Is it possible to get crayon out of clothes? Crayons were left in the dryer.
Shelba T.
Use WD40, it works like a charm. Used it on my husband's brand new clothes, where a red crayon just happened to appear melted in the dryer. Life Saver. (05/28/2008)
By Sarah
I used Carbona - Color Run Remover and used it in my washing machine with hot water. It worked! All of the crayon came out of my clothes. I did however have a plaid pair of shorts where it came out but the color of the shorts faded a little but everything else came out perfectly. Good luck and don't throw it away until you try "Carbona" I bought mine at the grocery store. it was only $3.00. (06/16/2008)
By Dorothy
De-Solv-it is WONDERFUL for removing crayons after the dryer. It will also remove foundation from collars and grease. Some of my friends who are teachers swear by it for chewing gum too. (06/20/2008)
By Holly Sable
I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one to do this! All of our clothes were khaki's and whites. So I filled both kitchen sinks with super hot water and added a generous amount of Dawn dish washing liquid and a scoop of Oxi-Clean. Soaked the clothes for approx. 3 hrs. Then threw them in the washer (hot water) with regular amount of deterrent and approx. 1/3 C. bleach. I couldn't believe it! I already went out and bought replacement clothes and I didn't even need to! (06/25/2008)
By Jhughes
Oh my gosh! I was so furious when I found crayon melted on the clothes I had in the dryer. Thank goodness I found this website. I tried the soap, vinegar and borax, and guess what? It worked amazingly! So thank you for whoever discovered that concoction!
(07/05/2008)
By Jamie
My daughter had ruined all her jeans by having a red crayon in the washer and dryer. The one pair was covered with red crayon. I used the 20 Mule Borax and Zout and every spot is gone. She will be thrilled! (07/09/2008)
By Angie
This is the one! THANKS TO ALL for the input of what to do and what not to--I'll be adding to the list. For us it was an orange crayon on just received hand-me overs from my wife's sister for our young kids. RATS!
This site was my first Google result! ;) Hooray! Clothes were mostly mixture of darks (denim, darker shirts--mixture of fabric types however) Older washer/dryer. I followed the previously mentioned and also modified mixture of:
I went with HOT water (but warm may work and be best for fabrics, see gotcha below). Let this agitate for a minute, then add clothes, agitate for another minute to work through, and soak for about an hour and run on a regular, long cycle with extra rinse.
As was previously mentioned ours too came out 95%+ removed, we did it a second time just to see if it would help, which it did on the crayon and got us to 98% but read on for gotcha.
GOTCHA, even though we knew some things might shrink, I chose HOT water--no not dumb male doing laundry, just trying to save some clothes for someone and figured the extra heat would draw out the oil and melt the wax.
SO 1)Sort by fabric type if desired to allow for doing HOT vs WARM and 2) Sort out the "bleeders" This was the real gotcha that I did forget about especially with the HOT water; ie little red dress, shirt--you get the idea. First soak/wash was fine--but the second we now have a few items to go back and touch up a different way.
Finally, the dryer: Soft Scrub foaming spray took off most of what little (fortunately) crayon residue was there, just a big pain and awkward to do in a small space.
WHEW! What a day. But at least my sweet wife is happier now that she did not ruin a nice gesture from her sister. May it never happen again :O (07/12/2008)
By Thankfully Satisfied
My husband and I followed almost all of the suggestions on this page and it made some of the load and got it out of the others. The only thing that kind of scares me is the WD-40 on the dryer drum. After I washed it off and everything all my laundry smells like it is about to catch on fire. I am also worried because WD-40 is flammable and the drum states to not put anything flammable or clothes with things that are flammable liquids on them even if they have been washed. I opened the dryer and it smelled like it was going to catch on fire. I would stated that WD-40 is not the best thing to use. (07/17/2008)
By Julia
I used Dawn Power Dissolver in the dryer to get my black crayon swirl marks and sprayed some on a damp towel. No scrubbing at all! I tried the magic eraser and that didn't work for me and I didn't want the residue of soft scrub in my dryer so I tried this since I know how perfect it cleans my stove top. All I had to do was wipe it clean. It took all of about 15 minutes. Awesome! (07/18/2008)
By Cindi
I used LA Awesome Stain Wash from the 99cent store and it worked wonders; must try! (07/29/2008)
By Vicky N.
