I hate to admit it, but this is the second time Crayola has literally left its mark on a load of my laundry. You think that I would have learned to check pockets the first time around. But oh no, my motto is that I don’t do pockets. If you leave it in there, chances are you won’t see it again. Hmmm, after the second go around with melted crayon, I think it’s time to change my motto. Here’s my story…

It was a Sunday afternoon and I had nothing better to do than dig away at my ever-growing heap of laundry. Things are going great with my new front loading washing machine; I had already washed about three loads. Then I took out my light load from the dryer, it wasn’t pretty. I noticed my stepdaughter’s jacket in the mix and asked her to meet me by the dryer to view the mess. I politely asked her if she had anything in her pockets that could have caused greenish spots on the clothes. Not being a good liar, she said no and I could tell that she had no idea about the marks. I then started to examine the clothing more carefully and noticed a huge spot of green coming from one of my pant pockets. Realizing that is where the crayon debacle originated, I told her she could go back to her snack and I would clean up the mess. Damnit! I can’t blame the kid, this was all my doing. It all started coming back to me. I remember picking up a piece of crayon while cleaning, so my two-year-old wouldn’t leave his mark, yet again, on my walls. Ugghhh!!!!

Ok, the culprit has been identified and soon to be punished with a hellish clean up job. As I said earlier, this is the second time I have dealt with crayon in the dryer. I couldn’t remember exactly what I did last time, so I started doing an online search and came up with some real life options on ThriftyFun.com. Just in case this happens to you, here is what worked for me. I scrubbed the dryer with Colgate toothpaste and a damp cloth. I also put a damp towel dabbed with dishwashing soap in the dryer at high heat for 10-15 minutes. This enabled me to wipe off more of the melted crayon. There is still a green crayon stain around the heating element, but I ran a load of old towels and it didn’t transfer on to the towels. For the clothes, I tossed a couple of pieces that I didn’t care about and doused the rest with Shout. I used my regular detergent and washed the clothes on cold with a hot temperature boost.

The casualties? Well, there were a few. The pants I didn’t feel like dealing with, small spot on my stepdaughter’s jacket, a few stubborn spots on the bottom of my favorite capris, and my husband’s ugly burnt-orange dress shirt. I had to throw away the shirt; I was very upset as I did a happy dance to the trashcan. At least one good thing came out of crayon in the dryer.

I guess the title of this blog could be changed to Crayon + Dryer = Goodbye Ugly Shirt.