Green Your Summer With Woolzies Dryer Balls {Review} CLOSED

Welcome to the Green Your Summer Event!  The Blogging Mamas Network has come together with like-minded bloggers to make sure your grass isn't all that is green this Summer!

Each blogger in the Event is bringing readers a great green prize to win.  You have until June 13th to enter, so be sure to hop around to them all and find great eco-friendly products to help you go green! 
While you're hopping, be sure to enter the TWO Grand Prizes for to Green Your Summer for Mom and Baby!  You'll find prizes including a Lunette Menstrual Cup, Amber Necklace and Bracelet Set, a Merino Wool Sleepsack, re-usable Snack Pouches, and earth-friendly Vinyl Wall Decals from Walls Need Love! 

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For my giveaway here at A Modern Day Fairy Tale, I was sent a box of Woolzies Dryer Balls to review, and one lucky reader will also be winning a box of their very own! If you follow a lot of green living/cloth diapering blogs, you've likely seen a lot about Woolzies Dryer Balls around the blog world. I know I personally had and was dying to try them myself, so I was beyond thrilled when Woolzies agreed to this review/giveaway!

So what are Woolzies? What's so great about them? Simply put, they are wool balls that you toss in your dryer to replace liquid softener or dryer sheets. They contain none of the harsh chemicals that typical fabric softeners contain, making them not only better for the environment but for us too, not causing allergic reactions as many experience with typical softeners. If you already use dryer balls made of plastic, rubber, etc...these can also release harsh chemicals such as PVCs into your laundry as well. Not to mention they can cause damage to your dryer's electronic sensors and even melt slightly and cause staining! No thank you!

But, it's not just the environmental and health benefits that attracted me to Woolzies...they also save money! We're a single income military family and on a tight budget, and let's face it laundry products can get ridiculously expensive! A box of Woolzies (containing 6 balls) costs just $35 and is guaranteed to last 1000 loads!! I won't do the math for you, but it's certainly a much more cost effective option! On top of that, they reduce drying time! Less time in the dryer means less money out of your pocket when it comes to your gas or electric bill!

Another factor for us was that they are cloth diaper friendly. When baby #2 arrives, we plan to cloth diaper her and as you may know fabric softener is a big no no with cloth diapers. It can build up in fabrics and reduce absorbency.  This is not exclusive to cloth diapers either- towels, etc can also be affected- but it's definitely not an issue you want to deal with when it comes to diapers! You want maximum absorbency, right? Because Woolzies contain no softeners or chemicals, they are completely safe to use with your cloth diapers...and won't cause build up in your dryer like the dryer sheets if used with your regular loads as well.

Sounds great so far, right? But did they really work? YES! I've done several loads already using our dryer balls and have not noticed any difference from loads using fabric softeners. (Aside from scent, but that's truly better anyway...plus there is a tip to apply a drop of essential oil to the balls for added scent if truly desired...still environmental and health friendly!!) They were soft, no static...perfect! And they certainly seemed to take less time as well, allowing me to get my laundry done much quicker!!

I was a bit concerned about the noise factor beforehand. We don't have a separate laundry room so our washer and dryer are basically in a little closet open to the kitchen...no doors to shut to block the noise. But in regular sized loads, you couldn't hear them at all...unlike tennis balls or plastic dryer balls on the market! The first load I did however was a little noisy...but it was my hand wash/ultra delicate load with all of three articles of clothing and I used all 6 balls...in retrospect I could have used half I'm sure...but even then it wasn't overly loud, just a soft thump in the background...enough to hear it, but not enough to drive you crazy!

Overall, I'm extremely happy with Woolzies! I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually a fabric softener junkie (I like my clothes to smell nice)...but not anymore! I'm officially a wool dryer ball convert! They save money, time and are better for my family AND the environment! What's not to love!?

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product in exchange for review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.