When Crayons Explode

This morning I was working away in my office when I heard Adam’s voice. It sounded sort of small and distant, as though it were coming across a string and into a tin can held up to my ear.

Strange, since I didn’t have a tin can telephone on my ear. Even stranger, it sounded like he said there had been an explosion in the basement.

Lucy and Alice were in the midst of a giggle fest in their bedroom, so I had to holler at them to pipe down for a second.

Then came Adam’s voice again—through the laundry chute.

 “I must have misheard you,” I called down. “It sounded like you said ‘explosion.’”

“Yep,” he said. “In the dryer. It’s really bad.”

I don’t know about you, but when I hear explosion, basement, dryer and really bad all together in one sentence, I have but one thought:

“Oh no. A rat crawled into our dryer and died and somehow through the process of decomposition accelerated by heat, its guts burst from its belly and are now sliding slowly, cruelly down the sides of the dryer, weaving awful new patterns into our clothing.”

But maybe that’s just me. In my own personal dictionary of life’s little traumas, “bad” by means rats, dead or alive, along with innards of any sort.

So it was good news, then, that the basement explosion involved neither rats nor their juicy bits.

It was a crayon, hot pink, that made it through the wash and into the dryer before it succumbed to the heat and exploded all over every single long-sleeved uniform shirt the kids own, as well as our bath mat and Adam’s pillowcase, which he tossed into the wash yesterday after it got covered in lavender bubble bath.

(This bubble bath business is a long story unto itself, as is the reason the bath mat was being washed in the first place. Let’s just say that the bubble bath meant Alice had to take a second bath right after the first, only this time without bubble bath because the last of the bottle was on Adam’s pillow. And I am pleased to report that it was chocolate on the bath mat, and not what I’d originally suspected.)

In any case, the good news is at least there were no rats involved, unless by “rat” you mean the kid who put the crayon in her shirt pocket. (And I know which kid it was. The shirt looks like her heart burst. It’s sort of gruesome.)

Oh, but I joke, I joke. Who hasn’t put a crayon through the wash? Any kid who hasn’t probably doesn’t color enough. Or that’s what I say to make myself feel better for not checking pockets thoroughly before I toss stuff down the laundry chute.

The hard part, though, is getting the crayon out of the clothes and off the drum of the dryer. But even that isn’t as hard as I’d feared. 

A friend sent along a recipe for removing crayon wax from clothing. The list looked long at first. But then when I went down and compared it to the list of things I’ve accumulated as a parent—Shout, OxiClean and the leftover Borax from the slime we made at Lucy’s “gross and disgusting”-themed birthday party—I realized that I already have it all.

And that is true, in an even bigger way. Stuff goes wrong in life. But when you have the wisdom and support of friends, a well-stocked cleaning supplies cupboard, and acceptance of the fact that small calamities will happen even when we are busy with other things, you feel better, almost instantly.

But I’ve still made it good and clear to the kids that crayons don’t go in pockets. Judging from the looks on their faces when they saw their school shirts, this time they’re going to remember.

--Martha Brockenbrough

Comments

[Jolie]

So true! And a great reminder. Plus, I'm glad it was a crayon instead of a rat.

[Kristine]

Good, timely wisdom, especially at the end. Thanks for sharing!

[Greta]

Oh your article made me smile. I too have had to clean melted crayon off of many an article of clothing. My all time favorite item however was the pine cones my son brought home by the hundreds in Kindergarten and just about everyone of them went through the wash and dryer in his pants pockets before I wised up to what all the wood chip looking stuff on my clothes was all about. Most made it through the dryer in his jeans pocket just fine. I remember pulling 23 out of his pocket once - didn't even know pockets could hold that much. Most clothes I just rewashed and the offending pinecone pieces came off. Had to throw out lots of socks though. Neither he nor I were interested in picking out little slivers of wood. All it took was one look at his favorite sock full of "slivers" as he called them and not a pinecone was to be had ever again! We keep a bowl full of the nice clean pinecones that made it through in one piece on his counter in the bathroom as a daily reminder (and a nice decoration) to never put pinecones in his pocket again :)

[juanita]

Boy did this bring back memories. I sure wish I had the recipe to remove crayon wax back then. I just ended up useing the ruined clothes for paint projects and such. Good story thanks for sharing:)

[Tara]

Pink lip gloss is bad, too! My poor MIL thought she was helping when my daughter came in all wet and snowy, by tossing her jeans in the dryer. Unfortunately, there was tube of pink, strawberry lip gloss in the pocket! It speaks volumes about her patience that she not only DIDN'T get mad, but she cleaned up the jeans (which just happened to be the expensive embroidered ones that my daughter loved so much). Thanks, Mom!

[Sandra]

Wow, this happened to me just last week with a load full of white clothes and green, blue, orange, and red crayons! I was able to clean up the inside of the dryer (baby wipes are miraculous!)

Could you please share the recipe for getting it out of the clothes though? Mine are sitting in a basket waiting to be 'fixed'!

[Cozi]

Here's the word from Martha on the recipe for her magic mix:

2c. tide,
1c. Oxyclean,
1/2c 20 Mule team Borax,
1c. shout
1c. White vinegar

She says this removed some of the minor stains, but the big stains were beyond hope. Good luck!

[Wanda Bretz]

My daughter is a constant user of ChapStick and a red one went through the dryer. I am going to try this recipe and hope for the best because I have a lot of white clothes with red streaks...

[Lynnet]

Reminded me of when one of my kids left a neon bright orange crayon in the pocket of one of their pockets. i discovered one Easter morning... I must confess, it would have been better if I had not went to church that day! I used Zout to get my crayons stains out - but I had darker clothes - dress shirts.... Very interested to see the "after" picture.

[Ellen]

I think I had blocked this out, but I had this same thing happen a couple years ago with almost all of my daughter's white uniform shirts. I was never exactly sure how the crayon got in there, but I found it when I opened the dryer. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think I soaked the clothes in Tide w/bleach and miraculously, they came clean. The dryer was the fun part. It is so much fun to put half of your body in a dryer and scrub off crayon! I think what I ended up using was Clorox wipes (many of them) and then putting a clean, old, damp towel in the dryer for a while. I am just so glad to know I'm not the only one who has had this experience.