It's not just the fragrance itself (which is bad enough) but the fact that more and stronger scent keeps getting added. The 'softener scent' of 20 years or more ago can't hold a candle to the intensity of current additives. And now, they even market additive that is nothing but concentrated scent to 'boost' it.
I researched a bunch of this when I started having reactions to a neighbor's dryer sheets. It is a fact that some of these artificial scents are 'narcotic' which means they give some people an endorphin rush and they are habit-forming, meaning one can get inured to it and need more scent to smell it and get that 'feel good' reaction. The result is a large number of people walking around in a cloud of laundry scent who need to add scent boosters. I've actually bought clothes in thrift stores that took multiple washings to remove the scent, the stuff is so strong and insidious.
You’re smelling the toxic fake fragrance chemicals. It’s so awful. For many years now my fabric softener is plain white vinegar. Cheap, effective, nontoxic. I absolutely cannot abide fragranced anything any more. By the way, when you can smell that stuff, it goes through your liver.
Dryer sheets are also used to mask the smell of drugs. Use to see many around the city streets. A PD officer told me of their use very helpful in when dogs used to search.
Yes, have used them for that - somewhat effective. But where I saw the sheets were not mosquito country - where I live now mosquitos are the state bird. Not sure what it is that repels them. Used ones are good for dusting.
Wood ash was used in my village (Greece) for ages, but the doctors came in the 60s and told us (the savages) that our methods were sooo back in stone age and is a new soap product - of course you had to buy it! - and in 20 years no one was healthy anymore, and dry skin, dry hair that needed expensive shampoos (that cause more damage actually).
that smell has made me softly gag for my whole life. so, no dryer sheets in my proximity.
also, i learned that the dryer sheets coat the inner drum of dryers and shortens their life. and they add a reactant to the cloths and towels that repels water and so makes them very poor at soaking up water. truly, one of the great epitomes of industrialised stupidities. imo.
I live in an apartment complex. Some apartments have washer/dryer hookups. Those dryers were vented up to the roof of the buildings for over 30 years. They did a renovation here 10 years ago. Every other apartment now has a dryer vent outside their window, some in the front of the buildings, some in the back. My neighbor's dryer vent is outside our backside living room window. When they are drying their clothes, a noxious smell of dryer sheets backdrafts into our open living room window and fills our small two bedroom apartment with dryer sheet smell. We talked to our neighbors to PLEASE not use dryer sheets because we cannot leave our windows open as we once did when we leave our apartment due to the scent of their dryer sheets. Our request fell on death ears. People are so ignorant of how toxic those dryer sheets and scented laundry detergent and fabric softeners are. Progress is often times toxic.
I was an Electronics geek before I retired, I was tinkering with TV ( & all sorts of stuff ) even when I was a kid, the electronics periodicals ran his obituary in 1971 . . . Same year I was released from active duty . . .
In a colony in northern Punjab in the '70s, lines of people washed their copper eating bowls with ash and water. Quick, done and clean. It struck me that this was real civilization.
I love making soap. I was thinking about trying to make some with wood ash (you pour water over it to get the lye out) but you really don't know the strength of the lye that way. Another fact: commercial soaps have the natural glycerine taken out and is sold for other purposes which is why most soaps are drying and can sit on a wet surface and not melt.
Homemade soap has the glycerine, but will also get mushy if it's not allowed to dry between uses. I scent mine with essential oils or nothing at all. Handmade costs more because it takes 4 - 6 weeks to cure a batch, but it's incredibly fun. You can add all sorts of natural things to increase lather or conditioning properties. My laundry soap works better than my former favorite unscented brand, Charlie's soap.
There's nothing worse than hiking and someone passing you that reeks of drier sheets. That hideous smell hangs in the air for the longest time. Blech.
yep. viruses cannot be seen by the common people and so are a good scapegoat for what Can be seen to do damage , if they but look. sometimes "progress" is really poison.
Thank you, Chris!! And yes they were!! And it's fascinating how the actual sane and good hygiene is good for us, and yet, they take something that is good for us and turn it into a monster!
