Early one morning he happened to see part of an infomercial on the Mr. Steamy dryer balls.  Whatever they said on the program convinced him that I needed them.  That afternoon he looked up more information on their website.  He told my husband what he intended to give me.  Lane had never heard of them.

Together they decided to run into Bed, Bath & Beyond to see if they had any dryer balls.  They carried some dryer balls, but they were not the same brand that he had seen on television.  Jake immediately grabbed them and said he was done.  He was quite satisfied with his purchase and could not wait for Christmas morning to arrive.

Jake carefully wrapped them up and placed the package up on top of the china hutch.  Let me explain.  Traditionally we would place presents under the Christmas tree.  With Andrew still being one year old, Lane and I made the executive decision to store all gifts out of reach, but in sight of the children.  It worked well.  No gifts were opened prematurely.  The gifts were not man-handled, shaken, and sized by weight.  Best of all, the kids could see that they had a gift or two to open.

Anyway on Christmas morning, Jake made sure his gift to me was on top of my pile to open.  Since he was so excited about whatever it was that he bought, I chose his present to open first.  When I saw these two pink odd shaped balls, I was initially perplexed.  “What in the world?”  I thought.  “What did he get me?”

But then I did the smart thing and I read the package.  They are dryer balls.  You put them both in your dryer with your load of wet clothes.  They apparently move around throughout the cycle reducing static electricity and soften the fabric of your clothes without the use of any chemicals.

I cannot use fabric softeners or dryer sheets because they contain chemicals, especially formaldehyde.  Jake is allergic to formaldehyde.  In weather like we are having, I could freeze-dry our clothing on the clothesline if I wanted to.  Instead I have been using our dryer.  Jake saw something that could help me with my chores.  He wanted to give me something that would improve the way I did laundry.

The jury is out as to whether or not these dryer balls actually do as they claim.  I will put them to the test with all the loads of laundry I need to do now.  Have you noticed how much more laundry one seems to do in the winter?  There are so many more layers to get dirty.

Regardless if they work well or not, I think that I will always remember the day that a young man, my son, carefully chose a gift for me.  It is true, it is “the thought that counts.”  He put a lot of thought and went to a lot of trouble finding me a great present.  It is a perfect gift for me.

Kyla cleaning with disinfectant spray

As promised, today I am going to post some of my cleaning recipes. For the most part, they are very simple and involve basic ingredients. I’m sure you can find many variations on the internet, but these are what I use.

I reuse an old laundry dispenser with a pour spout at the bottom. Rinse it out very well. Fill with your homemade laundry detergent. It is concentrated so a little goes a long way. Another option is to dilute it with water 50/50 in the container and use like regular detergent.

Add everything to a spray bottle and shake well to mix. The tea tree oil makes this mixture disinfectant as well. I use it on my kitchen countertops, dining room table, laminate and tile floors, and in the bathroom. It is very effective and smells great too.  This recipe is from Beeyoutiful’s catalog. I really like it.

Put the vodka in first and then add the drops of oil. Shake well in a spray bottle. Spray in the air as needed. I use a mixture of peppermint and lavender oil.

These recipes use natural ingredients and are formaldehyde-free, which is great for our household. Using them is much more economical as the ingredients are very inexpensive and can be found on most laundry and detergent aisles. They are also much better for the environment.

I buy all of my essential oils from Beeyoutiful.  They sell a great pack of 5 different kinds of essential oils as well as other natural products.