Thrifty Thursday – The Magical Wash Ball

I heard about this wash ball from one of my online mommy groups. It supposedly will wash up to 500 loads of laundry without any detergent. Hocus Pocus was my first thought. Nothing that costs $10 will wash 500 loads of laundry. I had a 40% coupon for Joann’s and, being desperate for clean smelling clothes, I decided to try it out. It’s supposed to be filled with little ceramic balls that manipulate the water to pull dirt our of the fabric fibers. I admit, I was a bit hesitant because online reviews made claims that the ball was useless and a waste of money and one site even went as far as to claim that it was filled with tiny pellets of dye.

I got it home and soaked it overnight like the directions said, all the while Tony is mocking me and my wash ball. *Insert pouty face here.*

I thought I’d take the plunge and do diapers on my very first wash ball load to really just break the thing in. I did add about a teaspoon of my diaper detergent. Just in case… Almost instantly the water turned murky brown and STUNK! My fears of buying this piece o’ junk returned. It really IS just bits of dye that make you think the thing is pulling out dirt from your clothes. So, of course, I sat there and WATCHED the dern washing machine agitate my diapers in increasingly brown water. I kept telling myself that the soak didn’t turn brown so it can’t be dye, it can’t be dye. The rinse cycle came and went (water clear this time) and I started pulling my diapers out of the washer expecting stinkies. NOPE! Fresh as a spring breeze! And bright too! Some of Adlai’s diapers are handmedowns from Eli and have seen 3 years of diaper warfare (trust me, the kid is not gentle on his clothes) and came out looking almost brand new again. Since buying the wash ball, the wash water has gotten increasingly lighter which means (to me at least) that the ball did its job and is now just maintaining the clean. The same thing happened with towels and our other clothes. The colors seem a bit brighter and the fabrics have a fabric feel to them again. We have extremely hard water and everything was starting to get a funky feel to them.

I love this wash ball so much that I actually pulled it out of the washer mid-load to take a picture for this blog. A diaper load. That shows love, man. And don’t you think the pink coordinates with the Gold Beast (aka our washer and dryer)?

*I guess I should provide info on where to get it… I found mine in the college dorm section of my local Jo Ann’s. They are normally $10 but you can always find a 40% off coupon which brings it down to $6. Not bad for 500 loads of laundry.