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frugality

Dryer Lint.....

Steven Baxter

Posts: 258

posted 12 years ago

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I have access to heaps of dryer lint, any ideas?

John Polk

steward

Posts: 7926

Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane

360

posted 12 years ago

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Dip wads of it in veggie oil. Great fire starters.

Or add it to the compost pile...it's mostly cotton/wool.

Ken Peavey

steward

Posts: 2482

Location: FL

152

posted 12 years ago

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I don't need polyester, rayon, dacron, and nylon in my compost.

Fuel
It'll light up easy, bit not likely to last.

Insulation
This is a handy use. Needs to be kept dry-the natural fibers will decay. There may be some bugs attracted to it as a feed source. Because it will burn readily, I would not use it to insulate my home, but there are plenty of uses: chicken coop, greenhouse, around a thermal storage tank.

Filling
How about a dog bed? Stuffed animals/dolls/craft items. Padding for chairs, bench cushions. Sew it up make a draft stopper

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John Polk

steward

Posts: 7926

Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane

360

posted 12 years ago

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I don't need polyester, rayon, dacron, and nylon in my compost.

Most synthetic fabrics do not produce significant lint. Perhaps 1% over the life of the fabric.
Leaves from 1 raking of the front yard would probably contribute more petroleum residues than a lifetime of synthetic fabric lint.

Judith Browning

Posts: 9890

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3043

posted 12 years ago

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Steven Baxter wrote:I have access to heaps of dryer lint, any ideas?

It works for paper making. I've seen sheets of handmade paper nicely speckled from colors in the lint, especially pale blues from blue jeans. A lot of the work in making handmade paper is preparing the fiber and dryer lint is close to perfect.

On the other hand, if this is the public's dryer lint from a laundromat I probably wouldn't touch it. As a group "the public" uses to many strange things for me to be comfortable with any public waste that I can't clearly identify what it's made up of.

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"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
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Johan Thorbecke

Posts: 81

Location: The Netherlands

posted 12 years ago

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Put it outside as nesting material for birds, they love it.

Marianne Cicala

gardener

Posts: 826

Location: south central VA 7B

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posted 12 years ago

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In the winter when my clothes line would only serve as a place to freeze our clothes, I just pitch the lint outside. the birds quickly take it and line their nests with soft warmth.

Marianne

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Johan Thorbecke

Posts: 81

Location: The Netherlands

posted 12 years ago

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Even in the winter you can dry your clothes partially outside before they freeze. If I put them outside before going on the indoor clothes rack they dry significantly faster.

Judith Browning

Posts: 9890

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3043

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Johan Thorbecke wrote:Even in the winter you can dry your clothes partially outside before they freeze. If I put them outside before going on the indoor clothes rack they dry significantly faster.

I agree totally...we dry on racks inside or on hangers in our upstairs hall and out on the line most of the winter. Wood heat makes them dry fast (over night) and maybe the wet clothes add a little moisture to the air. The hardest part is cold fingers hanging them out below freezing.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Meghan Orbek

Posts: 52

Location: Yonkers, NY/ Berkshires, MA USA

posted 12 years ago

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I have been using dryer lint in the bottom of a lot of my pots in the container garden this year. My thinking is that it might work to retain/wick moisture and also hold air. (If I had tons of wool, I would use that instead of dryer lint...) My mom has been sewing felt liners for many of her pots and I have done a little pot lining with old otherwise seemingly totally useless wool remnants I have been saving for years waiting for a purpose (patchwork blanket made of all the old wool socks I ever knew, I'm sorry, but I have abandoned you as a concept).

After working on a hydroponic farm several years ago I am apt to experiment a lot with substrates and half substrate/half soil containers. It's interesting to think about for people who don't have access to usable soil...

Adam Moore

Posts: 125

Location: Mansfield, Ohio Zone 5b percip 44"

posted 12 years ago

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I have mixed it with Petroleum Jelly and used it as a fire starter in the past. I once threw it in the vermiculture bin thinking that the lint would be mostly made up of cotton but the worms wouldn't touch it. It was a bad idea. We line dry our clothes now so no more dryer lint. I have really noticed the difference on how my clothes last much longer since line drying, and I have saved about 35 dollars a month off our electric bill!

"I - am a thoughtful guy. I think alotta thoughts; about alotta things." Rhett and Link

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 12 years ago

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the ideas of mixing it with soil are interesting, would like more info on that..as I also have some access to some dryer lint..(although I do hang nearly all my clothes to dry)

Brenda

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Pat Cook

Posts: 2

Location: SE Pa

posted 12 years ago

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Hi, I'm new here, but I thought I'd just jump in!

We prefer to line dry as much as possible, so our dryer lint pile will eventually diminish, but for now we use it as a fire starter when making a small fire in the fire pit. Works great to get a jump start.

I'm not concerned about synthetic fibres since our few pieces of synthetic clothing are always line dried.

Dale Hodgins

Posts: 9002

Location: Victoria British Columbia-Canada

709

posted 12 years ago

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If you had the sort of quantity available from laundromats, it could make good insulation. Borax could be mixed in as this makes it distasteful to vermin. Check out the insulation made from scrap denim.

Ellen Marks

Posts: 15

Location: White Mountains, NH

posted 12 years ago

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I stuff mine into paper egg cartons. Makes great fire starter.

Sunshine McCarthy

Posts: 22

posted 11 years ago

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you can make clay for craft projects.

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/claytyperecipes/a/dryerlintclay.htm

Zach Muller

gardener

Posts: 787

Location: NE Oklahoma zone 7a

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posted 11 years ago

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Since it is mostly cotton or wool I have fed it to worms in the past. Not at a very significant volume though.

Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

Posts: 6898

Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 5 months ago

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As others have stated, I have only really utilized lint for fire starting.

Anyone have any creative uses they have come up with since the last post in 2014?

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Rebecca Norman

gardener

Posts: 2566

Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5

899

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posted 5 months ago

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Sorry, no creative suggestions, but I just want to add, that although my clothes are not predominantly synthetic, I did find that the washer lint I threw down the composting toilet did not decay and emerged after the two-year cycle intact, much the way coconut shells and intact mango pits did. I found lots of little gobs of blue-grey lint. This was lint from the lint trap in a washer, not a dryer. So I stopped throwing it in the compost.

Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.

Phil Stevens

master pollinator

Posts: 2056

Location: Ashhurst New Zealand (Cfb - oceanic temperate)

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posted 5 months ago

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Rebecca Norman wrote:Sorry, no creative suggestions, but I just want to add, that although my clothes are not predominantly synthetic, I did find that the washer lint I threw down the composting toilet did not decay and emerged after the two-year cycle intact, much the way coconut shells and intact mango pits did. I found lots of little gobs of blue-grey lint. This was lint from the lint trap in a washer, not a dryer. So I stopped throwing it in the compost.

I had the exact same experience. For years I chucked lint and floor sweepings, which always seem to have a lot of textile fibre mixed in with the pet hair and general dirt, onto the compost. Then I started noticing how some of the fuzzy bits never broke down. Now it all goes into the biochar bucket.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1313

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

150

posted 5 months ago

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Thinking about where to put it outside so the birds find it for nesting, or the squirrels.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
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Tereza Okava

steward & manure connoisseur

Posts: 4715

Location: South of Capricorn

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posted 5 months ago

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I've noticed the same thing (also washer lint, no dryer here)-- I also leave it out for the birds to get, as it's probably 75% dog hair.

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18161

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4624

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posted 5 months ago

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When I was a kid, I made stuff out of dryer lint.

I was learning to sew and made pillows for dolls. I might have even made some gingerbread dolls ...

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