How to Remove Static Cling

The other day I was doing some laundry and threw in my shower curtain. No, not the liner but the pretty floral curtain that livens up the whole room. I have washed it before but usually don't put it in the dryer. However, this time I was in a hurry and while loading everything into the dryer my mind wandered about dinner, chores and cleaning the dog hair off the couch. So needless to say I threw the shower curtain in the dryer. Big mistake on my part. Why? You might ask. Well, that's because I use dryer balls instead of fabric softener sheets - though I am going to make these - which helps your clothes dry faster as well as soften them a bit. But what they don't do is get rid of static cling. So when I hung my lovely polyester shower curtain it would not stop sticking to itself and it drove me nuts!

After some research on how to fix this problem without having to rewash the curtain, here's what I discovered, tried and what actually worked. Hope it helps some of you who have the same problems.

Here is what I tried:

• Moistening my hands and running them along the shower curtain, hoping the moisture would release the static.
• Hanging the curtain and letting the hot water run in order to create steam.
• Ironing the curtain and spraying it with Magic Sizing. It did the best job, however the fabric continued to stick together slightly; annoying me still.

Here is what works:

• Running a wire hanger smoothly over the curtain. The action breaks the bond of the negatively charged electrons, which reduces static cling.
• Rubbing a fabric softener sheet along the curtain with moist hands. I did not want to purchase the sheets, so I asked a neighbor for one and it worked the best.
• Lastly, the most effective and most obvious solution to the problem was to throw the curtain in the dryer with a fabric softener sheet for a few minutes. This would have been my first choice had I not lived in an apartment without my own dryer.

Quick Tip!

If you don't like fabric softener sheets either, but have the static cling problem like me then roll up a 2-3 in. ball of aluminum foil and toss it into your dryer. It will remove the cling and never has to be changed. I'm going to try this next time I launder!