Uses for dryer lint. Post your ideas!
Dryer lint is an expensive commodity. It represents the life being worn from your clothes by the action and heat of the dryer. I know that's why I won't dry anything of mine any more. I get it out and hang it up to dry or put it on the line.
By Joe
A great tip I found by accident using dryer lint is stuffing for small dolls and teddy bears. I was making my girls small bears and ran out of stuffing. I needed to finish them and it was too late to go to the store so I was searching my laundry room for some extra and came across my bag of "lint". I quickly grabbed it and stuffed away. The bears smell great and are soft and washable.
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
Dryer lint can make great food for worms! Toss it into your local friendly worm farm or into a compost heap and it'll be turned into lovely healthy soil for your garden! You can also use it to stuff home-made cushions, or stuffed toys, if your worm farm isn't in existence yet!
By Ricky
Since we live in a very old, drafty farmhouse, I noticed there are little nooks and crannies that let cold air in the house. I have been using the lint from the dryer as a "draft dodger". I make sure it is not near anything electrical. It has worked great!
By Michelle
This may sound a little corny but you can use it to make paper. There is a way to do it involving hot water, glue, a screen and a heavy pressing object. It's been awhile since I've done it. Check your local library for a few books on it to get it right. We did something with dandelions in elementary school to do it but I did it at home with dryer lint until my mom got tired of all the places my "paper" was drying dripping on her floor.
By Katzprizim
Here's recipes for making clay out of dryer lint.
Place the lint in a saucepan and cover it with the water. When the lint is saturated, add the flour and stir until it is smooth. Add the drops of wintergreen oil flavoring. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it forms peaks and holds together. Pour it onto newspaper to cool. Shape and model figures, or cover a form with it, such as a balloon. Allow to dry for 3 to 5 days, then paint and decorate as required.
By Kayla
My experimentation with dryer lint clay was a success! I made a wonderful bowl out of it. When I removed the mixture from the stove, I poured it onto an overturned glass bowl that had 2 sheets of tissue paper over it (the big ones, like the ones used in wrapping presents). I then used my batter spatula to spread it around the base of the bowl. It was thick enough that it spread like gooey cake frosting, but it didn't run at all.
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
I remember a beautiful picture made from lint at a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. I always wanted to try to make a picture after that.
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
You can put this lint to use if you have a wood stove. The soft batts of lint ignite quickly and help set kindling ablaze.
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.
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I save the lint to use in the holes wrapped around plants when putting in garden. Keeps moisture in and really helps roots of the plants, especially in a dry season, water stays where it needs to go.
Peg
Dryer lint makes a great firestarter for emergencies, especially if it's rainy or there's no time to look for tinder when you're backpacking or camping or if your car breaks down.
I occasionally save a small bag of dryer lint for this purpose, as well as a small bag of paper birch bark.
BUT YOU MUST KEEP IT DRY, OR IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD!!!
PMZ
i have saved quite alot of dryer lint to "do something with"
not really knowing WHAT --
thought a little about clay so THANK YOU for posting the recipe homeschoolin_mum & didn't think of paper making - so THANKS Katzprizim
& I lived in a really drafty old house & used my dryer lint to tuck into cracks around a door - so THANKS for reminding me Michelle
& I haven't stuffed toys with it but thats a good idea Melissa
& I used to send my son off to Scout campouts with a bag of dryer lint for the firestarters
like you mentioned Doggy
I know they say the dryer will do better if you remove the lint all the time- sometimes we forget
& i had a bad experiance with the dryer & wanting to save a little money by hanging out clothes on the line :
in the fall when i wanted to use the dryer again - MICE had gotten into it & chewed wires so I had to get a repairman !
SO- be sure to run it every so often for a little bit - even if it's just on airfluff
to scare rodents out of it !
Melody,
With the change of seasons where I live, I always look forward to spring when I can use my clotheslines outdoors, too! Also wanted to tell you I love the angel graphic and saying under your post!
We make fire starters this way. Take a egg carton the cardboard ones. Fill each cup with lint. After they are full pour paraffin on top to seal them and use them as fire starters. Or melt down those half burnt candles you never know what to do with. That burn right down the middle.
Please Do Not Use dryer lint to stuff toys! It is highly flammable! Keep those precious children safe.
I recently saw a new pincushion in a local quilting shop. It looked like it had been made from a big ball of dryer lint. There were various colors visible in it and it had been molded into a large ball shape with a flat base. Does anyone have any idea how to process dryer lint to achieve a pincushion like this? I have searched but so far have not seen anything online for making such a thing.