I used 2 scoops of Gain, 1 cup of Shout and 1 cup of 20 Mule Borax. Washed the clothes in hot water and let them soak in the hot water for about 1 1/2 hours and rinsed them 3 times and all of the crayon came out! Thank you for this site! (07/31/2008)
By Rose
The tip with the vinegar, shout, tide, and oxi-clean worked wonders. I used purex and not the borax. It came out in less than 5 minutes. (08/03/2008)
By april
I'm using Car Cleaner Wax to get the blue crayon out of my dryer. It's working well. I'm hoping the same will be said when I mix the vinegar soap and try it on the clothes! (08/06/2008)
By Kristen
I did my laundry today and washed the school bags and jackets of my kids. As far as I know I did check all the pockets but unfortunately, around 4 crayons were still there and only realized when I finished drying them up. All the jackets were splattered with different colors and the bags as well. My dryer looks like a kaleidoscope! Sad to say but I just bought the washer and dryer less than a week. I just wanted to know if anybody can help me with a concoction for HE washers in washing the clothes and for the Dryer. How can I remove all the colors? I hope somebody could help me out especially with the HE washer in removing the stains from my kids bags and jackets. Thanks (08/14/2008)
By Kuracha
I was AMAZED at how well it worked! We did a whole load of laundry with three crayons in one of the boys' pockets. Our clothes were a rainbow of red, blue and yellow swirls. After using the concoction posted under "This is the one", ALL of the stains came out of the clothes, the one exception being a white jersey-style gym shirt which needed a second cycle to get the heavier spots out. My hat's off to whoever was clever enough to come up with that potion, and bless your heart for sharing it.
As a tip for removing the wax from the dryer, I found it worked well to run the dryer for a few minutes to warm up the wax, then spray a cloth with the Soft Scrub and wipe the drum - you don't need as much elbow grease to wipe the wax off. Also, we found a lot of the wax had "baked" into the enamel, but thankfully it didn't re-release into the clothes. (08/20/2008)
By Very thankful
Ah! At 10pm tonight I found melted crayon all over in the dryer and lint trap. I looked here for ideas and they were all great! At 10pm though, store are not open here so I looked around the house. As all women do I had finger nail polish remover. I tried it and it worked great! Just wiped right off. Then I threw a few dryer sheets in with a damp old towel and all is as good as new! Thanks to the others who posted. Hope mine helps.(As or the clothes era, white vinegar, rubbing alcohol hot water and the longest running load:) (08/20/2008)
By ANDREA B.
What a life saver! I have 3 little dirt balls. LOL My 1st grader left a black crayon in a side pocket of his school uniform. Oy yeah, this was the first week of school so all the uniforms were brand new. So I had 9 khaki uniform pants and 9 polos. That's about $250 worth of new uniforms. I was shaking I was so mad. I have never seen my kids run so fast to bed. I scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail. So I sat down did a quick google search on melted crayons and this was the first site i found. I saw how many great reviews there was and decided to try it. It cost me about $25 for the supplies. (oxiclean was the most expensive) But I think it was worth it. they are soaking now but I noticed a difference after 5 mins.
I can't wait to try it on my husbands work clothes. He's worse than the kids. LOL I couldn't get it all out of my dryer though. White vinegar worked the best, (it's about 90% gone) then I rubbed fabric softener sheets around the drum to rid the sour smell of the vinegar. The crayon stains in the dryer didn't redeposit on my clothes, so it must just be baked in. Someone did post earlier about nail polish remover. I would NOT advise that. It may have worked well but so would gasoline, and unfortunately they would have about the same effects. Remember to be safe and good luck with your stains. (08/21/2008)
By Jackie
This absolutely works! I opened the dryer to find a semi-dry load of clothes colored pink from a crayon. I used Borax, laundry detergent, Shout and white vinegar. The clothes were clean in the first wash on hot water. I wiped the dryer down with Johnson's Foaming Scrubbing Bubbles and then tested with a load of rags. Nothing pink! (08/24/2008)
By Emily
The tide, oxiclean, borax, shout, & vinegar recipe is most definitely a lifesaver!
Last week I had washed and dried 2 loads of my clothes before realizing that there was a red crayon that somehow made it into the dryer. I tried every idea that was suggested to me, but nothing worked. The crayon wasn't even fading.
