Wednesday, December 13, 2006

How I spent my morning....

I had hoped to have a lovely stamped creation to show you. But, no can do! Instead, I spent my morning scrubbing blue crayon off of many many different surfaces in my house! Somehow, during my quick 15 minute workout this morning, my 3 year old son found one blue crayon. He, and his almost 5 year old brother, colored a bunch of tile in the entryway, the walls in their bedroom, the wall in their closet, a wall in the hallway, the door to their closet, the bathroom counter, their bedsheets, the chairs in my stamp room and one of my tables.



However did they do this in a mere 15 minutes?!?!?!?! Lovely drawings, like race cars....hand prints with blue fingernails....tic tac toe boards. OMG!!!!!!



So after punishing them and putting them in silent time out (ie no talking) for the duration of the cleaning time, I went to work scrubbing. The Mr Clean Magic Eraser got it right off the tile, bathroom counter, the door and chairs. However, we have non-washable paint in our house. I know, I know...why ever would we have washable paint with 3 boys age 6 and under?!?! Well, it was on the walls when we moved in and we haven't had time to re-paint. It's on the short list for this spring/summer. And it will be washable. Anyway, the Eraser just takes the paint off the walls as well as the crayon. So that wasn't working.



I googled painting over crayon, thinking it might just be easier to patch-paint over it since we're going to repaint soon anyway. Well, it is a more involved process than I thought. But I did stumble across the tip to use toothpaste. So I got an extra toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste (not gel, must be paste) and went to work. It really did work pretty well. It's labor and time intensive, but it worked. So if ever your children color on non-washable walls, use toothpaste! I still have their bedroom walls to work on, but it'll have to wait. I already had a list a mile long of things to do today.



Anyone know an easy way to get crayon out of bedsheets? I found one, but it was quite involved using WD-40 and such.....these were under $20 a set so I'd rather just replace them if it needs that.


***UPDATE***
HUGE shout out to oxy-clean laundry stain remover! It got the crayon out in just one regular washing! YES!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Emily...I can sympathize with your crayon adventure. I went to visit youngest DD over Thanksgiving, so the rest of the gang came to spend the holiday with my husband. Apparently, the twins (2 1/2 yrs old) got hold of a Sharpie and decorated the walls and cabinets upstairs. I saw no traces of it when I got home, so they found some way to remove it all. I heard the walls were sprayed with Kilz--should be okay until painting time.

Just found your blog...thanks for all your sharing!

Anonymous said...

Oh yikes! I see my future...

Kimberly Geswein said...

oh wow, that sucks!

Anonymous said...

Our DD pulled that one when she was old enough to know better...maybe six? We had her go to work with the toothbrush and paste. She asked for a potty break about an hour into the work and then we found her fast asleep on the potty with the toothbrush still in her hand. Needless to say she never did that again. And, yes, we took a picture ;)
Janet (Jessica'sMom--SCS)

Joy Madison said...

naughty naughty!!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry Em. I did giggle at your picture though!! Glad the Oxy-clean worked on the sheets!
Kauai17

Lydia Zills said...

To remove the crayon from the bedsheet, you could try putting a brown paper bag over it, and ironing it. The heat of the iron is supposed to melt the crayon, and the brown paper bag will absorb it. Its supposed to work for candle wax stuck to table clothes as well.
--Linda Finne

Anonymous said...

crayon comes off the wall easily if you use a *new* SOS pad. It has to be new to avoid scratching the wall. I don't know if this will work on your paint though. I have had to do this and it worked great!