The other day, I washed a load of laundry. As I was pulling it out of the dryer, my heart sank as I realized somehow a crayon made it through the wash. Okay….I admit this isn’t the first time. I try to check all pockets, but I do sometimes miss something. Seriously, though, a crayon is nothing. I once washed my husbands wallet. How do you miss something like that?!?
Back to the crayon. Most of the load was untouched. Only five things ended up with melted crayon, but two of them were my hubby’s dress pants – not a cheap replacement. In frustration, I threw the crayon stained clothes in a laundry basket and decided to get back to it later.
After my irritation had ebbed, I Googled some solutions. Most of the answers were in the form of hot irons and WD40. I tried the iron and I can tell you it DID NOT work! If anything it worked to further set the stain. I didn’t try the WD40 because one forum told tales of lots of patience and elbow grease. It sounded way too difficult to me. Well, my friend Google came through. On one forum, a lady sang the praises of something called “LA’s Totally Awesome”.
My elbow-grease-fearing heart decided it was worth a try.
This is what I did:
- I put the crayon melted clothes in the washer
- I poured half the bottle of LA’s Totally Awesome in the soap dispenser
- I set the washer to the hottest, longest cycle and pressed start
When the washer was finished, the clothes were crayon free!
The best part is, LA’s Totally Awesome is super cheap! I found it at Family Dollar for only $1 per bottle. They even had a gallon size refill bottle for 3 bucks! I think Dollar Tree also carries it. I am now keeping a ready supply in my laundry room. Have you had any laundry room mishaps?
Linking up at:
BrittanyLane says
If only I had known about this when I washed a whole pocket full of crayons with all of Mason’s brand new school jeans… So good to know.
Pooh says
Ugh. I just trashed and replaced my favorite white peasant skirt (from J. Jill – not cheap) after it went through the dryer with a pocketfull of crayons. I’d tried various things over the course of a year (had long ago thrown out everything else) and nothing worked, so I finally gave up. I’ll be heading out to the dollar store to have some on hand for future mishaps, because you KNOW they’ll happen. :/
nunnysbabygirl says
I am trying this now :/ blue crayon all over a white bleached load. All was abercrombie, hollister, under armour & nike (furiously crying)…..LUCKILY, I <3 totally awesome w/ the help of magic eraser for cleaning grease, soap scum ect. I have a front load HE washer so I put 1 cap wisk & 1/2 bottle awesome in dispenser. Then in drum I put 1/2 bottle awesome & 1 cup baking soda. Set to whitest whites & extra rinse. Fingers crossed & will update.
Anonymous says
nunnysbabygirl…. Did it work?
Anonymous says
Wow this totally worked. I thought for sure I had ruined an entire load of my daughter’s clothes with an orange crayon. Almost all of it came it out!
Anonymous says
I have red and blue crayons that were washed and DRIED and they are all over the entire load of laundry!!! I am going to try this and pray that it works!
Anonymous says
It was on a nylon coat, and its not off, has been through the wash three times now, and its still there.
Anonymous says
Addendum to my last entry:
It was on a nylon coat, and I have used an entire bottle of Awesome. I have directly sprayed the coat and let it set. I have washed it three times on very hot water.
The crayon is NOT coming out of this pink nylon coat for ANYTHING.
gary says
scrub with a hard brush after you spray with totally awesome
Shatzi @ Love and Laundry says
How strange! I haven’t actually tried it on nylon. Hmmmmm….definitely something worth researching. I’ll let you know if I find any good solutions. Thanks for your input!
