Clothes stained by wax crayons? Try these methods to clean them
Anyone who has children at home has almost certainly faced a classic, children-caused problem: wax crayon scribblings on "free" surfaces, walls in particular. Sooner or later, most parents will find these "works of art" in crayon gracing the home. Not to mention that the wax from crayons can get onto (and into) clothes and other fabrics.
But before you throw crayon-marred/stained clothes away, know that there is hope; the important thing is that you do not wash and dry the stained clothes in the regular way.
Let's see how to clean crayon-stained clothes properly:
Remove fresh crayon stains from clothes
To remove fresh wax crayon stains it is necessary to proceed as follows to remove both the color/s and the wax:
- The first step is to remove the wax, scraping off the excess with a knife or spoon. Shake out the garment carefully so that any excess pieces of wax come off after scraping; then lay the garment on the ironing board, with a sheet of absorbent paper on either side of the stain. "Dab" with a hot iron (do not rub the iron on as this will push the wax deeper into the fabric), repeating this operation with clean sheets of paper, until all the wax is removed;
- Once this has been done, it is time to remove the color: this operation can be carried out by pre-treating your garment with a common stain remover (or with Marseille soap, or a few drops of dishwashing liquid) and leaving the remover to act for a few minutes. Then wash the garment as you normally would and leave to air dry.
Remove wax crayon stains after washing
What if a crayon accidentally ended up in your washing machine or, even worse, in the dryer and melted? In this case you will have to clean not only the clothes, but also the appliance to prevent the wax from getting on future laundry loads.
- To clean the washing machine or dryer, you can use a magic eraser, keeping in mind that these erasers are very abrasive. Do a test on a hidden spot first to check if it will cause damage or not. Alternatively, you can heat the affected area and rub very hard using dryer sheets: this will be tiring work, but will give great results without causing damage;
- For clothes, spray WD40 directly onto the stains (yes, this seems strange, but it works!), leave to act for 15 minutes, then scrape the garments gently; remove the WD40 by rinsing out with Marseille soap or dishwashing liquid; before washing the clothes (again) in the washing machine, you can pre-treat them with mild bleach (or add the bleach directly to the drum) and do a hot wash.
Good luck!
