Pest Control
During mosquito season, tie a dryer sheet around your belt loop or stick it partway into your pants pocket when you’re outdoors. The smell repels mosquitoes, bees, and other winged pests.
If you have an ant infestation at home, lay a dryer sheet down in front of their entry point; they’ll flee at the mere sight of it.
Spread dryer sheets around the foundation of your home, plugging any chinks or holes large enough for mice, rats, squirrels, and other animals to squeeze through—they don’t like the taste of the sheets and will therefore not want to bother chewing through them to get inside your house.
Car Cure-alls
Dryer sheets work wonders at keeping your vehicle’s chrome gleaming; just lightly rub it down whenever you wash the car. (This technique is equally useful for cleaning chrome kitchen and bathroom fixtures.)
Lose the tacky pine tree–shaped air freshener; you can achieve the same deodorizing effect in your car’s interior by placing a dryer sheet under each seat.
Spray your car thoroughly with water, then use a dryer sheet to wipe dead bugs from the windshield and the body—no scratches.
Odor Eaters
Store used dryer sheets in your diaper bag; whenever you have a dirty diaper that you can’t dispose of right away, insert one sheet in the diaper before you roll it up.
Stuff a dryer sheet into the toe of each of your shoes to prevent lingering foot odor.
If you’re bringing wet, stinky pets into your home, wipe them down with a dryer sheet beforehand. Cat owners can place a dryer sheet in their litterbox to prolong the litter’s effectiveness.
Have you recently purchased musty secondhand books or noticed that your home library is beginning to smell a little stuffy? Place the offending volumes and a dryer sheet in a ziplock bag, seal it, and let it sit for a couple of days. When you remove the books, their odor will have returned to neutral.
If you’re storing your empty luggage, camping gear, or sports equipment in your basement or attic, where the scent is likely to permeate these items, insert a dryer sheet inside each suitcase, sleeping bag, and so on before you stash it.
Good Clean Fun
You wouldn’t just toss a nice potpourri or a full bottle of cleaning product, so why would you get rid of your dryer sheets after only one use when they’ve still got a lot of mileage left in them? The next time you finish off a box of them, don’t recycle the empty container; instead, use it as a receptacle for storing your used sheets when you pluck them from your loads of laundry. Soon, your clothes won’t be the only clean, sweet-smelling items in your house; everything from your floors to your pets to your running shoes will be positively glistening and radiating enticing scents—without a single static electron in sight, to boot.
