Encouraging Forgetfulness, Now With Chemicals!

I don't won't never will use dryer sheets. Can't stand the smell of them. The thought of them leaving all their chemicals behind on my clothes and my sheets to just sit on my skin makes me feel all crawly.

BUT DON'T WORRY! You no longer need to rely on your poor memory for dryer sheets! No more forgetting them! We are SAVED! Bounce has brought us the Bounce Dryer Bar. Procter & Gamble to the rescue, again.

Oh I shudder to think what gooey glop of chemicals make up this thing. Can't really find it easily on the site. But, yeah. for all those forgetful types who just can't be bothered to remember the dryer sheet, this thing just sticks right on in on the wall of your dryer. The heat and your clothes bumping up against it release its magic into your life.

If you discover you don't like it, guess what - you already bought it and you now have this plastic thing that you have to pry out of your dryer, just to toss out into the world. I was amused by this little blurb in the FAQs about if it should stain your clothes: "Well, the super smart scientists at Procter and Gamble spent a whole five years developing the Bounce® dryer bar to assure there will be even and consistent benefits to your glorious clothes. If it so happens that you do develop a stain, re-wash your garment and it should come out, no problem!" Great. It MIGHT stain, so now you have to use twice the water if it does. Lovely. Now, mind you, not only does this stuff get all over your skin and into your system, but next time you wash everything, there are still plenty of chemicals left there to wash back into the environment. 

Yay! It's such a win-win!

I've lived happily and relatively static-free without dryer sheets for years now. I can't imagine how this thing is a necessity in anyone's life. But by all means, watch the commercials. They are such a celebration of the massive airheads we have become. Let's keep going that way. It's so helpful.

I Feel Rude, but Justified

I'm really not, especially compared to other people in this town/country/world, but sometimes I feel rude even when I'm not being really THAT rude. Apartment living's bigger pain in the ass: shared laundry. I'm one of those that will see someone's finished stuff in the washer or dryer and give them the benefit of a little bit more time to get their stuff. It's a small building and we only have 2 of each machines. I can wait a bit most times.

Nicer than ours, frankly

Today, I went all the way down there (we are as far as you can get from the laundry room, so I just consider it good exercise and great stair-climbing) more than once, and I gave them at least an hour. No go. Still in the washers. I was done being patient. It's funny, I am always prepared to feel sheepish should the offending washer-hog burst in on my touching their stuff. I even considered putting an apology note. "Sorry, I waited as long as I could" kind of thing. But wait - aren't they the ones being rude by not being on top of their laundry, in a building on a day when laundry's gonna get done by lots?

Why am I worried about being rude when they aren't at all concerned?

As I remove their stuff and put it... elsewhere... I notice they have done both loads in hot water. This is not necessary. Pretty much ever. Everyone knows that. The only thing hot water does is waste energy. So now this person has wasted my time and some of that energy out there that we all use/need/pay for.

I feel justified. And I don't feel nearly as bad that I dropped an item on the floor for a second.

Now, if  you'll excuse me, I have to check my laundry, as I dream like I always do about my someday-laundry-room of my very own. It'll be magnificent. And chemical-free, thank you, please.

Cling

Ahh, the laundry room of our small apartment complex. My love/hate relationship with said room. I enjoy having multiple washers and dryers to get stuff done quickly, and I know I might miss that when I am in my own house with just one machine. (Nah. Not really. I won't miss it at all.)

The funniest thing about sharing washers with a dozen or so other people is that EVERYONE else uses chemicals and we do not. This was particularly obvious to me today when I went down to the dungeon, soap nuts and baking soda and quarters in hand, to be faced by a whole array of almost-empty bottles of Tide with Downy on the utility shelf.  It's hard to guess why. There are multiple plastic jugs of nearly-gone goo on that shelf at all times. It's like that's where detergent goes to die instead of getting to the landfill (ocean). Being thrifty, I would use the last of it all, but I don't put smelly clingy chemicals in my laundry anymore. Did someone leave those bottles there because they will use the last of all of them? Like I used to do... filling them with water to get the last nasty bits and every last penny? I thought I would hasten the process for whoever left these there by emptying all the dredges into one bottle.

Now, I NEVER used Tide back in the day. I find it to be way overpriced. So being in such close contact with it was a new experience. I'm older and wiser and I see even more clearly how they get us. I put a little water in the bottle to swish it around then transfer from bottle to bottle. Imagine my surprise when I notice that a little water really doesn't do it at all. There was still SO much product stuck to the inside. I swished more. There was no getting that crap outta there. Now, they charge you for this part too. But you can never use it. And the fact that it clings so disgustingly to the innards of the disgusting plastic bottle... think how it clings to clothes. To skin. To cells. And then it clung to MY skin, just from handling it a little. I washed them and they still reeked of all those chemicals.

Well... I don't know why all those nearly-empties were there. I doubt the owner will thank me much for trying to consolidate said bottles. I enjoyed re-learning why I like that my clothes smell like nothing. And that I am not wasting money on built-in waste, designed specifically by the company who makes the stuff. (You do realize, of course, that the lines on the measuring lids are completely misleading, right?) I'll dream of my own washers that will never know the ick of chemicals within their shiny parts. Hell, maybe I'll go back to the hand-crank thing. We already air-dry a lot of our clothes, by-passing the dryers that stink of other peoples' dryer sheets...

Nah. Those new machines are just too pretty. I'll still look longingly at them in Home Depot until such time as I can be fascinated by my own in my cozy clean bright SMELL-FREE laundry room...