FoyTales: Tips for Tuesday: What Goes In Must Come Out

So, about 3 weeks ago during one of my sprint-to-the-finish cleanup sessions I discovered the most beautiful deep purple crayon had been abandoned on the white semi-shag carpet in James’ playroom…in front of a window...through which beautiful sunshine streams…all day.

SUNSHINE MELTS CRAYONS!!

I’m not sure which of my boys are to blame. The evidence is circumstantial and I had seen both Eddie and James drawing with the purple crayon just a few days prior. So I let the lecture about why it’s important to clean up behind yourself go – mainly because I knew that lecturing Eddie about the importance of cleaning would be like lecturing Lindsay Lohan about the benefits of staying sober but also because James is 18 months old so by default he was excused?

So instead I turned my attention to how in the heck I was going to get chunks of melted dark purple crayon out of my carpet. Because I had absolutely no idea how to start, I did what all good moms do when faced with a dilemma as challenging as this – I posed the question through social media. Yep, I updated my Facebook status, challenging anyone reading my status to respond with an appropriate solution for the crayon mishap. If I were playing majority rules, then I would have chosen to blend the stain by dyeing the rest of the carpet purple. But, through some sort of divine intervention, a better option was presented.

And how DO you get melted crayon out of carpet?

“Jamie, mother gets candle wax out of the carpet at church. She dampens a dish towel then puts damp dish towel over melted wax. She uses her iron on the steam setting and holds iron on towel on top of wax. The wax melts and the towelv absorbs it. She says it is important to have iron very hot. Not sure, but maybe this will help.”

Followed with

“Hair spray will get the residue out....has to be a spray can. Spray and blot, spray and blot...”

So yesterday, I finally got around to attempting “Operation What Goes In Must Come Out.” Why did it take me so long to take on this challenge?

Because I found that it blends in well with messes like this…

And while failure to remove the stain was NOT an option, simply ignoring it or waiting for the magic fairy-maid to take care of it WAS. But after 3 weeks of walking by the stain and reminding myself that there was a project to work on, I decided it was time to tackle the waxy mess.

I dampened a towel and cranked up the iron, placed the towel on the stain and held my breath while I silently prayed I wouldn’t find burned carpet when I lifted the iron.