Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Removing Crayon From Laundry

As I pulled the warm clothes out of the dryer, I wanted to cry! Each and every piece of laundry had any where from small to very large orange stains. The tale tell signs that I had washed and dried a crayon. Now this is nothing new, old school actually. So I went to my blog and dredged up this post from way back when. Embarrassing as it is to admit, this is not the first time I have ruined a load of laundry with a crayon! However, it makes for the perfect Tuesday Tip and Trick for today. Enjoy!

This is a great tip that every mom should have in her never ending supply of ideas. Yes, this is a discovery made due to necessity. As I was putting my girls to bed one night I realized they had no pants to wear to school the next day so I ran downstairs and hastily put all the jeans I could find into the washing machine and I went to bed. Early the next morning I got up for work, put the jeans in the dryer and signed on to work. After work I woke the girls, put them in the shower and came down to have their jeans warm and ready for them when they got out.

Much to my dismay, one of my children, my suspicion lies with my youngest boy, had left an orange crayon in their pocket. Not a pair of jeans were safe. Every single pair of jeans had the unmistakable markings of melted crayon. Well, needless to say, my girls got a new pair of pants that morning and I went in search of a miracle cure for melted crayon.

What I found was a wonderful product call Goo-Gone, sold by most large retailers and grocery stores in their Laundry and Cleaning sections. It is a solvent that works on almost everything. I personally have used it for years to remove everything from candle wax from a shirt to price stickers from plastic and glass surfaces. This stuff is almost as versatile as WD-40! But would it take out the wax and color of the crayon?

Well, I found that it did a great job of breaking up the wax and removing some of the color but something more was needed for the remaining color. This is where I introduced, plain old, everyday dish soap.

So here's the process. Place a white paper towel between the layers of fabric. Squirt GooGone on the spots and allow to sit and absorb. I found that if I squirted one pair and then squirted another pair, I could then return to the first pair to start scrubbing. Using a toothbrush I would scrub in small circles a few times then I would freely add some dish soap and continue scrubbing. I was convinced that it was working by the orange tint arising in the bristles of the toothbrush. After scrubbing each individual spot I then washed in hot water with extra detergent.

I was really amazed by how well this process worked. There were no residual grease marks or color. The jeans all looks as great as they did before the crayon attacked them.

9 comments:

Leah said...

awesome! Thanks for posting this! I will definitely remember this becase I am sure it is only a matter of time before I need to use this tip!

Bob and Jenn Peacock said...

I have had this happen a few times! I hope it never happens again, but if it does, I will definately try this.

The Orton's said...

Savvy Mom -

You just saved me. Only mine was a beautiful, bright yellow crayon. It looks like I have a lot of scrubbing ahead of me! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Unknown said...

OMG I have just struggled for 3 hours before looking up a tip online for my boy's blue crayon disaster-THANKS!

LADYBELIZE said...

Woooow, my friend just called me on this exact situation and i looked up a way to resolve this issue and your posting so help my little god daughter from getting a harass punishment cause all the clothes was design from the orange crayon ... from work clothes,school clothes n etc....I Thank you so much cause i recall the GOO-GONE BUT THE Added INFORMATION WAS MAGICALLY A PLUS... Thank again.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a lot of work to scrub all the places where the crayon melted? How long did it take? My whole load has blue crayon on each part of clothing. :-(

~Ava Kinsey said...

I just found the remains of a bright pink crayon in my dryer after drying my husband's work clothes (odd, right?). No crayon on the clothes, just by the lint trap and inside the lint trap. I posted on Facebook and a friend posted the link to this post. Will try the Goo Gone and will keep in mind the extra tip!

M&N said...

I had white laundry and a red crayon!!!! I will give this a try tonight! Thank you!

Alicia said...

Oh my, you might just be my new best friend! I just had an orange crayon go thru the washer and dryer with a load of light colored clothes! Some of my husband's favorite shirts are possibly ruined. I'll be going to buy Goo Gone in the morning and then spend the rest of the day scrub, scrub, scrubbing... I hope I have as good of results as you did, really don't want to have to tell my husband I have destroyed his shirts.