Frugal Friday Recipe-Make your own dryer sheets
Frugal Friday Recipe: Making your own dryer sheets
Making your own dryer sheets is easy, great for the environment and uses so few ingredients.
Here are my top reasons to make your own dryer sheets 
1-easy, easy, easy -About 5 minutes of “prep” for a years worth of dryer sheets
2- Healthy! Avoid many of the potential dangers that fabric softeners could pose for your family
3-very economical. Savings of .0677/load if you do five loads a week that is a savings of $17.60/year! (see geeky calculations at the bottom of the post
4-You can create your favorite scents
Step 1: Gather your ingredients:
White distilled vinegar (1-2 cups)
Essentail Oil (your favorite scent) 6-12 drops
spray bottle and old rag
Step 2: Mix 1-2 cups of vinegar with 6-12 drops of oil (put in the amount of oil for desired “scent”). Put on lid and mix
Step 3: Spray a rag 5-10 times with mixture and throw in dryer
Step 4: Repeat. You can use 4-8 times before you need to re-apply. 1-2x/month wash rag to remove build up!
FAQ
What does the vinegar do?
Vinegar is a natural fabric softener. You can use it in your washer as well (baking soda too) but I find that just using my homemade dryer sheets gets clothes soft enough.
Do your dryer sheets reduce static ?
The number one cause of static is over drying I do find that this reduces static. Another trick is to attach a safety pin to the edge of your home-made dryer sheets. This eliminates static (not sure why should ask my husband, the chemist
Do your clothes smell like vinegar?
Nope they smell like lavender, or vanilla depending on the scent I am using
GEEKY CALCULATIONS:
16 oz white vinegar $1.32
-price / cup = .52 centse
-price / batch = .52 cents
Essential Oil (5ml)= $6
-price / drop (approx) =.02 cents
-price / batch =.12 cents
Spray bottle: $.50 cents at the dollar store
Number of loads of laundry/ spray bottle (what I can get) 488
Total cost for 1 batch: $ .64 cents (or $1.14 if you have to buy the spray bottle)
price/ load of laundry = .0013 cents (that is alot less the 1 penny / load)
The average of cost / dryer sheet = .069 cents
Savings of .0677/load if you do five loads a week that is a savings of $17.60/year!
Love it! I am so excited! I’ll let you know how it goes. Thank you for this link!
I read one time that essential oils are highly flammable. do you know of any risk of spraying them like this and then tossing them in the dryer? does it not matter since they are mixed with vinegar?!
I have never had any problem as you are using 1-2 drops essential oil to a whole lot of vinegar and then you are diluting it even more in the sponge, but it is something I guess you could research more if you are nervous. I think this would be a “use your best judgement” scenerio unless any of you dear readers can point me to a reputable site that gives more information on possible dangers
-amie
Amie, did you know that essential oils are highly flammable?
I have had several of you ask about essential oil usage in the dryer. Essential oils are very flammable and you should use caution. However they are flammable around an open flame, not necessarily merely a heat source (this is why use in humidifiers etc is ok). Also you are discussing 1-2 drops of your oil diluted in several cups of vinegar so the concentration is very low. Also the vinegar is not flammable and when mixed with the oil dilutes the flammability considerably. Don’t take my word for it though! Here are some sites that say it is safe to use in the dryer
I have had no problems at all with mine but if you are at all nervous of course you can skip adding the essential oil and just add it to your wash cycle instead 
Articles on the safety of essential oil the dryer and tips against flammability:
http://www.naha.org/faq_safety.htm
http://www.therealessentials.com/practical.html
http://www.whatisaromatherapy.info/aromatherapy/aromatherapy-information-on-how-to-use-essential-oils-5.html
They are considered safe enough to “sell” as dryer sheets (for what that is worth): http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=21280&k=ZZ50866
http://www.consumer.org.hk/website/ws_en/consumer_alerts/recalls_and_alerts/2000101001.html -outlines safety use guidelines for storing your oils-
Have you ever used just the vinegar without the oil? My girls are sensitive and need ’scent free’ products.
I’m worried my clothes will smell like vinegar.
I have Jen and it works great! There is no scent of the vinegar on the clothes whatsoever