Karilee Anderson says
I hope this is “love and laundry.com”? I didn’t know how to reply to your blog? You see I have been using Awesome to clean everything in replacement of 409 ,Fantastik and Lysol. I never thought to use it in my laundry and I was sent to you by Google with my dilemma about getting ArmorAll out of my means? ArmourAll doesn’t know? I tried the usual Pre stuff then Napa orange band cleaner. Crisco,because that will work on removing black grease. The spot is still there. I know Oxyclean only works on food or bio stains so peroxide is out! Thanks for your reminder. By the way, I would have used the hot iron and the paper bag for crayons then be stuck with the dilemma of the dyes left over and start using sodium based items like baking soda or salt. It works on cadle wax melted into carpet. So I’m going for the Awesome Under my sink. Is there any special laundry detergent? Can I do this by hand in a presoak first?
Anonymous says
I was about to bawl my eyes out! I really hope this works for me!
Anonymous says
Totally works. I had to scrub the light colored clothes and wash them again but worth the extra elbow grease
Anonymous says
I am about to run out to the Dollar General and pray they have this!! I just had an entire load of laundry washed and dried with an orange crayon >.< I will let you know how this works out!!!
Joan S. NY
Anonymous says
My husband did laundry yesterday and he forgot to check my daughter’s pockets. Yup, bright red crayon all over her school uniforms when he pulled them from the dryer. This has never happened to us before and to say he was a bit panicked is an understatement.
After a quick trip to the dollar store and a prayer or two he rewashed the uniforms using 1/2 the bottle in the soap dispenser as suggested. He even tossed in a shirt of mine that has been sitting in the laundry room rag bag for the past year because of a stain that we couldn’t remove. He really wanted to put this product to the test.
I’m very happy to report that every spec of crayon was removed from the uniforms. This stuff really works!!! It even removed the year old stain from my shirt, it looks brand new.
StacyN says
Any suggestions if crayon ran through dryer to make sure it’s not in there anymore to dispense onto an upcoming load?
Anonymous says
StacyN – try throwing a few rags in on your hottest setting. They will pick up what is left. Repeat if necessary.
Ed says
I need to try this right now…I don’t have a soap dispenser in my washer…would it be ok to just put it right inside the load of landrey?
Shatzi @ Love and Laundry says
I think so. My old washer didn’t have soap dispensers and I would have definitely done that. Maybe prefill the washer and put it in the water so it’s diluted before you put your clothes in…. Let me know how it works!
angie says
It happens right now with green crayon I sent my husband to buy it let see if it work.
Debby says
Did you use the laundry soap version of this product, or the household cleaning agent??? Going from your picture, I’m assuming the household cleaning agent… But I just want to make sure.
Mrs. McCanick says
I’ve just seen another comment that works. Half cup of vinegar, Dish washing liquid (dawn) & hot water. Soak.for 10 minutes then wash. May take two wash cycles. Repeat the steps for washing a second time. It worked for me with red crayon dried into my light clothes. No trace of crayons were left
Jane Jensen says
This worked!!!! Thank you so much for this post, Mrs, McCanick! I’ve had this pair of my favorite cotton pants set aside for about two years because I didn’t want to deal with the complicated remedies for the crayon. Finally I decided to deal with it last night but didn’t want to go to the store to get the other product, though it sounds great. But I had Dawn and vinegar. I soaked it in the sink with Dawn and vinegar and hot water for a couple hours. All the crayon came out except a few spots I had to brush with a toothbrush. Then I washed them with regular detergent and a little Dawn in the load. They look good but have some little spots that look like grease spots, but no crayon. They are wearable, but I’m going to treat them with Dawn and wash again and I’m sure they will be perfect. And to think I could have done this ages ago. THANK YOU so much!! Jane.