The 'White House Cookbook' of the late 1800's has recipes for a number of household items including soaps in it's final chapters back behind the food recipes, a throwback to the days when a housewife not only cooked but made all of her own cleaning products and sundries.
It is still available for sale and is a great historical resource.
A most interesting bit of history. Is "cleanliness next to Godliness" or does too much soap destroy the 'good' bacteria? Most people don't want to stink, but should one need a chemistry degree to decipher the ingredients in modern soap? My preference is a few drops of Dr. Bronners. At least I can understand the ingredients. Are any hygiene products safe? It's hard to find toothpaste without fluoride or deodorant without aluminum. Maybe a little natural odor is best?
He was raised by his Grandmother (born 1865) who took him in the woods to gather medicinal plants - she was the midwife in the area and folks went to her for cures. They made their own soap along with most everything else.. Traded their eggs for goods at the local shop - Barter system.
Add sauna to your list of hygiene. That, and ice baths. The idea that all europeans were dirty is a myth by the way: the nobility and upper classes often were, because they had "learned advisors", i.e. the experts of bygone times, touting their pet theories as fact. Such as washing destroyed "the natural humours". I don't know what the russian for sauna is, but surely russian peasantry must have enjoyed saunas too?
Peasants, farmers, labourers of all sorts instead used the sauna at least a couple of times per week - especially on Saturdays. The swedish name for Saturday has nothing to do with Saturn but instead comes from the Old Norse word for washing (body or doing laundry): löga. Lördag, i.e. "Lögardagen", is Saturday in english.
My wife sometimes makes soap the old way, fat and ashes: pig fat and ash from birch is best. It reeks to high heaven. From ash we also make lye to clean the floors and other wooden surfaces with - gloves are a must, of course.
Of course, doing this while living in a block of flats would be a tad difficult.
I love saunas. hot springs, cold plunges. have you tried a turkish oil bath? it is quite good......you can mix essential oils in your base oil and smell marvelous.......so great for the skin.....
I bought some "pre owned" shirts from ebay. I couldn't even take them out of the package, the reek of some kind of detergent is so offensive I had to keep them outside on the porch before sending them back. You have to click on a reason for the return but none of the bullet points fit, there's no reek button.
My entire street smells like dryer sheets...has anyone else noticed how most people smell like Tide/detergent nowadays?
Wood ash is incredible on so many levels. Thank you for paying homage to our ancestral wisdom Tessa!
Thank you, Roman!!! Agreed, the smell of commercial detergent is not very good. :)
I used to love the smell of fabric conditioner but now, knowing what’s in those dryer sheets, I feel wary of it.
I hear you!! :)
It's not just the fragrance itself (which is bad enough) but the fact that more and stronger scent keeps getting added. The 'softener scent' of 20 years or more ago can't hold a candle to the intensity of current additives. And now, they even market additive that is nothing but concentrated scent to 'boost' it.
I researched a bunch of this when I started having reactions to a neighbor's dryer sheets. It is a fact that some of these artificial scents are 'narcotic' which means they give some people an endorphin rush and they are habit-forming, meaning one can get inured to it and need more scent to smell it and get that 'feel good' reaction. The result is a large number of people walking around in a cloud of laundry scent who need to add scent boosters. I've actually bought clothes in thrift stores that took multiple washings to remove the scent, the stuff is so strong and insidious.
Wow, I didn't know about the addictive part! Learned something new!
This is where I jumped off with researching the topic. https://www.washington.edu/news/2011/08/24/scented-laundry-products-emit-hazardous-chemicals-through-dryer-vents/
I'm not sure now where I saw the charts showing which of the chemicals in the stuff was narcotic.
Thank you, a brilliant link!
A couple more, the second one goes into the narcotic chemicals:
https://thelintking.com/blog/reasons-ditch-toxic-dryer-sheets/
https://www.wisebread.com/toxic-laundry-what-s-in-your-dryer-sheets-and-fabric-softener
Plain white vinegar for fabric softener/anti static. It’s always the inexpensive, simplest stuff that’s the best, isn’t it.
