Fabric softener? What is the deal with this stuff anyways?

Fabric softener? What is the deal with this stuff anyways?

When I was a child my mother never did a load of laundry without a dryer sheet inside. I never really knew or understood what they were, or why they were there. All I really knew is that they ended up inside the legs of my pants as I walked to school. Here is a little bit about those tiny sheets that my mom still can’t live without.

Early fabric softeners weren’t a general thing. There were different softeners for different kinds of fabrics. Way back when, they were made of a mixture of water, soap, and weird kinds of fats (animal or vegetable). They would work by chemically binding themselves to the clothes and made the fibers stick up or fluff up as the clothes dried.

There are some people who don’t like softener. It can sometimes be a skin irritant to people. There are now options of softener which do not have added perfumes or colors added to them, but these are NOT approved by the cuddly teddy bear on the Snuggle container. (That cuddly little fella loves that stuff!). Another school of thought on this is that adding chemicals to your clothes can cause harm to the wearer because not all of the chemicals are washed away.

Fabric softener is not all bad. In most cases, clothes come out with less wrinkles than clothes without. They often have less static charge and do not stick together as you pull them out of the dryer. They also can have a pleasant smell, especially if you are into chemically synthesized flowers.

As far as the softener goes, you can love it or leave it.

Love,

Sudzy