Crayon Incident

One fine spring day not too long ago, while opening the dryer, I gasped as I discovered that the ENTIRE load was swirled with vivid shades of red, orange, blue, and purple crayon wax. The mischievous Crayolas were hidden in a knee pocket of a certain little boy's pant leg and they had a lovely time on their tumble through the load. I was also blessed with a beautiful swirl design on the inside of my dryer drum, which surely would have come off onto the next few loads.

Thanks to the trusty internet search engine, I was able to find several suggestions to ease the dreaded hours I anticipated to clean up the mess. First, for the dryer drum, I tried WD-40... said to work on anything... didn't work at all and emitted nauseating toxic fumes (I held my breath the whole time). After that unsuccessful attempt, I turned on the fan, closed the laundry room off for a few hours, and continued researching online.

One helpful blog reminded me that the clothes could wait - it was more important to first clean out the dryer so I could continue washing clothes through the week. Then I read on and the author suggested using inexpensive white paste toothpaste. I figured it was worth a try so I carefully opened the laundry room door to check for fumes (they had finally gone) and went to work with my tube of whitening toothpaste and a hard bristle scrub brush. Almost within seconds, the scrub brush loosened every bit of wax and the dryer was bright white and smelled minty fresh (no toxic fumes - although it did make me wonder whether the stuff is so good for teeth). I wiped down the inside of the drum and we were good to go.

Now to tackle the clothes. I figured it would be smart to try washing them again, just to see if anything came out, before attempting to pretreat every minuscule spot on every piece. Another blog explained that the the secret lies in melting the crayon with hot water and then using a soap with ingredients to attract the oil and wax out of the fabric. It suggested Murphy's Oil Soap, of which I have plenty, so I thought this would definitely be worth a try.

I added about 3/4 of a cup of concentrated laundry detergent (much more than I usually add), plus about the same amount of the oil soap. I set the cycle to extra hot (to melt the wax) with an extra rinse, and waited excitedly to see if it would get anything out.

Drumroll... I opened the washer and pulled out piece after beautiful piece of crayon free fabric. Not a single spot! This is definitely a good thing to pass along... I'm sure many a mom has hand treated crayon spots. Never again!

Here are some before and after shots of the clothes: