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[-] cm0002@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Awfullydull and I are now best friends, I've been saying the same about dryer sheets for YEARS now

FUCK DRYER SHEETS pointless ass waste of money

[-] alpacapants@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

My MIL swears that dryer sheets are good for cleaning baseboards. You take one and rub it on a baseboard and some how dust just... avoids those annoying little nooks and crannies. I haven't had to clean them again in literal years, but thats the only good use I've heard for dryer sheets. It's a hack on a tiny task I never take time to care about really, not sure if that in anyway justifies the existence of dryer sheets, but there you go.

[-] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 8 points 3 months ago

What's a dryer sheet? I don't think I've heard of it before.

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

Literally just a thin disposable sheet of fabric impregnated with fabric softener that you throw in the dryer with your clothes. The idea is that it's supposed to make your clothes feel softer, smell better, and reduce static electricity. Waste of money and material, just throw a damn tennis ball in there

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[-] Manalith@midwest.social 11 points 3 months ago

This feels like info that should be in the new Anarchist Cookbook.

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[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

How do I make my own fabric softener tho? One of the things it does is condition the fabric like you condition your hair, to keep its strength and retain its shape. Like if your shirt's neck has become a little stretched out, wash it with some fabric softener and it usually fixes that shit.

I'd DIY my own if I could. I'll probably start using this detergent recipe, too.

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 12 points 3 months ago

usually they advise vinegar.

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[-] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

where the fuck are these people buying detergent that is 80x the ingredients they listed? isn't bar soap also industry made?

also I'm sorry maybe there's legit uses for it but whenever I hear someone say essential oil I assume they're knee deep in grlftland and have fucking crystals and shit all around the house.

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[-] pseudo@jlai.lu 9 points 3 months ago

Fabric softener is sometime useful for very hard water. You don't have to buy it, though. You can use white vinegar to soften the water to actually soften the fabric mix in a big container one part white vinegar to one part sodium bicarbonate. Wait for it to stop foaming. Add four drops of essential oils per liter of mixture. Stir. Allow to rest a few hour before using. You can make big quantity ahead of time as long as your container is big enough for the big foam of the big batch.

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[-] nitefox@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

This thread is so wild I swear. A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?). A bar of soap cost one buck, then you have to factor in the time to prepare the softener, the other ingredients and whatnot.

Where is the saving?

[-] Matt3999@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

The saving is due to not using a useless softener - the point of this this thread

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[-] rational_lib@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

I've not used fabric softener or any other substitute for whatever it does in like 10 years. Can't tell what problem I'm supposed to be having that it supposedly solves.

I actually stopped using it because the dryers at my crappy old laundromat tended to overheat and it would occasionally melt the fabric softener sheets and it smelled utterly horrible and left burnt on patches of fabric softener on my clothes. So I figured it was no longer worth the cost, and then I noticed I couldn't even tell what the benefit was. It was just a thing my mom told me to do and I never questioned it.

[-] auginator@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Haven’t used it for years

[-] computerscientistII@lemm.ee 9 points 3 months ago

Fabric softener is great. Mix a bit with water and use it to clean your shower glass doors/walls. It removes limescale like a charm thanks to the anionic surfactants that are in there. And the Aldi store brand costs hardly anything.

[-] Emmie@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

As you know I am disgustingly wealthy being top 50 richest abigender as seen in shlorbes magazine but I am still going to use this recipe

This is how you save for the superyacht

[-] arc@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

It's worth wondering how much fabric softener would cost someone over their adult lifetime as an exercise. Let's say 50 years of adulthood, and 12 bottles a year costing $10 each. That's six grand. For something that serves no functional purpose, makes towels less effective and has an environmental impact.

So yes it's a scam. If someone really needs to use fabric softener, at least buy a cheaper supermarket brand and use it sparingly.

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[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 8 points 3 months ago

Fabric softener kills elastic and lots of clothes (including even jeans) have elastic in them. Yeah, you can do separate washes, but ain’t nobody got time for that.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 9 points 3 months ago

Not heard of that one. The main one I know is it makes towels less absorbent, my partner's mum uses it and it's like trying to soak up water with a plastic bag.

[-] mycelium_underground@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Yeah when you coat all the fibers of the towel with slightly modified rendered animal fat, then they won't absorb water. The long hydrophobic tail on the tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride molocule really doesn't want to mix with water. It's almost completely insoluble in polar solvents like water.

Why make things soft by addressing the initial problem(residues and hard water salts in deposited in the fibers when the clothes dry) when you can just coat the whole thing in fat and call it "clean" and "soft"

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[-] Flamekebab@piefed.social 8 points 3 months ago
[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 months ago

Welsh person: no dryer?

(For our foreign friends - it rains eight days a week here...)

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[-] Elkot@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

What's a dryer sheet, I'm nearly 40 and I've never heard of that

[-] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

It's a sheet of chemicals that makes your clothes smell better.

Downside is it adds a sort of...coating to clothing which for some types of clothing, like wicking sports apparel, makes them less effective.

They're absolutely useless and when I learned that I stopped using them and there was literally no negative change in my post-laundry output.

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 11 points 3 months ago

That makes me think of crockpot liners, which are apperently a thing

Like, you cook your food, in the plastic. The most pointless thing I've seen.

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[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

You don't need dryer sheets if you're hang drying your clothes, which reduces wear on the clothes and uses less energy, along with requiring one less appliance, unless you have a combo washer/dryer.

I started hang drying my clothes maybe 4 years ago and I'm definitely not going back

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