How I Used a Tennis Ball in the Dryer for the Fluffiest Sheets

Once the weather turns and the days get both shorter and colder, there is nothing better than a freshly made bed with clean, fluffy sheets.

I’ve tried a lot of laundry innovations in my day—one of which is using dryer balls instead of sheets. I love how they work, so when I recently heard about a similar hack involving tennis balls, I had to try it out.

According to Rhiannon Masters, interior designer and head of brand at Piglet in Bedtennis balls are a simple and affordable option for getting fluffy, fresh sheets. She also claims this is a great solution for fluffing up sad-looking pillows.

“All you need is a tennis ball and a sock—that’s it!” Masters says.

Why Tennis Balls?

While I do love dryer balls, I’ve found they’re better for speeding up your dry time than fluffing anything up. According to Masters, the true beauty of using a tennis ball is that they’re made to bounce.

“The ball will bounce inside the drum and essentially beat out the lumps in your pillow, returning them to their former, fluffy glory,” she explains.

Want more cleaning and organizing tips? Sign up for our free daily newsletter for the latest hacks, expert advice, and more!

Buy Fresh Tennis Balls

I live with three tennis players, so we do have a decent amount of tennis balls in our house. But because these were going to go in with our bedding, I figured it was better to buy brand new tennis balls rather than resort to an older, dirty pick.

It’s worth noting you only need one for this experiment, and it’s hard to imagine you’ll need to replace it anytime soon.

If the idea of keeping a pack of tennis balls in your laundry room sounds like needless clutter, then maybe buy these with a tennis player or ball-loving pup in mind.

Choose Your Sock

Rather than tossing the ball into the drum, Masters suggests interesting the tennis ball into a tube sock and tying the top in a knot.

I opted for a random pair of white socks, which was especially key as I was drying a load of light sheets. While there’s no color-bleeding on a dry cycle, I didn’t want to end up with dark fuzz stuck all over the place.

I also wasn’t sure if the tennis ball would cause the sock to warp or misshape at all, so I decided to pick a pair no one cared about. I’ll probably just keep the tennis ball tied up in the sock for future use anyway, so I ended up tying a second in place and popping them in with the rest of our laundry storage.

Use Medium to Low Heat

This one is key, because tennis balls are made of rubber. Even on medium heat, mine came out smelling a little hot—and it’s not a great smell to associate with your sheets and pillows.

It went away quickly, but the temperature is clearly important!

The End Result

If you’ve read any of my previous laundry testing content, you already know our dryer isn’t great. It’s small and inefficient, and clothes often come out feeling crunchy or worse—still damp.

In the case of the sheets, they came out fluffed up and feeling cozy.

But for our pillows, I was less enthused by this hack. Unfortunately, the drum was too overpacked, so I would only do one pillow per cycle rather than three of our sofa pillows at a time for the best results.

Next: Towels

While I loved Masters’ suggestion of trying this on my pillows and bedding, I had a revelation as I was re-making our beds with our newly fluffed sheets.

For all the reasons I already love dryer balls, I bet using a tennis ball would be perfect on towels—and I am pleased to report it was. My towels were dry and crunch-free—I am officially a tennis ball convert.