Anonymous says
This stuff is AWESOME! I just pulled out a load of clothes from the dryer with melted brown crayon on everything.. Jumped on Google and found this. I ran straight to Family Dollar and bought this came back put it in the washer with the clothes. I just pulled them back out of the washer NO CRAYON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT WORKS AND ONLY COST ME $1.00
Marnie hollar says
I just pulled a whole load of my son’s brand new summer clothes out of the dryer and dark blue crayon was melted on EVERYTHING!!!! There was no way I could spot clean or use the WD-40. There was just way too many clothes. I was in complete tears having a melt down. I read this post and I never buy this product but about a week ago we had a plumber fixing our sink and he left a bottle of that stuff!. I ran down, grabbed it. Filled the tub with as hot of water as I could and put all the clothes in. Used a toothbrush for the biggest spots and swirled the clothes by hand. Almost all of the crayon came out!! The tub was basically black when I took them out and then I put them in the wash. The only problem I seem to have had was with a NYLON pair of basketball shorts. The crayon does not seem to come out of those. We will see once the rinse is done with the OXYCLEAN spot cleaner but 1 pair of shorts in comparison to all my son’s new clothes is something I can live with. THANK GOD for this post!!!!!
Marnie hollar says
I just pulled a whole load of my son’s brand new summer clothes out of the dryer and dark blue crayon was melted on EVERYTHING!!!! There was no way I could spot clean or use the WD-40. There was just way too many clothes. I was in complete tears having a melt down. I read this post and I never buy this product but about a week ago we had a plumber fixing our sink and he left a bottle of that stuff!. I ran down, grabbed it. Filled the tub with as hot of water as I could and put all the clothes in. Used a toothbrush for the biggest spots and swirled the clothes by hand. Almost all of the crayon came out!! The tub was basically black when I took them out and then I put them in the wash. The only problem I seem to have had was with a NYLON pair of basketball shorts. The crayon does not seem to come out of those. We will see once the rinse is done with the OXYCLEAN spot cleaner but 1 pair of shorts in comparison to all my son’s new clothes is something I can live with. THANK GOD for this post!!!!!
Anonymous says
This is all a lie! This doesn’t work. I have washed this load of clothes 7 times already! The stains have merely gotten lighter. This is ridiculous.
Maranda Winget says
I had washed and dried a load of laundry only to find an empty wrapper that used to have a crayon in it. The crayon is now all over our clothes. I immediately went to get some cleaner as I read so many positive results. I am now on my fourth wash cycle and it still isn’t working. I’ve even tried adding laundry and dish detergent as well as boiling water to make sure the water was hot enough. I got the larger bottle so I could try it out on other things. (bathroom, walls, counter tops)
Natalie Thornhill says
I am going through the same thing. I was so hopeful after reading all the amazing results! I’m going to try spot cleaning and then washing again, but so far it doesn’t appear any of it has come out after 3 washes. Luckily I bought 3 bottles of the stuff..
Anonymous says
Try the vinegar method ( Hot water, Vinegar and laundry detergent) I did not use them in the washer. I used a big container with water that I heat on the microwave, then added detergent and vinegar, soaked my daughter’s white jacket on it for half an hour. I scrubbed the jacket, rinsed it and repeated the procedure. Everything came out!
LeahJo Dwyer says
Is this ok to use with a front loading high efficiency washer?
Shatzi Webster says
Yes! I have a front loading high efficiency washer!
Z Woods says
Hello, my son left an orange crayon in one of his jean pockets. After washing AND drying all of the dark clothes I discovered this semi tragedy. I came across this post, purchased said cleaning product and about 90% of the crayon came out. As one mom said, the larger spots need some extra attention but I will take having to work on those than toss about 6 pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts. Thanks for the tip
Anonymous says
Do they sell this product in Canada?
Lori L. says
Yes, my friend just bought some for me at a Dollar Tree in Winnipeg!
Anonymous says
Does this work for colored clothes also?
Anonymous says
My 6 yr old son left green and yellow crayons in his pockets and it’s all over his and my daughters clothes so I tried 1 cup of vinegar, 6 tblsps of blue dawn dish liquid, and 1 full cup laundry detergent in a hot water wash (also boiled a big pot of water to be sure it was hot enough), but it doesn’t look like it’s working so i’m trying awesome next!!! Will let you know how it goes!!! BTW Mr. Clean Magic Eraser got it out of the dryer but i’m going to run so rags through first to make sure it’s all clean!!!!
Anonymous says
Just tried this! I had wash and dried my daughters new clothes with a dark blue crayon! Put in half a bottle (got at Dollar Tree) and set my washer on cold with an extra rinse cycle. They crayon is all gone! Thank you so much!
Anonymous says
Bloody Brilliant! Just did this and it worked, Thanks!!
Anonymous says
Do you use laundry detergent with the awesome?
Anonymous says
I put some in after the clothes had soaked & ran through a long wash.
Anonymous says
It worked!! Who knew the dollar store had anything that wasn’t crap?
Anonymous says
Thanks so much for posting this easy fix! I spot treated all our clothes with dawn detergent before soaking in a mixture of the LA Awesome, Dawn, laundry detergent, and laundry booster. All the melted crayon came off our clothes! Thanks again for saving the day!!!
Anonymous says
So thankful to have found this post! A dryer full of clothes covered with black crayon, and the Totally Awesome took it all out! Thank you!!
Anonymous says
This must work for itty bitty pieces of crayon on the clothes. I just tried it…hot water, longest wash cycle, and a half of a bottle of awesome…and its still there!! Not even lightened up :( This does not work…
Anonymous says
I just did this and it freakin’ worked! So thankful I found your post! My son keeps rolling up the red wax casing of Babybel cheeses and leaving them in all of his pants/shorts pockets. If we miss any, they’re stuck in our dryer, and this has left little red dots all over many of our clothes, new and old! It’s so infuriating…until today! Woohoo! I put in half a bottle of the larger bottle and hot water, and it did wonders! It’s my new favorite laundry product! LOVE!!!
Anonymous says
So of course I’m on here because a red crayon just nabbed about five shirts. I will try to find this stuff at our DT but I am concerned about the hot water. These are polo-style shirts. Will they shrink? They’re not new shirts.
Kaitlyn says
So I went to Dollar Tree and I only found a new powdered version of this product. I put about 6-8 scoops of it in a long hot water cycle and there is still orange crayon on all the clothes/spots I did not scrub like mad with a different laundry product. Has anyone had success with the powdered version of LA’s Totally Awesome?
Sarah S says
SO Glad I found this blog. I thought that my entire load of clothes was ruined, but one wash with the LA’s Totally Awesome and the crayon stains are GONE. Thank You SO MUCH!!
Anonymous says
I saw the post about the front loading high efficiency washer. Does anyone know if it is ok to put LA Totally Awesome in a top loading HE machine? I’ve tried some other ways of getting crayon out; they didn’t work so I just bought some LA. Thanks.
Amy King says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous says
Ive used an Iron and wax paper before and that worked great. But today im all out of waxpaper luckly i have some la totally amazing goin to have ta try that.
Anonymous says
So, this is a huge emergency…I staying with a family working as a live in maid/nanny & I hurriedly decided to wash all the comforters late yesterday afternoon…only to find my comforter(that they bought me) with almost half of it with dried in crayons!! Thank god it is still our secret…I pray the LA Totally Awesome, and Vinegar plus Dawn works its magic while everyone’s at work/school. Please pray for me and my polyester comforter! Than you, Terrified.
Anonymous says
Hydrogen peroxide dissolves wax…I would scrub it with hydrogen peroxide then wash…should come out.
Anonymous says
Wow, this really works! I had over half my load decorated with yellow crayon. I rewashed with hot water and LA totally awesome after soaking in it first overnight. All but one shirt came out crayon free! I really did not expect this to work. Thank you so much for this post. I could not have replaced everything and am so glad I don’t have to!
emily v. says
Trying this out now on a load of whites- a mystery magenta crayon made its way in to the dryer.. Ahem, toddler.
MamaVerner says
Bingo!
Anonymous says
Thank you so much!! A green crayon found its way in to the dryer and melted all over a load of light clothes.
