A few weeks ago, I signed up to review a box of Woolzies wool dryer balls, thinking they would probably come after a few weeks, once we were all settled into our new house (by the way, we moved!!!). To my surprise, they arrived just a couple of days after I sent Woolzies my address. As we were moving into a house without a functioning dryer and without the service to power my fancy (read: post-1950s) electric dryer, I ended up hanging all our clothes out to dry on our nifty inherited clothesline for a couple of weeks. Let me tell you, hanging clothes to dry is much more romantic in theory than in practice. Sure, I got to experience the lovely line-dried smell and awesome bleaching powers of sunshine, but I also got to have three loads of laundry rained on, and one load that got rained on and then dropped in the mud when the clothesline snapped. Also, no one ever told me that line dried clothes are as stiff as cardboard. And picking out tiny spiders who’d been living in my babies’ cloth diapers is something I’d like never to do again. I am so happy to have a dryer again! I probably lose hippie points for this, huh?
That said, I finally got a chance to test out my new dryer balls. Previously, after I gave up using dryer sheets, I had a pair of the plastic dryer balls that worked pretty well. They did kind of sketch me out, though, because they were clearly squishier after they got heated up, and I’m sure this means they were leaking some sort of plastic residue onto my clean, chemical-detergent-free clothes. (I make my own laundry detergent. I can post that recipe if anyone is interested. It’s great.) I lusted after the wool dryer balls my roommate had made herself but I just never got around to making my own, even though she said it had only taken her a few minutes. There are lots of great Pinterest tutorials if you want to go that route and you don’t have two small babies demanding your attention all day long.
Woolzies makes a couple of claims about their dryer balls: first, that they soften clothes without chemicals, and second, that they can reduce drying time. In my experience, I found that they absolutely do soften my clothes. The babies diapers’ are all super silky soft after they run through a cycle with the dryer balls. And I love that I have eliminated another chemical-laden, disposable product from my household supplies. I didn’t find that the drying time was reduced at all, which I was sort of surprised about since I went from using two medium-sized plastic balls to six large wool balls. I thought the larger number would at least have some effect on the drying time, but I also have really, really thick Cloth-Eez prefolds that might just require the full hour to dry completely, regardless of any fluffing they might receive from the balls. The Woolzies are also guaranteed to last 1,000 cycles, which gives them an advantage over the wool dryer balls you can roll yourself, because I’ve heard that those can come unrolled somewhat easily before they are fully felted. Woolzies are fully felted right out of the box, and they seem very durable. One last perk about the wool balls over the plastic ones is that they are so quiet. The plastic dryer balls sounded like I had tennis shoes banging around in the dryer, but the Woolzies don’t make any extra noise. Plus, the Woolzies are just really pretty to look at in their little basket in my laundry cupboard. (That’s important, right?)
Now, it’s your turn to try out a pack of Woolzies! Write a comment about your laundry routine, or why you’d like to give Woolzies a try, and I’ll randomly pick a winner to receive their own box of six XL Woolzie dryer balls! Good luck! I’ll select a winner on Sunday, September 22nd.
Stay tuned for more about our new home adventure.
Update: The winner is Jennifer! Congratulations, and I will get your Woolzies prize box mailed out to you shortly.
Butterfly Julia 
Ooh, I’m so glad you posted a link to your blog Julia! I love your hippie ways 🙂
These sound pretty sweet, I’ve never tried dryer balls but they sound like a good idea!
Darn, I should have waited longer to buy mine. They work great!
I would love to try some dryer balls to help cut down the drying time on my cloth diapers! I’ve heard they work wonders. After running 4 different wash cycles to wash the diapers, having to run two cycles to dry them is a pain! 🙂
I am very allergic to most things that touch my skin, so these sound like an answer to prayer! I would love to try them!
Thanks for the review. My laundry routine consists of warm wash and drying on med heat (regular clothes)! For cloth diapers I use Rockin Green soap, but first do a cold rinse (no detergent) and a hot wash with 1T Rockin Green, followed by another rinse. Then hang to dry!
Do your diapers get super crunchy when you hang them to dry? I loved how white mine got in the sun, but they just felt so much rougher. Maybe I’ll compromise and hang them out in the sun once a month or so to freshen them up. Or is there a trick to softer line-drying…? Good luck!
Would love to try out Woolzies. First babe due in November and planning to cloth diaper – think these would be a great help! Would love to hear what diapers you’re using and what you’ve thought of them so far.
