I wish I had a picture to show you just how ridiculous my load of laundry looked yesterday when I went to take it out of the dryer (but of course the batteries in my camera are dead, and I just can't manage to remember that when I am at a place that sells batteries). As you might have guessed already, nearly every item of clothing was covered in blue spots.
That's curious, I thought. Surely I would have noticed this when I loaded the dryer. What could it be? I considered paint, since we had spent the afternoon finger painting, but that would have washed out (considering I use the best quality natural soap there is). :) Did someone leave a pen in their pocket? Nope. I'm pretty sure that would have come out too.
Elijah was helping sort through what had spots on it and what didn't. We got to the end of the load with only about five things not being covered in blue spots (one of them being Martin's batman sleep pants- he really is just a boy in a man's body)! Then Elijah said, "look mommy the whole dryer is blue!" When I bent down and looked into the dryer I saw the evidence... the only clue to this silly mishap... a lonely blue crayon wrapper waiting to be discovered.
Instantly it all became clear to me, as I'm sure it is coming to you now. The crayon must have melted due to the heat of the dryer, plastering everything with blue wax. I soaked and boosted, and washed two times. The spots faded, but there still there! Ughh! Most of the load was Elijah's clothes, many of his collared school shirts and khaki pants! Thank goodness for hand me downs!!!
We made a new rule: always check pockets for crayons, or whatever else might be waiting to ruin the laundry.
I had to learn that lesson the hard way, too. My boys always had "treasures" in their pockets when they were little. I never knew what I might find on laundry day. One of the many adventures of being a mom. :)
ReplyDeleteYep, happened to us, too! A red crayon, in our case. I looked up all sorts of home remedies on the internet and succeeded in cleaning out the dryer, at least. The crayons stains faded quite a bit, but never disappeared. That's when I stopped putting the kids' clothes in with mine!
ReplyDeleteI am one of those people who doesn't always remember to empty her own pants pockets when changing clothes. So I always check before laundry. Scott however always emptys his own out so I never check his, until the one time he forgot. Now I check all pants pockets. I like Katrina's idea of a seperate load for the kids. I will have to remember that!
ReplyDeleteyes, I'm going to separate from now on... one of my favorite shirts has blue spots on the collar now!
ReplyDelete