Happy Venting 2 - Cleaning Out the Dryer Vent Area on Your Dryer

I mentioned in yesterdays post that my mother got a blanket for Christmas that fell apart in the dryer. I got rid of the blanket but today when I did laundry, I found a shirt of Princess Five's that has been washed several times since it was dried with that blanket, the blanket is gone from my house and when I pulled that shirt out of the dryer today, it was FULL of that lint from that blanket. I have a shirt that it is stuck on as well and I have washed it several times and it won't come off! 

Anyway, if you are going to buy a fluffy feeling blanket for someone, do yourself and them a favor and tug on the blanket at the store, give the fibers a good pull and if you get ANY fibers coming off in your hand, DON'T buy the blanket!!! 

I talked about how after drying the blanket, when I used the dryer, my dryer stopped mid cycle and the "Check filter" red light came on and I still had wet clothes in the dryer. 


I pulled out the filter and took anything on it out but I do that after EVERY time I use the dryer so I knew it wasn't that. 

I could see down into the area below the vent trap and there was LOTS of lint down there along with a fake credit card type activity pass that had been forgotten in someone's pants at one point. Of course I smiled when I could see a penny exactly in the middle of the bottom. 
 
It was a frustrating time as it had snowed and I was dealing with all my mom's laundry and she was still not doing well so I had to trek out in the snow to clean out the outside vent so I was very grateful to see that penny at that point reminding me to "Trust in God" that all will be OK! 


In thinking about it, I would much rather have the dryer stop and me have to clean out the vents than to have a house fire or burn out the dryer parts due to over heating so I did see very many things to be grateful for in the situation and the penny just reminded me of those blessings. 
 
When trying to vacuum out the area beneath the vent screen, the vacuum hose was too thick to get into the skinny area so I came up with a quick solution to clean it out. 
 
I took the center cardboard tube from the center of a roll of paper towels and used some packing or duct tape to tape that onto the end of the skinny hose attachment on the vacuum. 
 
Once it was on with no gaps or leaks, I squeezed it just enough to stick it into the slot where the vent is and was able to push it down onto the area and vacuum it out. It did collapse on itself some but still had enough suction to pull out the clumps of lint.
 
I did use a wire hanger to loosen the lint from the metal towards the bottom as it had gotten stuck with the moisture in the dryer and just needed to be loosened some. 
 
I didn't think at the time about the smaller brush I showed in yesterdays post that would have worked great for that but at least you know a wire hanger works just as well as you can see by the picture.  
 
When that was cleaned out, I did have to vacuum in front of the dryer as the cardboard would collapse and bring the lint out with the suction but when I would turn off the machine, some dust would drop out. 
 
At one point, it had so much stuff coming up that it clogged the tube and I had to get all the lint out but as you can see, my little make due vacuum hose out of a tube worked great!  

Of course, the penny didn't get sucked up as it was heavy and fell out while vacuuming. I put it in my "found money" pile. I am grateful for the reminder to Trust in Him and not make a big thing out of a small thing! I am grateful I have a dryer. I am grateful that it was free. (See a post about that here)  I am grateful I have a room just for Laundry. etc etc.