Dryer lint is extremely flammable. Please keep this in mind when you are deciding to use it to stuff your childrens toys with it or use it for pillow stuffings. If you wouldn't put flammable pj's on your kids at bed time then please don't make them flammable toy and pillows.
I made a Halloween Mask with dryer lint. I mixed the dryer lint with white glue (like Elmers) to form a paste.
Mold Aluminum Foil to face...several layers of foil work best.
Remove from face and carefully put the paste on the inside of the foil mask. You may need to support parts of mask to keep it from falling.
Leave to dry - this make take days
When dry you can trim or cut out the parts you don't want.
Paint and punch holes on the sides of the mask to string ribbons thru.
This makes a really durable mask that will last years and is custom fit to your face.
Has anyone had success using dryer lint as a pest repellant for rabbits, deer, etc.?
If this works, I'd prefer this to chemical sprays or killing the rabbits.
Hello. I do not thing suggesting stuffing children's toys with such a flammable substance is a good idea. I would actually recommend using dryer lint for purposes as starting fires. I wouldn't keep dryer lint near anything I didn't want on fire.
You know I've been searching sites about uses for dryer lint, and have found nothing on the things I happen to use dryer Lint for.
I use Lint to make CANDLE WICKS, as well as ROPE. I roll my own rope the same way Indians used to make rope from plant fibers. its a long project but i tell you Lint makes a good strong Rope. I make small Ropes to use as a candle wick and they work great. My candles are made from bacon fat or beef fat. I use the tallow I make. I get about 24 hours or more from one candle, or you can use the tallow and chunks of Lint saturated in fat in a large metal bowl as an outdoor space heater or cooker.
I'm an 8th grade student working on using dryer lint for insulation. So far it seems to be an okay idea. Just wondering what you thought...Thanks!
hellopf, The pincushion you saw might have been made out of wool by dry felting, also called needle felting. I just started doing this craft and it is really amazing what you can form just by poking wool with a needle! You could probably find pictures on google images to see if it's similar to what you saw.
(Posted via email)
You should remove the idea to use it as stuffing for dolls, etc. Dryer lint is EXTREMELY flammable and should NEVER be used for anything to do with children. Jenna
(Posted via email)
You should remove the idea to use it as stuffing for dolls, etc. Dryer lint is EXTREMELY flammable and should NEVER be used for anything to do with children. Jenna
Then so are the clothes you're wearing that the lint came from. It's what the lint is made of. Also, any stuffing or filling that you purchase for the purpose of stuffing toys, pillows, pollyfill for example is highly flammable, too. It says so on the package. It's not the contents that make it flammable but the fact that it is fibrous where air can circulate. Any material, unless it is treated with flame-retardant chemicals, is highly flammable in the same condition.
Lint makes really good firetarters. I found a cool website- www.lintlogs.weebly.com - that is selling lint fire starters for a good cause.
Come on ppl. The fibers in the lint come from your own clothes. I don't see a problem stuffing your kids toys with them. Unless you have random fires set in your house why would it matter.
I have always heard that dryer lint is extremely flammable and would never recommend it in anything for children. I would never use it as insulation as it would only make your home burn that much faster if it ever did catch fire. I do however find that dryer lint composts very well. Just add it in between layers of other organic materials that you put in your compost and it will work its way through with the rest of your compost material.
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.
HEY TERRy my girl,
I think its better off using LOTS AND LOTS of sweet, clean LINTYROO. I love lint. #liveforlint.
im worried that you are preparing for your pillows to catch on fire...
Are you okay?
Call lifeline if need help.
xx
Kel
Yes, and it seems that the whole flame-reatrdent business actually started when the cigarette companies were pressured to make self extinguishing cigarettes. They did not want to, and instead pushed to have laws passed about all kinds of flame reatrdent items. Studies show that they don't help much anyways...
You dont use pillow stuffing to start the fire you use the lint from the dryer. Besides that what do you think lighter fluid is
Dryer lint does NOT make good nesting material for birds. It contains synthetic material that holds water, creating a too-wet nest that is harmful to eggs and nestlings. (wet some of it and see how soggy and heavy it gets!) It also contains unnatural chemicals from detergent and dryer sheets. I would not compost it or feed it to worms either, as suggested in earlier posts.
For those suggesting NOT to use lint due to it being flammable......um....then you shouldn't let your children wear the clothes from which they came because they are made of the same material. It isn't the content that makes the lint flammable but the fact it is less dense fiber where air can circulate more easily, ergo feeding flames. And any polyfill or stuffing you purchase, made specifically to stuff toys, cushions, etc, is also highly flammable and says so on the package. Any fibrous material is flammable unless it is treated with a flame-retardant chemical.
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