Uses for dryer lint. Post your ideas!
By Joe
By Melissa
To "help" the birds build a nice warm nest this spring to hatch their babies, toss some lint from your dryer lint screen onto the branches of your trees. They'll sing their gratitude as they use it for nesting material!
By LS from Michigan
By Ricky
By Michelle
By Katzprizim
By Kayla
It took days to dry, but the texture is wonderful, and since that dryer load must have had something dark in it, the bowl is like a deep denim/ navy gray color with white flecks (although I suspect those are clumps of flour - I can't stress enough to make sure you don't just dump it all in the pot at one time - like I did!) And don't try to use a whisk or you'll be picking strands of fiber (and hair) out of it! Heheheh, What fun! AND depending on what you've been drying, the colors will change!
By Nancy
By Sandy
Mix 1/2 cup of flour with 1 cup of Sta-Flo liquid starch, then add to dryer lint as needed to form shapes on a piece of plywood. Continue adding various shapes and colors, mixing with the Sta-Flo recipe as needed for the right texture. Allow to dry thoroughly, spray with sealer.
Sounds corny, but if you use your imagination you can make an impressive piece of art. Others will admire your work and not know what it is made from if you do it right.
By KAREN
By Joesgirl
The "fluff" in your dryer lint screen makes great fireplace tinder. You can ball it up and use to start fires quickly
By Doggy
A friend showed me how to melt used candles/wax in a coffee can in a pan of simmering water. Stuff the lint into cardboard egg cartons. Carefully, pour the melted wax over the lint. Let dry then use a couple of the "lint/wax eggs" as fire starters in the fireplace. We have used these for 3-4 years .They work just fine.
By Vi
Don't throw away your dryer lint if you have a fireplace or go camping. Fill toilet paper or paper towel tubes with dryer lint and newspaper. Close the ends and you have a great fire starter!
By Melissa Z.
I make the filling for quilts, stuff toys, and my favorite fire starters. For the fire starters, I use the cardboard egg cartons, use wick, wax and lint, melt the wax, put lint in the egg carton, with the wick under it, then pour the wax over it. Use 1 to start for fire.
By Cindy
Be careful when you burn dryer lint. How it burns will depend VERY much on what the lint is made out of! Anything man made will melt, smoke, smell like burning plastic, and put out fumes you don't want to be around. Cotton, wool, or linen dryer lint, on the other hand, is fine. If you have a question, take some outside in your driveway and burn it. If it turns into little hard beads, don't put it in your fireplace.
By Kathy K.
I think I'd rather take my chances with a "flammable" fill I collected myself than with the nasty, chemical-laden and "fire-resistant" fills used for pillows and mattresses, made from petroleum products and who-knows-what-else. Short of fermentation or spontaneous combustion, I can't imagine how a lint-filled pillow or stuffed animal would catch fire; and obviously our clothes are made of the same fibers yet we don't generally worry about our clothes suddenly bursting into flame. Even if pillows or clothing do catch fire, something that burns cleanly without melting into liquid plastic is still much safer, I would think.
This page contains the following solutions.
Don't throw away your dryer lint! In the winter birds love it to line their nest with.
Even dryer lint can be recycled. I recycle it in 3 different ways.
When my daughter was younger, she made hundreds of miniature stuffed animals, dolls, personalized pillows, and so forth, using fabric scraps. Even with the fabric free, of course, cotton batting or fiber-fill would have cost money to stuff her creations. So, she stuffed them with dryer lint!
After finishing up my Folgers Decaf instant coffee, I looked at the container and thought it would be perfect for holding dryer lint. I gave it a try and found that it works great. It takes up just a little space and the flip top lid is so convenient.
Since dryer lint is mostly organic material, it is great for the compost pile.
Makes about 8 cups of modeling clay. You may shape over objects or press into a mold or use the same as you would use paper-maché pulp. It takes 3 to 5 days to dry to a very hard surface.
Use the lint from your dryer in your garden, for planting seeds in the spring. This is a page about using dryer lint for making seed balls.
This is a page about pet dust bunnies. If you are looking for a clever gag gift that doesn't cost much; here it is. These cuties are made of recycled dryer lint.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
If you use fabric softener, is it safe to use the dryer lint to put out for the birds to line their nest? Would it be dangerous for the baby birds?
It's cold outside! Save your dryer lint and stuff it in your birdhouses. This will help to keep the birdies warm and cozy in the winter and spring.
