craftgrrl | Keep your clothing smelling sweet!

Closet sachets and dryer sheets ho!

To get nice smelling clothing out of the dryer, without that insufferable chemical perfume in commercial sheets (not to mention they're chemicals in some sort of quasi fabric material which I doubt if either is good for the environment, nor you.) make your own reusable ones.

I use dye and perfume free detergent, which is great, however sometimes the loads could use a bit of 'freshening' even after washing.

Take an old white towel or washrags or I made some 'sheets' out of terrycloth, cut into about 10" x 10" squares, serge or zig the edges, and hit them with appx 10 drops of your favorite essential oil before throwing it in the dryer with your clothes.
I used lemon oil and citronella (since I have spare bottles of both)

Also good natural laundry additives for washing are:
Baking soda (I keep the old box from the fridge when I switch out for 'cleaning' purposes like scrubbing the sink, wooden cutting boards, adding to the laundry...) appx 1/4 cup with your regular soap. Great for jeans, kitchen towels, and bedding.

Also:
White vinegar.
Especially good for fading sweat stains and ring around the collar.
I buy big jugs of the stuff for cooking and cleaning purposes.

Now, if that's not enough:
Orange peel potpourri for clothing sachets.

I save my peel when I eat any citrus fruit, tear it into appx 1" pieces, throw it in a ziplock baggie with powdered cinnamon (sometimes a dash of cloves), toss it around, then string it to dry.

This is strung across one of the levels of my bookshelf hutch on some button thread.
Main idea is to string it somewhere it will get good air circulation.
I keep a needle tied onto one end so I can just string more on as I need them.
Be warned:
You will get cinnamon everywhere when you do this.
Nothing a quick vacuuming can't fix though.

I string them back to back, then front to front, so the curves go opposite and the air circulates better between them.

Wait a week or so, and voila:

All natural orange spice potpourri.

These make great drawer and closet sachets sewn into scrap cotton baggies and then tied off with some ribbon for hanging.
I also mix the potpourri with cedar shavings from the petstore (you can buy a whole bag for a couple bucks) for storage with my woolens during the summer.

They also make a great gift!

X posted to: