Clothes dryers are a major source of structural fires. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 15,500 fires are caused by clothes dryers annually. This results in an average of 10 deaths, 310 injuries, and over $84 million in property damage. What is the common denominator and the major contributing factor to these fires? Lint.
Where does lint come from?
Most lint is born in the clothes dryer. If you helped with the laundry when you were a kid you probably observed this. Clothes dryers are wonderful inventions, but they create dryer lint, the fuzz and bits of cloth flung off during the tumbling and drying process. The lint is trapped in the lint filter. Lint is very flammable, so cleaning the lint filter is critical.
What can you do with lint?
Use it as a firestarter. As we mentioned, lint is highly flammable. You can save your dryer lint in toilet paper rolls, store them somewhere dry, and use them as handy fire starters for the fireplace in the fall or the campfire this summer.
Thrifty Fun recommends using dryer lint to stuff small hand-sewn dolls or bears. Not only will they smell great, they'll be washable too. Lint bears aren't meant for children though, since dryer fuzz is highly flammable.
Lint makes a great addition to your compost heap or worm farm. Apparently stray sweater fibers make a good snack for the bacteria usually found in these types of soil.
An artist in Chapel Hill, N.C., uses leftover lint to make paper and then creates small books and framed artwork out of it. Another artist took the idea a step further and formed the National Lint Project.
The Dollar Stretcher suggests using lint to cushion small items for shipping. There is also a recipe on the site for making non-edible lint-based clay that can also be used in place of paper-mâché.
Essortment advises its readers to stuff excess lint into old tube socks and use them as draft stoppers.
As bird nesting material? No way! This is a dated misconception. Some dryer lint is from synthetic fibers becomes crumbly after it's rained on and dries and some laundry detergents and fabric softeners may leave harmful residues. Because of this it is not recommended to offer dryer lint to birds for nesting.