Anonymous says
My sons blue crayon from Chik Fil A found its way into my HE frontloader washer and dryer and has made its appearance on an entire load of clothing……my dollar tree didn’t have the cleaner but had the powder,laundry soap, and pre treat spray…..has anyone used any of this or only the cleaner itself? I bought all 3 types in desperation…… Any help would be appreciated!!!
Heather Ellwood says
Well the powder and laundry soap were a fail:( I was able to find the actual cleaner today and used 1/2 spray bottle in the liquid dispenser and washed on the hottest setting….it did NOTHING. I just sprayed every individual piece of clothing directly with the remaining bottle and then used the large jug (figured I’d buy both just in case) to fill both my pre wash and liquid dispenser and also used some regular clear detergent….fingers crossed this this mostly brand new load of clothing has a fighting chance:( Update to follow…..
Heather Ellwood says
Well LA’s Totally Awesome was not awesome for my clothing AT ALL unfortunately :( Crayon has ruined an entire load!!!
Anonymous says
I am a believer!!! I washed my scrubs with a few of the kids sweatshirts…low and behold there were crayons that I missed! I wanted to cry…scrubs arent cheap! I went looking for answers and came across this site….THANK YOU!!!!!!!! LA’s Totally Awesome is my family’s new best friend!
Anonymous says
Ran a load of kid clothes with a red crayon. It was on almost everything including their uniforms…LA’s Awesome worked great on all but a polyester shirt (for flag football)…there are some residual yellow stains (even after washing twice), but the red came out of everything else. I used an entire 32 oz bottle + Tide in a large load with hot water on soak/heavy wash. Thanks for the suggestion!
Anonymous says
Just Sad- I just realized this morning an entire load of school clothes and new christmas clothes washed and dried with green crayon all over everything (mostly light clothes)! I just threw them back in the bin just frustrated and frantically called my sister who told me to google it so i did and i found this! I am running out to get this at the dollar store and cross my fingers that it works. Most comments here are positive and Nothing in dryer was nylon so im hopeful. Will get back if this works!!!
Anonymous says
A little less sad- Well i have used LA’s awesome on my ruined load of laundry. it worked on about half of the clothes. Its better than the beginning but I am usually not down for using chemicals so i have washed the clothes a few more time normally to be sure its clear of chemicals. i may have forgone this whole thing and just thrown the clothes away and may next time. But it DID work on some of the clothes so. it was a win if you are looking to try and remove crayon from clothing. I did not try any other way so iron, or WD 40 nothing so i have no opinion on those
other methods.
JessicaIsIn says
I’ll admit I was skeptical at first but it worked! Blue red and yellow crayon on everything. I just used half the bottle as suggested and ran my front loader on the hot/heavy duty cycle. I bet hubby will remember to check pockets next time he decided to help out but if not we know what to do. Thanks so much for the tip!
Over the Moon birth Massachusetts says
Not that you need another person to say whether this worked, but I wanted to thank you for the post and all the comments. I have a 9+ year old and we JUST had our very first episode with a crayon in the washer/dryer. Blue everywhere. Bought the LA’s Awesome and tried what you said. Sure enough, it appears to be out of everything except the 100% polyester sports shirt. Jeans and cotton shirts seem good to go. Used a little more than half the bottle, added about 2 sauce pans of heated water to boost the temp ever so slightly, and washed on the hot cycle for 15 minutes. Happy happy!
Angela Rogers says
I am so happy that I found this post! My kids made a big mess with their crayons and I need to clean it now! Thanks for sharing!