Thank you, Cathleen!
I accidentally bought 8 rolls of heavily scented toilet paper here in Spain. Binning it.
It’s poison. Literally.
You’re smelling the toxic fake fragrance chemicals. It’s so awful. For many years now my fabric softener is plain white vinegar. Cheap, effective, nontoxic. I absolutely cannot abide fragranced anything any more. By the way, when you can smell that stuff, it goes through your liver.
Yeah, I’m the same with artificial fragrances.
Dryer sheets are also used to mask the smell of drugs. Use to see many around the city streets. A PD officer told me of their use very helpful in when dogs used to search.
Dryer sheets are also used as mosquito repellant. Think about that.
Yes, have used them for that - somewhat effective. But where I saw the sheets were not mosquito country - where I live now mosquitos are the state bird. Not sure what it is that repels them. Used ones are good for dusting.
Wood ash was used in my village (Greece) for ages, but the doctors came in the 60s and told us (the savages) that our methods were sooo back in stone age and is a new soap product - of course you had to buy it! - and in 20 years no one was healthy anymore, and dry skin, dry hair that needed expensive shampoos (that cause more damage actually).
that smell has made me softly gag for my whole life. so, no dryer sheets in my proximity.
also, i learned that the dryer sheets coat the inner drum of dryers and shortens their life. and they add a reactant to the cloths and towels that repels water and so makes them very poor at soaking up water. truly, one of the great epitomes of industrialised stupidities. imo.
I live in an apartment complex. Some apartments have washer/dryer hookups. Those dryers were vented up to the roof of the buildings for over 30 years. They did a renovation here 10 years ago. Every other apartment now has a dryer vent outside their window, some in the front of the buildings, some in the back. My neighbor's dryer vent is outside our backside living room window. When they are drying their clothes, a noxious smell of dryer sheets backdrafts into our open living room window and fills our small two bedroom apartment with dryer sheet smell. We talked to our neighbors to PLEASE not use dryer sheets because we cannot leave our windows open as we once did when we leave our apartment due to the scent of their dryer sheets. Our request fell on death ears. People are so ignorant of how toxic those dryer sheets and scented laundry detergent and fabric softeners are. Progress is often times toxic.
Check out soapnuts. Non-toxic and no smell. They work great. I’ve been using them for years. Sapindus Mukorossi
Thank you, Candy!!
us too!
Any connection to "philo farnsworth" . . . Just curious.
Yes, actually. My husband’s grandfather’s cousin. Philo T
Groovie stuff . . . !
Few people these days know who Philo T. Farnsworth was
I was an Electronics geek before I retired, I was tinkering with TV ( & all sorts of stuff ) even when I was a kid, the electronics periodicals ran his obituary in 1971 . . . Same year I was released from active duty . . .
One time my husband was being interviewed and the guy behind the camera asked him if he was related. Camera people know Lol
that is what i use sometimes. works well.
In a colony in northern Punjab in the '70s, lines of people washed their copper eating bowls with ash and water. Quick, done and clean. It struck me that this was real civilization.
So interesting, thank you!
I love making soap. I was thinking about trying to make some with wood ash (you pour water over it to get the lye out) but you really don't know the strength of the lye that way. Another fact: commercial soaps have the natural glycerine taken out and is sold for other purposes which is why most soaps are drying and can sit on a wet surface and not melt.
Homemade soap has the glycerine, but will also get mushy if it's not allowed to dry between uses. I scent mine with essential oils or nothing at all. Handmade costs more because it takes 4 - 6 weeks to cure a batch, but it's incredibly fun. You can add all sorts of natural things to increase lather or conditioning properties. My laundry soap works better than my former favorite unscented brand, Charlie's soap.
There's nothing worse than hiking and someone passing you that reeks of drier sheets. That hideous smell hangs in the air for the longest time. Blech.
So interesting! Have you already tried to boil ash, or do you buy lye?
I buy lye, but I have a wood stove and plenty of ash to experiment!