Yay! I love cloth diapering, I am sure you will, too. I am using prefolds and snap covers. I think this was the cheapest option I found in my research, because during the average diaper change you change just the prefold and you can reuse the snap cover until it gets soaked or poo on it. (I usually only go through 2-3 covers per day, per baby, but around 10-12 prefolds per baby.) I love the Alva Baby brand of snap covers — they are SO inexpensive, plus they ship for free no matter how many you buy! And they seem to be holding up really well even though I don’t treat them as gently as I should. They have newborn sized, or one-size-fits-all size. We used the newborn size for probably 2 months and then moved up to the one size, which will hopefully last us until potty training! My favorite brand of the prefolds is Green Mountain Diapers’ Cloth Eez, but I did buy them secondhand because they’re a little more pricey. Initially we used Snappis to fasten the prefolds for a more secure fit, but these days I just fold them in thirds and place them in the snap cover before snapping it closed and we very rarely have any sort of leaking. Like, maybe once a week, and even less for poo. I’ve forgone the Snappis not because I didn’t love them, but because I don’t want to keep buying bigger sizes of the prefolds when the ones I have are still in such great shape! We are also doing a modified, part-time version of Elimination Communication, but I guess that’s more for another day 😉 Good luck with everything!
i consider our laundry routine to be a problem. We live in a NYC apt without washers, so we tend to let it pile up, and then haul big bags every 2 weeks or so to the laundromat. Sometimes we do big loads, and to save money we wash sheets in with other things. I’d like woolzies to help speed up the process and hopefully spend less time digging through the sheets for missing socks and t-shirts.
Oh, I sure don’t miss laundromats. I’m pretty sure I went a whole semester of college and only visited mine half a dozen times (SO gross, I know, ewww, but hauling dirty laundry around sucks!) Good luck!
I am cloth diapering my youngest and have heard great things about wool balls. I’d love how they would cut drying time (and therefore energy costs!)
I love natural products & that is the main reason I want to try these.
I usually line dry during the summer, so I think these dryer balls would be great during the winter when I have to use the dryer. I like the fact that they cut down on dry time.
We wash on cold (unless we’re washing diapers) with homemade detergent and then line dry if the weather allows. Anything to save money! I’d love to try Woolzies for those times when I have to use the dryer (like all winter).
I have a really old dryer and need to increase drying time – would be great to win! thanks for the chance.
I have been using the dryer bars, but these sound so much better! Natural and they make drying time less ( or so I’ve heard) love that!
I would love to save time, energy and money by just tossing these in the dryer! How easy is that. I also really need to start doing a load a day so I can keep on top of all of the laundry my family generates. Thanks for the informative review and giveaway!
Depending on if doing regular clothes or diapers. ‘Y routines are very time consuming. Air drying is definitely time consuming and with a 9 month old and a 5 yr old I homeschool, it’s tough. Would live to try these and see if the helps makes thugs just get a little easier
I’d love to lower the amount of chemicals that my children are exposed to every single day by using wool dryer balls in place of dryer sheets.
Saw these on Pinterest yesterday and read your email .about them this am…. Serendipity! Going to check out the Woolzie website right now. I am with you about eliminating as many chemicals as possible. By the way if your washer is pre-owned you might consider running the washing machine, with no clothes or laundry, with several cups of plain white vinegar on the hottest water setting. This process assists in cleaning out the washing machine as it might have laundry detergent build up. Lift the lid a few minutes into the cycle and check for suds. If suds appear, repeat the process once more. Also adding a cup of white vinegar to the final rinse cycle is often helpful for softening line-dried clothes.
I am expecting my first child and I would love to add woolzies to my laundry routine when we have all the extra loads. I also really want to lower the amount of chemicals that my family is exposed to and this seems like a good place to try to do that.
I would love to try these. I have allergies that leave me sensitive to many scents… and I live with a man ADDICTED to fabric softener. Maybe these could resolve some of that issue.
My laundry practices consist of my trying to keep up with my family of 5’s clothing and teaching my older two kids how to clean their own clothes. We end up calling our massive piles of laundry Clotherdon Hill! It comes from a story in the Hindu culture of a hill named Govardhan that was large and cared for it’s residence by providing grazing for livestock, fresh water, and protection from natural disasters. The hill gets cursed to become smaller and smaller. So we try to curse our giant hill of clothing daily, hence the nick name. I’d love to be able to show my boys that you don’t have to use chemicals to get your clothing soft and that’s why I want to tryout Woolzie dryer balls. Thanks!