Elizabeth says
I was sceptical this would work but figured for a dollar I would try it. I had a HUGE load of laundry with lots of nice expensive clothes get crayon all over it. EVERY SINGLE PIECE CAME CLEAN! Thank you so much! You deserve royalties from this company:)
Love and Laundry says
Yay! I’m so glad it worked for you! I’ve definitely had to use it more than once and it works like magic every time! Thanks for your comment. ;)
jaci says
While on the last leg of our family vacation, I thought I would get ahead of the laundry and get it all done before coming home. Fortunately I DID check all the pockets and removed park maps and restaurant crayons. I was SHOCKED when I opened the community dryer at my in-laws condo to see purple EVERYWHERE!!!! Somehow a crayon was left behind and it was 1 am and not my dryer! My husband helped me find a local pharmacy open 24 hours and I bought magic erasers and vinegar after googling “drying a crayon”. I scrubbed the dryer until 3 am just incase someone would get up early to do laundry. The magic eraser took off most of the crayon, with a lot of elbow grease, but there was still a purple stain inside the dryer drum, but luckily the clothes ran clear. The next day, I was nervous to try dish soap and vinegar in a washer other than my own. I brought the load home thinking I was going to have to put them in the garbage. I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the hot water, dish soap, and vinegar but was willing to try it. That is until I read this blog. I figured it was worth a try using “awesome” since I had to go out anyway and there was a dollar tree nearby before trying the other method in which it seems like a lot of scrubbing involved. Lo and behold…most of the crayon came out!!!! I put “awesome” in the detergent dispenser and ran it really hot and long. There were still many spots so I ran it again the same way and added an “All free and clear” detergent pack. This seemed the best result yet. I decided to try it one more time. I ran out of “awesome” except for a tiny amount I saved and placed it directly on the spots and gently scrubbed it. This time I added another detergent pack and oxyclean. Fortunately most of the clothes are last years summer clothes that were good enough for vacation and probably won’t fit by summertime but it worked!!! There were a few pieces like an under armor track suit jacket and a few of my husbands cotton long sleeve college sports team shirts that were a little more special. The worst of the bunch were the brand new shorts my son left the crayon in and while they are not perfect (crayon is still stained on pockets) it is all on the inside and can be worn. Thank you thank you thank you for your post! I didn’t realize a product existed but for $1.00 I think I will need to stock up especially with two boys and a girl with lots of stains!!! My only regret is that I didn’t buy more bottles of awesome!
Plumbing 2016 says
Wow! That totally worked. Thank for sharing you ideas. Great job!
Amy H says
Omg I could have died this morning when I took my 7 y/o clothes out of the dryer this morning and they were covered in red crayon! My husband googled and found this so I ran out to the Dolar Tree and picked up a bottle, came home and washed them with a little more than half of a bottle because it was a big load of clothes and to my amazement you could never tell they were an absolute disaster before hand!!! I thought I was going to have to go out and buy him a new wardrobe. Thank you so much for posting this it was a lifesaver!!!
Cynthia says
Wash and dried my girls school pants last night. I was folding them this morning and found brown crayon all over them. With only a few months left of school I was worried I would have to buy them more. I looked on Pinterest and found this!! I had awesome in my covered. It really works!! Thank you so much!!
Emily says
I also had a good experience with this. A red crayon ruined an entire load of clothes and I was pretty upset. I avoided the situation for few days and then tried this and it worked really well! I have a newer washer that doesn’t use much water (I’m sure there’s a way, but I don’t know how), so I actually boiled water and poured boiling water into a bucket of the clothes with L.A. Awesome and some vinegar and let it sit for a few hours and then washed on a long hot cycle and pretty much all the crayon was gone. Amazing! Thanks for your post!
Jamie says
Totally smiling right now because I use awesome for EVERYTHING. Seriously I’ve been using awesome for a couple years now and I fund more and more uses for it weekly. I wash my husbands work clothes with it and it’s the only thing to get oil and grease out. I’ve tried everything including adding a can of Coke! Awesome does everything! It cleans soap scum, toilet bowls, car tires, shoes, dog accidents, baseboards walls and doors, not to mention upholstery and ovens! I wondered about trying it on this crayon mishap, I should have known it would do the trick!! I love Awesome! !
Lisa Vilagi says
We tried this today. It worked ! Very excited to get blue crayon out of brand new Christmas clothes. We used the powdered version, 4 scoops, with very hot water. Thank you, thank you for discovering this method and sharing!