Crayons are one of the must-haves when it comes to little children’s education. Unfortunately, little children can get a little messy with it. Sooner or later, crayons get into clothing. And when you unerringly throw those clothes in the dryer while a piece of crayon is on them, the crayon melts due to its waxy nature. Do you know how to get melted crayons out of clothes?
How to Get Melted Crayons Out of Clothes: The Easiest and Most Effective Way
When you open the dryer and find a colorful headache because of melted crayon, don’t lose hope just yet. You can get melted crayons out of clothes. Here is the easiest and most effective way to do so.
Materials Needed
- Plastic bag
- Dull knife
- Bucket or bowl
- Warm water
- Ice cubes
- Liquid dishwashing soap
- Baking soda or bleach
Step 1: Get the Crayon Temperature Down
It is always easier to remove crayon stains out of clothing if they are colder instead of hotter. Due to how crayons are made – the combination of wax binders and pigments – they tend to smear if they are hot. Trying to remove hot or warm crayon stains from clothing only makes matters worse. You will end up with more mess than with which you started.
To cool down the crayon stains, place the ice cubes in a plastic bag and put the bag over the crayon stains. Wait until the crayon stains harden before moving on to the next step.
Step 2: Scrape Off Excess Crayon
Using the dull knife, or any flat and hard tool such as a firm ID card or credit card, scrape off the excess crayon. Be very gentle with this step because you want to avoid scraping the crayon pigments into the fibers of the clothing. You want to scrape the crayon OFF, not into, the fabric.
Step 3: Pre-Treat the Stains
Generously apply liquid dish soap to the stain. For best results, apply the dish soap on both sides of the fabric. Let the clothing sit with the dish soap for at least half an hour.
Don’t rub the dish soap into the fabric. The purpose of the soap is to loosen the crayon stains from the fibers of the cloth. Rubbing the soap on the cloth may only get the crayon pigments deeper into the cloth fibers.
Step 4: Further Stain Treatment
To further loosen the crayon stains, let the crayon-stained cloth soak in warm water with liquid dish soap. Although an hour of soaking is enough, the longer the let the cloth soak, the better the results will be later on.
Step 5: Rinse the Cloth
Rinse the cloth to remove the dish soap from it. The next step involves machine washing the cloth, and you don’t want dish soap in the washing machine. Dish soap in the washing machine will create suds and will overflow the machine.
Step 6: Machine Wash
Wash the cloth in the machine using a regular detergent (either powder or liquid will do) and the warmest water the fabric can take. Set the machine on the heavy soil setting to really agitate the crayon stains out. For best results, use the appropriate amount of bleach (color-safe bleach for colored clothing) or baking soda to make the machine wash more effective.
Step 7: Air Dry
Don’t dry the clothes using heat. If there are still stains that you did not manage to remove, heat will only set those stains on the clothes. Heat will make crayon stains harder to remove.
Instead, let the clothes air dry by hanging them on a clothesline, not under direct sunlight, if possible.
Step 8: Repeat Steps 3 to 7 If Necessary
Unfortunately, you will only truly see the efficacy of your cleaning process after the clothes have dried. While the clothes are still set, very small stains are hard to see. If the clothes are still stained after they dry, repeat steps 3 to 7 as many times as necessary.
How to Remove Crayons from Clothes If They aren’t Melted
But what if the crayon stains are not melted into the clothes? What should you do then?
Removing unmelted crayons from clothes is actually easier than removing if the crayon stains are melted. For one, if the crayon stains were not melted, they are not as deep-seated into the clothes. Here’s how to remove them.
Materials Needed
- Dull knife
- Warm water
- Liquid dishwashing soap
- Baking soda or bleach
Do Steps 2 to 8
Do steps 2 to 8 on removing melted crayon stains from clothes. You are skipping step 1 of removing melted crayon stains because there’s no need to cool the crayon stains down if they never melted.
But, since the crayon never melted and didn’t seep into the clothes’ fibers, be careful when scraping them off. You might push the stains deeper into the clothes if you are not gentle while scraping.
Most likely, you won’t have to repeat the cleaning process as many times as you probably would if the crayon stains are melted.
Final Thoughts
We hope that you find this article helpful. We also cover other tips to remove paint from hair. This detailed guide on how to get melted crayons out of clothes gives you all the basic and necessary info you need. So the next time you see the colorful mess of melted crayons in your laundry, don’t give up just yet.