Crayola: Color Your World
I wrote this post several times, over and over again in my head, while I was in the dryer. IN it – at least mostly. As in, my kids were looking for me and I responded “Sweetie, mommy’s in the dryer. What do you need?”
While I was “in” the dryer,, the blog post going around and around in my head went something like this…
This morning, while brushing my teeth, I happened to glance over at the clothing, spilling out of the dryer, a casualty of the hubby’s quick morning search for work clothes. There were everyone’s swimsuits, the girls’ shorts, my sundress, some t-shirts and…it was all black. Black polka dots. Black smudges. Black streaks. Oh, and there was also this:
remnants of the perpetrator
It’s amazing the amount of psychological warfare that a small, seemingly innocent black crayon can wage on a mother. And I have to admit, at the beginning of this battle, the crayon was victorious.
Here are a few of the victims…(and its true, I rarely sort colors. I wash on cold. I have 3 kids.)
Realizing that everyone in our home now had Cheetah-print swimsuits for our upcoming vacation, I drove to Target in the dazed stupor of PTLD (Post-Traumatic Laundry Disorder), realizing that I would either buy new swimsuits or some kind of stain remover. I did what any desperate mother does.
I called my Grandma.
This is the grandma that runs to the cleaning products aisle like a kid in a candy store. The grandma who does laundry for fun.
She was stumped. Luckily, my Aunt was visiting and she broke out google while I drove on to Target.
Sadly, I’m not the only mama who has been blitzed by melting crayons. Thanks to this post, we are no longer spotted…
Here is Olivia’s swimsuit, for a close up idea of the crayon carnage:
it’s gory, I know…
And this, my all-natural, anti-toxic-cleaning-supply-friends, is my blue Knight In Bubbly Armor:
I cringed at buying it, I hated smelling it all over my hands and clothes, knowing what was in it, but quite frankly, in a moment of desperation, I knew that this was one job that a little baking soda and vinegar wouldn’t cover. So I caved and bought commercial dish detergent (although I realized after checking out that it looks like they used a spray version in this post. I grabbed the dish detergent and had fantastic results…as you can see!)
I know…I’m stunned too…
This is Liv’s swimsuit, after a pre-treating, a soak in hot water, a wash cycle, then some hand scrubbing. Don’t get me wrong. This stuff dissolved the waxy crayons, but it wasn’t easy. The way I see it, they were ruined either way, so what if it bleached the color from my clothes? Crazy thing is, the colors were fine; it only disolves grease, hence the magic disappearance of that AWOL crayon – but only after a.lot.of.scrubbing.
At this point, most of our clothing has been salvaged. I’m still working on the smudges in the dryer, and there are a few shirts that, quite frankly, should have been headed to Goodwill anyways, so they are now Cheetah-print dust rags.
Oh, but you’ll be happy to know that when I DID exit the dryer, from whence I was scrubbing black goo, I did find one item that made it through the whole ordeal completely spot-free.
yep. We launder our pacifiers around here. That’s just how we roll.
What strange items have you found in your dryer?
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P.S. I can’t forget the infamous disclaimer – where I let you know that Dawn did not ask me to write this, I’m not getting any kick backs or perks from them and they had no idea I melted a crayon in my dryer.
This post is linked to Titus 2 Tuesdays at Cornerstone Confessions, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways at Frugally Sustainable, What Works Wednesdays at Upside Down Homeschooling, Women Living Well, Your Green Resource at Live Renewed, Simple Lives Thursday at Gnowfglins, The Welcome Home Link Up at Raising Arrows, Better Mom Mondays at The Better Mom, Homestead Barn Hop at The Prairie Homestead, The Homestead Blog Carnival at the Morris Tribe, Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist, Titus 2 Tuesdays at Cornerstone Confessions
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