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I can see how that would make your clothes smell good, but how would it help prevent static and make your clothes feel softer?

I was wondering the same thing, how does this soften your clothes? Also, lavender is awfully expensive and from my experience loses it's fragrance quite quickly. it seems like you would have to be buying boatloads of it if you were going to be throwing it in a dryer.

White vinegar in your downy ball works awesome. Also, if you use home-made laundry soap (the kind with laundry soap, washing soda and borax) its way cheaper and a lot gentler on your clothes and much less static than harsh detergents in conventional laundry soaps cause.

I agree with dierdre -- use vinegar. I scrounged an abandoned Downy ball from my apartment building's laundry room and use about a gallon of white vinegar a year (I don't use it for everything, I'm only really interested in reducing the amount of clingy pet hairs, not "softening" anything (why??). Vinegar's cheap, easy, and works well. (I make my own laundry soap, too, as dierdre suggests.)

I can't see how the lavender would do anything but make your laundry smell like lavender, until the smell fades and then it's just (hopefully) compost.

I'm not interested in soften anything just reducing static cling. I throw in a couple of (washed) tennis balls in my dryer with the wet clothes and it works great. Just like the Nellie Dryer balls but at zero cost. I get tennis balls when I got to dog events (my rescue dog isn't fond of tennis balls.)

As far as softening goes - fabric softener merely removes the residue/soap/chemicals left by harsh detergents...I switched to natural detergents a few years ago and haven't had to use softener since...my guess is that it's because there is less crud left on the clothes after a wash.

did you know commercial dryer sheets have beef fat in them?

regular dryer sheets leave a film on your clothing and shorten it's life anyway...they're just unnecessary...but i've never understood why you would want your clothes to feel softer, so maybe i'm missing something...