So, as usual I turned to my computer & I found this site. I am happy to say that 99.9% of the crayon is completely gone. There is one pair of pants that has a little blotch of red, but I have complete faith that that will clean up perfectly as well. Thanks for a great site and a great recipe that saved me a lot of money.By Very Thankful
I did an entire wash of nothing but jeans for 4 kids. large load, yep. Guess what? RED CRAYON. I found this, and I can't believe my eyes. ALL of the crayon is GONE. NOT A TRACE LEFT. I am very impressed with the "this is the one" recipe. I'm talking, my mind is blown by how well this worked! Thank you so much for being a laundry room scientist for us! You just saved us a ton of money! (09/01/2008)
By eternally thankful
This recipe worked wonders! An entire load of my son's clothes were covered in red crayon. I didn't even notice the damage until after they were dried. So, I was unsure that this would work since the crayon was already heat set. But it worked magnificently! I used all ingredients and hot water wash, longest cycle. What a lifesaver! (09/03/2008)
By Alison
My son put color crayons in his pockets and YES I didn't realize it until after I dried them and there was orange and brown color crayon all over his new school clothes. I read through all the posts and tried what I had available at home and it worked.
I used: 1 cup of Ecos laundry detergent, 1 cup of borax, 1 cup of white vinegar and 1 cup of shout. Soaked for 2 hours washed and Viola everything was gone! THANK YOU! (09/07/2008)
By Tara H
Wow! The Shout-Borax-Oxiclean-vinegar worked great. We had red crayon on khaki shirts and pants. One wash did the trick - we presoaked only for about 10 minutes, and it was perfect on the first wash. Neither my husband nor I thought this would work - amazing. (09/07/2008)
By Judy B
I found this string of posts today after having found the last load of whites came out of the dryer with a nice smattering of bright red hardened crayon.
I used what I have around the house to get it out.
A regular amount of laundry soap (liquid concentrate, designed for cold water), 1 cup of white vinegar, and 3/4 cup of Borax.
I ran this load with hot water, let it soak a few minutes after the agitation cycle, and double rinse.
Anyway, all the crayon is gone, from all of the different fabric types/designs present in that initial load of laundry. So, save your money on doubling up the detergent and using Oxygen based cleaners. Soap, Borax, and vinegar in hot water took it out for me! (09/07/2008)
By Macempire
OMG as I sit here and read the comments and all I truly wonder if all these kids are related because my son just did this to me last night. I was sitting here trying to figure out how to save all these clothes then someone had said type it in and all I can say is THANK YOU I'm not the only mom going through this. Any sugguestions on how to get the crayons out of the dryer vent holes? lol It was an entire box that got washed and dried. (09/12/2008)
By Kat
Thank God for sites like these. I have no clue what Borax is, but I'm going to buy it tomorrow! I have blue and red crayon all over my dress clothes for work, and, my new 450 thread count sheets (HOW my 2yr old's crayons got into the "good" clothes is beyond me)! Thank you, thank you, thank you! (09/21/2008)
Thank you! I had red crayon melted on an entire load of assorted dark clothes... jeans, shirts, etc. I had to modify the "this is the one" recipe because I felt it would be too much for my HE front loader.
What I used was:
I mixed these all together since the Borax was a solid and then filled the wash section to the max and poured all of the remaining liquid in the prewash section. I chose pre-soak and second rinse on the heavy duty cycle but only chose warm since I usually wash these clothes in cold water and was worried about shrinkage.
It worked like magic. Everything came out perfect! No red stains, no stains at all! Thank you so much for this recipe.
(09/22/2008)
By Elaine from Michigan
Thank you for the ideas here! Part of an orange crayon, in my 5 year old's school pants went through the dryer. The orange spots looked so awful all through the whole load! I almost cried at all the nice things that I thought were ruined. But the recipe, detergent, Shout, Borax, vinegar and OxiClean worked wonders! I'm surprised. Out of the entire load, only item has a few stubborn orange spots -- everything else is perfect again. Thank you! (09/28/2008)
By Jennifer
I like most of you are now part of the crayon in the dryer club, and like most of you found it at an inopportune time. I searched through the postings here and made the magic potion as directed and am happy so far with my results. I checked my whites after only a few minutes of washing to find my clothes free of stains. Huge kudos to whoever came up with this concoction. Now to get the crayon out of the dryer and find out where my kid is hiding. (09/29/2008)
By Bill
This totally worked! I wish I had known sooner. I had to toss two loads of clothes before this one. I used 2 cap fulls of concentrated whisk, 1 cup borax, cup of spray & wash, and 1 cup vinegar. Soaked in HOT water for about an hour washed and rinsed and every single garment was spotless. YAY! I've got to pass this one on! Thanks to whom ever figured this out! (09/30/2008)
By Gina from Mississippi
OMG I just did this and it worked so well! I didn't use any exact measurements, just all the ingredients and kinda guesstimated. After my husband's huge freak out this morning that the kids clothes were ruined. I had to try something. I am happy to report to him that ha ha! it worked. He was more than skeptical, but this really works. Just thought I would tell everyone. (10/01/2008)
By So Surprised
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