Before getting started I want to say that I obviously didn’t plan on this happening, so please excuse my appearance in the pictures. I decided to snag a few pictures of what I was dealing with, in HOPES that one of these solutions that I was re-searching on Youtube and on Pinterest would work… or even a solution that I came up with. Luckily I did, but you aren’t going to see me dolled up for these pics. This was real life at that moment and just wanted to share with you all that sometimes sh*t happens and it’s not always rainbows and unicorns.. and even though I thought about getting all dolled up for these blog pics, I decided ehh screw it.. this is life and I’m going to share with you the raw!
You know when you buy an appliance and you are so excited and do everything at least for the first month or so to make sure it all looks pretty and not damaged? Well, at least that’s what my hopes are.
When we moved into the home, our home didn’t come with a washer/dryer, which resulted into us having to buy one. We did lots of research on which washer/dryer we were wanting to purchase, and were so excited when it got delivered. We ended up buying both a Maytag washer/dryer, and seriously love it, but this isn’t about that.
All was well when they delivered the washer/dryer and of course once they left, I immediately wanted to test it and start washing some clothes. Mind you we were 2 weeks backed up on laundry… so regardless it needed to be done.
Normally when it comes to laundry, I always check the pockets, but this time I guess I was too excited and of course that’s the time when sh*t hits the fan!
When I washed the clothes, everything was fine (of course it would be right)…. well then came drying the clothes. My daughter wanted to help me remove all the clothes from the dryer and that’s when she mentioned “why is it so orange in here”. I then said… “orange”? (with a puzzled look on my face) and she said “yup… orange”! I immediately looked in the dryer, and my heart just about sank!!!!! A BRAND new dryer, not even a few hours old on our household… was ruined!!! Honestly, I couldn’t help but laugh because I just thought… damn.. this would happen to us… or to me! After calling my husband and somewhat laughing and panicking at the same time… I knew I needed to come up with something to remove this ORANGE melted crayon from all over the inside of our BRAND NEW DRYER!
I took to Instagram asking for help… I searched on Youtube… Pinterest… Google…suggestions from my cousin… and I tried sooo many methods. Here are a few a tried…..
- Windex- didn’t work at all
- bathroom cleaner- didn’t work at all
- Clorox wipes- didn’t work at all
- dryer sheets- seen on Youtube and it only worked on the bits that were still in the dryer… but not the actual part of the stain
So then I started using 80 % alcohol (not the drinking kind… I wish lol). At first I used a BLUE microfiber rag (BIG MISTAKE) and poured the alcohol onto the cloth. I’ll tell you why it was a mistake in a second. After applying it onto the cloth… believe it or not it started working. I did have to use a lot of my strength and really scrub the darn thing.. but it was working! It wasn’t taking the color out completely but it definitely lightened it, that’s for sure! UNTIL… I started to see a mix of blue and orange (yup FML at this point right)!!!! So what happened was when mixing the alcohol with the BLUE cloth… the dye from the cloth started to pull off and started to rub off onto the drum of the dryer.. staining it blue! So I ditched the microfiber cloth… and grabbed a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
At first I damped the eraser with water to moisten it up, and then applied the alcohol right onto it. I started to rub it again the stains and it was working better than the cloth was!!! I still had to use some strength… but it was coming off way easier! After 1 Magic Eraser was pretty destroyed from me scrubbing I grabbed another one.. and this time (only because I was lazy and didn’t want to go to the restroom to dampen the eraser), I just poured the alcohol directly onto the dry eraser….. GUYS LET ME TELL YOU!!! IT WORKS MIRACLES!!!!!!! It seriously came off effortlessly and it’s all because I didn’t dampen the darn thing! Didn’t have to use any strength at all to remove the orange… and some blue (hahaha) stains inside the dryer. If I would of known all along, it would have been done hours ago! Can you believe trying to come up with a solution, re-searching, and trying everything in the books… all took my a total of 3 hours!!! 3 freakin hours!!
So, the moral of the story is, if you happen to ever be in my situation and have melted crayon stains all over your dryer drum, all you need is a magic eraser (do not wet it) and rubbing alcohol. Pour it directly onto the eraser and go at it! I promise you it works like a charm and made it ALL come off in minutes!!!!
You’re welcome! 😉
XOXO
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