This morning when I emptied the very old dryer in our new home, the clothes tumbled out in a rainbow of colors. Yup, apparently someONE had a pocket full of crayons that I missed in my sleep-deprived-just-moved-in-state.
Our most-loved clothes were in that load, from my daughter’s favorite shirt, to my husband’s comfy pj pants, to my wear-everywhere jacket, to the first pair of brand new jeans I have had in six years. Everything was splashed in neon pink, light blue, light green and yellow, the colors of my two-year-old Molly’s Cinderella coloring book set. The heat of the dryer melted and baked the crayons firmly into the clothes.
This is another case for hanging laundry. Sigh.
Nevertheless, we don’t have a laundry line set up at the moment, so I did use the dryer; the very ancient dryer that operates on a flip switch instead of a dial. The ancient dryer that, although it did not completely dry the clothes in 45 minutes, still managed to wreck havoc with the crayons.
My first instinct was to cry. My second instinct was to toss the clothes out or turn them into rags or rugs or maybe funky purses. My third instinct was the really frugal one–trying to save the lot and transform them back into wearable clothing. After all, those clothes cost money. Since all three of the jeans that I own were in that wash, we made a quick trip to the Goodwill where I picked up two pair of nearly New Eddie Bauer jeans for $5.99 each. Hopefully, they can be an addition to my wardrobe instead of a substitute for the others.
So I did some research on the subject of getting out melted crayon in clothing and called some friends. The one solution that kept coming up was to rewash the clothes on hot water with one cup of Tide and one cup of Shout. So, I am trying that now–wish me lots of luck!
If the clothes come out well, I will just go ahead and hang them on the branches and trees in the backyard. The dryer will have to be cleaned. It still looks like a bunch of Disney princesses exploded in there. So, I’ll go now and run the dryer on its hottest setting to re-melt the stuck on crayons and then wipe it all down with a white cloth.
Has anyone run into this situation before? Do you have any sure fire tips for getting out melted crayon? Please help!
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