The Red Crayon and the Clogged Drain

What could a red crayon and clogged drain have to do with my path to financial independence?  Seems like stretch, right?!  Well it might be but both could have cost me a lot of money but just ended up costing me some time and energy to solve.

First it was the red crayon of doom!  I washed a load of my son’s clothes (yes, you caught me – I didn’t check all the pockets!) and threw them in the dryer before we went to bed.    Got up the next morning and opened the dryer and grabbed a shirt out for my kiddo and then I saw the red splotches.  I grabbed another shirt and then a pair of pants and another  shirt, frantically looking for culprit.  I spotted it shortly after – a half melted RED CRAYON.  Stifling my inner voice that was yelling “NOOOOOOOOOO” at the top of its lungs, I threw the clothes back in the dryer and went to find something else to send my child off to school in that wasn’t smeared with parental failure.    While my kiddo was chowing his way through a Eggo waffle later that morning, I went to my good friend Google to look for a way to extract melted crayons from clothes.  I was slightly disappointed to find it wasn’t quite as easy to find the cure for melted crayons as I had thought.   Turns out this momma, happens to be a little unique is allowing a crayon to slip into the dryer.  (UGH!)  Eventually, I found an answer and on no other website then crayola themselves.  Turns out it isn’t hard to get rid of melted crayon.  Thank you crayola website!!!

1.) First take the offending clothes and work dishwashing liquid into the melted crayons spots.  The dishwashing liquid breaks down the crayon with a bit of elbow grease.

2.) Wash the clothes again in hot water and regular laundry detergent.

3.) Key step three – check the clothes to see if there is any crayon left.  If there is repeat step 1 & 2.  

I could have just been defeated by own stupidity and trashed most of son’s clothes but I decided the elbow grease and energy was worth it.  I saved the whole load and didn’t have to spend a dime to fix the issue.

Then there was the Clogged Drain

Now enter the clogged drain in the master sink.  The joys of owning a home never end, and after a month of me ignoring the fact that every time I was washing my face at night the water was draining slower and slower in my sink, I realized I had to get it solved.   Normally, I’d go buy some Drano or Liquid Plumber and just dump that crap down the drain (literally!).   On a whim, I decided to look up if there were any “home remedies” for unclogging a drain.  Sure enough the old internet seems to be filled with ideas.  I found two similar approaches with baking soda and vinegar of which I currently possessed in large enough quantities I figured it was worth a shot.  Don’t judge me, doesn’t everyone buy Baking Soda in 13.5lb bags?     So how does one unclog a drain with baking soda and vinegar, well it was quite easy but a bit time consuming.  

First dump about 1 cup baking soda down the drain.  My drain was pretty clogged so I ended up get a long zip tie and just that to force the baking soda down the drain.   Then very slowly pour about a cup or two of vinegar into the bowl of the sink not directly on top of the drain.   You need to let the baking soda and vinegar do it’s thing!  The fizzing and popping of baking soda and vinegar break down clogging materials pretty quickly.   It worked pretty good!  I did have to do it twice because as embarrassing as this is to admit, the sink was pretty dang clogged.  Both articles I found out about this method said to have boiling hot water to flush the drain after – I don’t understand the need for boiling out water.  I just turned on the faucet and washed away the residual reaction.  

The moral of my story is that taking the time to find a way to fix something instead of just throwing money at the problem might not only save you some dough but you also might learn something new.  Also check for crayons in kids pockets!