The Crayon Catastrophe: Part II

Last week, I told you about my crayon catastrophe and how to clean your dryer.  In that post, I also told you that I had put the clothes in a black garbage bag and stuffed them back into the dryer.  Well, obviously, they came out of the dryer, but until today, they did not even come out of the garbage bag. 

(Yea, I know.  At least I only use the avoidance tactic on my house and not my relationships.)

I am not sure why I stalled for so long, but I was very intimidated by these clothes.  I had asked so many people about solutions for my problem and I heard anything from, "throw them away, you won't get it out" to "use and iron and wax paper to transfer the wax to the paper".   There were so many possibilities so I just decided to ignore it!  ha!

Well, today, I conquered my fear!  I had talked to my sister in law and she suggested using Borax.  Honestly, I had never even heard of it.  After doing some more research, I decided that this was it...I was going to try it!

So, today, I took my garbage bag full of crayon covered clothes,

And my cleaning products,

And prayed for success. 

I put my laundry in the washing machine, put in my normal amount of laundry detergent, a 1/2 cup of Borax, used hot water, AND...

TA-DA!!!

It worked!!!  WOOHOO!  Excited might just be an understatement!  I was worried I'd have to spend countless hours with an iron and wax paper and all it took was adding another ingredient into my wash! 

Needless to say, I will be keeping Borax on hand for the rest of my life!  I bet it works wonders on spit up baby clothes too!  I feel like I have discovered something huge here!

Do you have any other secret weapons that I should know about!???

The Crayon Catastrophe

The other day was laundry day.  I was on my second load and about to switch my third and final load from the wash to the dryer.  I opened my dryer, took out the clothes, and saw this:

Purple crayon ALL OVER THE DRYER!  AHHHHHHH!

Seriously?  C'mon!  Once I saw that, I immediately looked down at the clothes that I had just pulled out.  They. Were. Covered.  AHHHHHH!  So frustrating!

So, my way of coping with this frustrating situation?  I got out a garbage bag, put all of those clothes in it, shoved it all back in the dryer, and shut the door.  Not dealing with it!

Well, that plan could only last a few days b/c my second laundry day was coming up.  So, today, I decided to face it...at least the dryer.  (The clothes are still in the garbage bag in the hallway.  I'll let ya know how I deal with that.)

I did a little bit of investigation and began my cleaning.  This is what I used:

WD-40, a soft cloth, dish soap, and a sponge.
(You should have seen my husbands face when I told him that I needed the WD-40 for my dryer...oh, ye of little faith!)

I began by spraying the WD-40 on the soft cloth and wiped over all of the marks.  While it lightened them, it did not get rid of them.  So, then I put soap on the tough side of the sponge and scrubbed.  It came off pretty quickly, but it definitely took a lot of elbow grease.  I repeated this all over the dryer drum and this is what I ended with:

Pretty good!  There are still some faint marks but I think thats fine.  It took about 20 minutes to thoroughly clean the entire dryer and I'll admit, my arms and hands are TIRED.

So, if you ever find yourself with a crayon filled dryer, here's your solution.  OR, if you are finding your arms to be a bit flabby this would also be a good solution!  Either way, I have learned my lessons!  I will never NOT check pockets ever again!  Scrubbing my dryer is not exactly how I picture myself spending nap time!