I am all about recycling, and crafting, and reusing whatever I can. Which is why when a friend told me that you could turn your dryer lint into modeling clay, I was pretty excited. And then, after I realized that she said dryer lint I was a little skeptical. I mean, dryer lint. Gross. But I figured I could at least give it a shot. It’s not like lint is so hard to come by. So my next laundry day I gathered all the lint from the trap in my dryer. I won’t lie, I was slightly disgusted. I had to continually remind myself that lint was nothing to be afraid of. I ended up with about three cups worth, which was perfect because that’s how the recipe starts.

Put your three cups of lint into a pot. Mix in two cups of water, one cup of flour, and 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Cook on low heat stirring continuously until the mixture turns smooth. Pour out onto wax paper and allow to cool. Once it is cool let the kids go to town.  My kids had a blast, treating it just like play dough. It was a little bit thicker than your average can of play dough, but for all intensive purposes works the same. My kids were slightly bummed that this clay only came in one boring color. Lint color. They did think that it smelled better though. Smelled like a dryer sheet after all. Over all it was a great project. My six year old was able to handle most of the cooking by herself with my supervision.

-Stephanie Wright