My mom is full of energy and ideas.  She frequently calls me, voice tense with excitement, to share her latest idea on making life easier.  Most of the time, these ideas end up being simple but brilliant.

Dealing with dryer lint is a pain in the neck.  If you’re like me, you don’t have space in the laundry area for a trash can to throw it out.  I end up having to walk all the way around the corner and into my kitchen to toss it into the compost bucket.  (Yes, dryer lint is great for compost!)  I mean, let’s be honest, it’s really only 10 steps for me, but when I’m doing laundry, which I don’t love, 10 steps becomes the equivalent of running a marathon.

To save time, I would ball up the lint and put it on top of the dryer, intending to throw it out when I finished in the laundry room and headed back through the kitchen.  Predictably, the pile of lint balls grew quickly into a small mountain.  As my mom says, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Or in my case, dryer lint.

My mom called me up on day a couple of years ago, and I could tell right away that she had a great idea.  It helped that she opened the conversation by saying, “Molly! I had a great idea!”  Turns out she did.  And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the secret to dealing with the annoyance of dryer lint:

Yes, that’s right!  It’s an empty tissue box.  It’s perfect for the task.  The opening is small and keeps the dust fully contained.  It is tiny, so it just sits right there on top of your dryer like a decorative dumpster waiting to receive the lint.  When it’s full, you can either toss the whole thing into your recycle bin and replace it with a fresh empty tissue box, or empty the lint out into the compost or trash, and keep on using the old one.  Voila!  Lint problem solved.