Friday, February 6, 2009

Crayons in the Dryer

I opened my dryer yesterday to fold the latest load of laundry, only to find bright orange spots all over everything. Apparently someone had an orange crayon in their pocket that I didn't find (until it was melted all over my dryer and clothes). Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!! It was a huge load too, including Sarah and Nathan's brand new pants, the kids' pjs and some maternity clothes that aren't even mine (sorry Linda!!!). I would have cried if I wasn't so mad. It was the first time I had washed Sarah and Nathan's new jeans (it's bad enough that they've already grown out of the pants I just bought them in October, but now their new pants covered in orange spots...!) It about threw me over the edge. After the initial frustration and panic, I decided to Google it. Sure enough, I'm not the only one that has experienced this. A ton of people swore by a recipe of:

1 cup OxiClean
2 capfuls of Tide
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Shout
1 cup white vinegar
There were raving reviews from people who had soaked their clothes this, and it took out all their crayon spots. The problem with crayons is, it's not just the colored spot, but it leaves a big grease mark all around it too. I was skeptical, but hopeful. I ran to the store, bought the stuff I didn't already have, and had it soak overnight. The result... now only half of the clothes have orange spots on them. Why oh why couldn't it work for me like the people on the Internet?! Why did it take the spots out of some clothes and not others? I thought that the problem was my load was way too full (I tend to over-fill my washer). I tried soaking the still-spotted-clothes, and they seem to be a little better, just lighter orange spots.
ANY SUGGESTIONS?!!!
It took a lot of scrubbing of my dryer drum with a Magic Eraser, but I think at least the dryer is clean. Gosh I sure needed all this extra work.

4 comments:

toni said...

The worst i've ever had is tissues in the load. I feel for you! My recommendation would be (Since it's too late to iron out the color) to soak the load in warm water with
1- a cup of powdered dishwashing soap,
2- a cup of BIZ bleach (I swear by this stuff! the enzymes will eat up any sort of organic matter like oil)
3- 1/2 cup borax,and
4- your regular laundry detergent
for the load size. Soak 2 hrs, (in your case overnight) wash like normal, with an extra rinse and spin at the end. I guess trying it won't hurt. Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

~Sherry (Bear) and Stephen (Wolf) said...

I have no experience in this area, and no giving my kids this idea either. (I know Stephen would love some polk-a-dot'd clothes. Lately I have washed rocks, tissues, and wheels off of toys. I check the pockets before I put things in the laundry baskets...it is what my kids hide in the laundry baskets after that. (My ice pack was recently found in the laundry basket...good thing it was the clean laundry I was thinking about folding, and I had last seen my ice pack an hour or two before.)
Good luck with getting the spots out!

Anonymous said...

Been there, done that! Also ink pens, gum, diapers (pull-ups),nuts & bolts, rocks, and I'm sure so much more. The gum was the worst. I can't recall how we got the crayon out.(Sorry, It happened years ago)

Amy B. said...

I have nothing...but I do love Borax and Biz Baby...in fact, I have some Biz Baby that I can no longer use cuz we got a NEW WASHER!!!!!! Call me if you would like it!