry castile soap in my bag for my daughter and I to use while out and about. In regards to laundry though, dryer sheets are basically a condensed chemical bomb you are putting on your clothes, and then wearing on the largest organ of your body, your skin.

My goal is to eliminate products with fragrance from our lives, and getting away from dryer sheets has been a huge help to our skin issues.

What the heck are these wool dryer balls? 

Wool dryer balls are simply just firm balls of wool. The brand that I purchase are handmade from New Zealand sheep wool. You use them in your dryer, in place of dryer sheets, to soften clothes, reduce static & wrinkles, and bonus, they cut down drying time. You can even add a couple drops of essential oil on each dryer ball to add a non-agreessive, non-chemically scent.

Is it bad for the dryer?

I haven’t found any evidence that dryer balls damage the dryer in any way. We have been using them for about 8 months, and no issues with our dryer. I looked through our dryer manual and didn’t find anything saying not to use them. I have friends who have used them for years and haven’t had any issues. That’s not to say there isn’t someone somewhere who has had an issue, but thus far, I haven’t discovered anything negative.

Are they loud? 

Yes, it takes a little bit to get used to the plunking sound of the dryer balls bouncing around the dryer. Now, I don’t even notice it, plus we have a door on our laundry room and usually just close it to keep the sound down.

Cost savings?

I think it’s about the same. They dryer balls cost more upfront, but then I’m only purchasing some essential oil every few months.The dryer balls are good for 1,000 loads, according to the company I purchased mine from. I’ve been using them for about 8 months now, and they are still going strong.

If getting away from toxic ingredients is something you are interested in doing, start with one product. I have slowly been doing this over the past 10 years, and I still have work to do to keep moving towards living a cleaner, more eco-friendly lifestyle.

Make sure you are reading ingredient labels, and if you don’t know what an ingredient is, look it up. Check out the company, and who owns it. Many of the smaller companies are now selling out to larger companies, and those larger companies are not upholding what the smaller company once stood for.

Another reason to read the ingredients – there are companies and MLM’s out there who are greenwashing. Greenwashing is when a company says things like “natural” and claim “no xyz” on the label, or use a beautiful field in their marketing materials, but once you read the label you find out that they are just as toxic, via other horrible ingredients. Also remember that companies can hide toxic ingredients by listing fragrance on their ingredients label. Fragrance, they claim, is proprietary, so they do not have to disclose what the fragrance breakdown contains.

We are definitely lied to about what’s in the products we use. It is so hard to change, and pull some of these products out of our lives. Be gentle with yourself. Do research. Change one thing at a time. If this is important to you, you can get there.

This post is not sponsored. I just love these products and I use them in my daily life. If you are looking to purchase these items, please consider purchasing through my amazon links below. I do receive amazon credits when you purchase through my links.Thanks!