Retro Saturday: Crayons in the Dryer

Retro Saturdays give Ivy and I a chance to replay some of our favorite posts and spend some time with our families.

Ivy says:

So much I wanted to write about, but alas, I’ve been spending all night dealing with a crayon in the dryer disaster. Anyway, my loss is your gain, since I’m sure you’ll remember this and make sure to apply the lesson I learned: always check the pockets of every item that goes in the wash, even top pockets of shirts that belong to little boys.

So, what do you do when you run a crayon through your wash and then it makes it into the dryer? First, cry. Then, panic. No, wait, that’s what I did. No, just go to the Crayola website where they have instructions on how to get rid of Crayola stains of all sorts.

In case you don’t feel like trekking all the way over to the Crayola website, I’ll tell you what it said. First, get the crayon marks out of the dryer by spraying it down with our good friend WD-40. Then wash the WD-40 residue out of the dryer with dishwashing liquid. Then run a load of clean rags through the dryer to make sure there’s no residue left. No need to have to do this next part on another load of laundry. Because it is a pain in the butt, but it works.

Make a little pad of paper towels. Then get out our good friend, WD-40 again and spray the clothing. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then flip it over on the other side and repeat the process. Then take liquid dishwashing liquid and work it into the stain.

Then, if that wasn’t enough drama, wash the clothing with hot water, with laundry detergent and bleach (color safe bleach if you’re dealing with colored clothing, natch) for either 12 minutes if your washer has a timed cycle, or the heavily soiled setting if it doesn’t. Use warm water to rinse. Check your clothes before you put them back in the dryer to make sure you got all the stains out, but you will. Any process that is that big of a pain generally works. It worked for me, yo.

Finally, put your feet up and pour yourself an iced tea (or something stronger, if you’re into that) and relax. You deserve it after that drama!

Submit your domestic questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.