Tuesday, May 3, 2011

How To: Get Out of a Sticky Situation

So the other day I was doing laundry and I heard some thumping in the dryer but I just figured it was a zipper from a sweatshirt. But I was wrong...very wrong. When I took the laundry out I kept finding these little balls. It didn't take me long to figure out these little gum balls were the culprit of the thumping.



Luckily only a few articles of clothing were damaged and they were mostly things I didn't care about. After the clothes were out I was able to see the inside of my dryer. It looked like this...


Those black streaks would be gum. They were all over the drum of my dryer.

So I googled "how to get gum out of the dryer" and there were several people who said to get a dryer sheet soaking wet and then scrub the gum out. There were some other people who said to use peanut butter but I didn't want all of our clothes to smell like peanuts so I opted for the dryer sheet solution.




I scrubbed like crazy and had sore arms the next day but it worked!


Nice and very clean breezy smelling dryer.

Honestly I was hoping that there was no fix to this problem so that I would finally have an excuse to get a new dryer. And you know what they say....If you give a mom a new dryer, She'll need a new washer to go with it.


12 comments:

Jenny Erazo said...

Nice! Well, not that you had gum balls in your dryer but that you were able to get it clean:)

Jason Alisynn and kids said...

That little trick should be in our "talkin' dirty laundry" book! Great job!!

Dave and Ash said...

First of all, that's so cool that you have a dryer. And a washer. Hug and kiss them for me. Second, I like that one! Good to know-- I got some sticker residue crap in my washer that I used have and didn't know how much I loved with all my heart and soul. But now it's not mine. So I can't fix it. Moral of the story: this information would have been useful about a year ago and I love washers and dryers that you can call your own.

Love,

Ashley

Ashley said...

I am so glad you were able to fix it and I think you should sell that book title and idea to Ms. Numeroff - it would be a best seller :)

Suzanne said...

Wow, that's definitely a handy tip! I will have to remember that one. I wonder if it works on crayon. (And I hope I never have to find out). Although magic eraser would probably work on crayon. I did have pen ink in my dryer once. Oh that was fun. Can't even remember what we did to get it out! Hair spray, probably.

Nurse Graham said...

Thanks for the tip. That's a good one; but one I hope I don't ever have to use.

Rachel said...

I hate washing/drying food items:) Carter has a bad habit of filling his pockets with rocks too. That's always good for the dryer! That's a great tip for gum though. I missed you at the b-day lunch! I felt bad but Brenda couldn't have too many people. We definitely need to do a GNO soon!!

Christie said...

Tell me you killed whoever left a whole pack of gum in their pockets, right? Unless it was you, of course. Then it was just an accident. :-)

Awesome tips. I would have had no idea.

Lauren in GA said...

Whoa. That is wild the way the gum balled up like that.

This is a very, very handy tip! I end up will all manner of things in the washer and dryer that I don't want to be there.

I belly laughed at your parting lines. I love those, "If you give a moose a muffin, a mouse a cookie, a pig a pancake" books.

calibosmom said...

Brilliant! My dryer is covered in black gum streaks. I'm trying this! I wonder if my Magic Eraser would work too. I'll try both and let you know.

Cami said...

Who let C have a whole pack of gum?

Tiffany Moss said...

This has happened to me before, along with purple crayon. I wish I would have known about the dryer sheet technique, I can't remember how I got the gum off, but I do know that it wasn't peanut butter. (:

Have a good Mother's Day.