Laundry 101

Apparently, I set the clothes dryer to rainbow cycle yesterday, because when I opened it, the clothes were decorated in bright splashes of color. I discovered the bits were smeared, melted crayon baked into the clothes.

Mark watched me unload the clothes, mostly his. His favorite shorts looked like they'd lost a fight with a painter, and he panicked. "It's not that bad," he said desperately. "I can still wear them."

"Not in public," I said. He begged and pleaded, until finally I said, "Hey, we've got bigger problems here--look at the dryer!"

The dryer had splotches of yellow and orange staining the door, and a bluish-green tint around the drum. There were lumps of red and purple on the tumbler-things (I don't know the technical terms for dryer parts). It was a mess.

So I did what any self-respecting mother would do--I raced to the Internet for help. (I figured the clothes were a loss, but man, a new dryer would cost me!!)

I Googled "crayons in dryer." There are a LOT of results for that! I felt a little better--I'm not the only mom to wash her kid's crayons with his clothes. I found some good information, which ultimately saved most of Mark's clothes, and some BAD information, which I wouldn't even try.

The good info: The crayon does come off. Drench your clothes in OxiClean--I used a bottle of the laundry spray, and another bottle of a thick, laundry soap-like OxiClean stain remover, and soaked the clothes in it. Then I washed them again in cold water, and all the crayon came out.

The bad info: You wouldn't believe how many Web sites recommend spraying WD40 or Goo-Gone into the dryer to clean it! I don't know much about those products, except that they are extremely flammable, and the whole point of the dryer is to...well, heat things up! Seemed like a bad combination to me.

Another suggestion said to take a whole tube of toothpaste and squirt it into the dryer, then pop open a beer. By the time you finish your beer, the dryer will be clean, and you can clean out the toothpaste.

I'm sure that idea works just fine, and toothpaste is not flammable, but...YUCK. I passed on that one as well.

In the end, I took a box of baking soda, a little water, and a lot of elbow grease. I scrubbed off the most colorful bits, and the bits I couldn't get off...well, they've just added a little character to my otherwise dull dryer. I washed and dried two loads of old towels, and when they finished crayon-free, I declared the dryer clean enough, and open for business once again.

I held up Mark's shorts, good as new, and asked him, "Who's the best mom in the entire world?" He smelled a trick question, and answered, slowly, "You...and Grandma."

"What? Grandma didn't save your favorite shorts today! I said, who is the best mom in the entire world WHO JUST SAVED YOUR FAVORITE SHORTS?" I dangled them over the trash can, and suddenly, he found the correct answer.

"You are!" he shouted.

Which, coincidentally, was the same answer to his next question. "Mom, are you gonna check my pockets more carefully next time, before you wash my clothes?"

"No," I told him, smiling. "YOU ARE!"