DDT is good for polio!
Oh wait, it must be a "virus" that caused it 😂
It's funny that soap is now going back to basic chemistry of ash after decades of chemical industry influence.
I think when the finance industry sociopaths took over business, they pushed cheaper over better/safer.
And these days they can't even do decent propaganda!
https://robc137.substack.com/p/looking-behind-the-curtain-of-oz
yep. viruses cannot be seen by the common people and so are a good scapegoat for what Can be seen to do damage , if they but look. sometimes "progress" is really poison.
Great article. The hygienists were very involved in the Eugenics movement too.
Thank you, Chris!! And yes they were!! And it's fascinating how the actual sane and good hygiene is good for us, and yet, they take something that is good for us and turn it into a monster!
The 'White House Cookbook' of the late 1800's has recipes for a number of household items including soaps in it's final chapters back behind the food recipes, a throwback to the days when a housewife not only cooked but made all of her own cleaning products and sundries.
It is still available for sale and is a great historical resource.
A neat potted history of 🧼. Thanks for getting on your soap-box!
I love your use of language :)
pretty smooth....
A most interesting bit of history. Is "cleanliness next to Godliness" or does too much soap destroy the 'good' bacteria? Most people don't want to stink, but should one need a chemistry degree to decipher the ingredients in modern soap? My preference is a few drops of Dr. Bronners. At least I can understand the ingredients. Are any hygiene products safe? It's hard to find toothpaste without fluoride or deodorant without aluminum. Maybe a little natural odor is best?
My father-in-law never used soap or deoderant, and didn’t stink.
Once the toxins of soap and deoderant leave the system, as long as the diet is good there is no funky odour.
My Dad planted a bunch of soapwort next to the house decades ago. Its a pretty little flower which I have dried and use to make soap. https://theherbgardener.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-make-organic-soap-using-soapwort.html
He was raised by his Grandmother (born 1865) who took him in the woods to gather medicinal plants - she was the midwife in the area and folks went to her for cures. They made their own soap along with most everything else.. Traded their eggs for goods at the local shop - Barter system.
So interesting! Thank you for sharing your story, Jewell!
Add sauna to your list of hygiene. That, and ice baths. The idea that all europeans were dirty is a myth by the way: the nobility and upper classes often were, because they had "learned advisors", i.e. the experts of bygone times, touting their pet theories as fact. Such as washing destroyed "the natural humours". I don't know what the russian for sauna is, but surely russian peasantry must have enjoyed saunas too?
Peasants, farmers, labourers of all sorts instead used the sauna at least a couple of times per week - especially on Saturdays. The swedish name for Saturday has nothing to do with Saturn but instead comes from the Old Norse word for washing (body or doing laundry): löga. Lördag, i.e. "Lögardagen", is Saturday in english.
My wife sometimes makes soap the old way, fat and ashes: pig fat and ash from birch is best. It reeks to high heaven. From ash we also make lye to clean the floors and other wooden surfaces with - gloves are a must, of course.
Of course, doing this while living in a block of flats would be a tad difficult.
I love saunas. hot springs, cold plunges. have you tried a turkish oil bath? it is quite good......you can mix essential oils in your base oil and smell marvelous.......so great for the skin.....
Finland has over 5 million people, over 3 million vehicles and over 2 million saunas.
sauna sundays!
And Koskenkorva Salmiakki!
Plus Kärringkånken and the World Champoinships in tossing Rubber Boots, if I don't misremeber things?
I knew this was going to be good when I read the title
Thank you, Cygnus!! ::)
I bought some "pre owned" shirts from ebay. I couldn't even take them out of the package, the reek of some kind of detergent is so offensive I had to keep them outside on the porch before sending them back. You have to click on a reason for the return but none of the bullet points fit, there's no reek button.
some people have no sense of smell.....
I yearn to live in a community of joy! A Canadian Grandma
I hear you, Sandy!! Respectful hugs!!
What a fantastic article! Wow!! You didn't miss a thing!
Thank you, Zoë!
wow !!!