Ok, you know when you're so looking forward to the magical hour when your kids go to sleep and you finally have time to sit down and relax? Well, I really needed that today...it was a long, hard day. There were a few mommy meltdown moments to this one. Unfortunately the washing machine gremlins had other ideas. I was washing a load of the kids' clothes and was just going to toss them into the dryer before sitting down for a bit with a glass of wine. As I pulled the clothes out of the washer, I noticed that there was strange gelly looking stuff all over them, then I looked into the machine to find that it was CAKED in clumps of gel.
What does one do to clean this mess up? I know I'm not the first mom to do this, so here's what to do when you find your kid's clothes caked in diaper gel...
1. Swear, cry, pull your hair out, take pictures, and share on social media. Then take a deep breath and grab a few rags.
2. Pull out all the clothes. Set them aside in a pile on the floor or in a basket.
3. Using a wet cloth, wipe down the inside of your washer. Put all the gel clumps in the garbage. Use a clean rag to wipe again once you think you have it all cleaned. Be sure to clean out the rubber door seal (all the way around) & door if you have a front loader.
4. Shake all the clothes out & try to get off as much of the diaper goo as you can. Not an easy task or a clean one, but necessary...it will just clog up the washer again if you don't shake it off. I just shake it on the floor in my laundry room and wipe it up when I'm done, luckily it's easy to wipe up. If you have carpet in your laundry room, this is not a good idea!
5. Put your laundry back in the washer and run another cycle with an extra rinse.
6. If your laundry comes out clean, you can dry it...if it doesn't, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll need to repeat the steps and try again. If you cleaned well, you shouldn't have any problem.
7. Once your clothes have come out clean it's probably a good idea to clean your washer. Wipe out your washer once again, just to make sure you got all those little gel clumps, don't forget the rubber seal & door. If you have one of those lovely new washers with the cleaning settings, use it! If you don't, just run a regular cycle with an extra rinse. Use a washing machine cleaner tablet or 1/2 cup of vinegar as a cleaning agent.
8. Check your laundry carefully next time! (hopefully I've learned that lesson now!!!)
Now I can finally put my feet up...
~Adel~
1. Swear, cry, pull your hair out, take pictures, and share on social media. Then take a deep breath and grab a few rags.
2. Pull out all the clothes. Set them aside in a pile on the floor or in a basket.
3. Using a wet cloth, wipe down the inside of your washer. Put all the gel clumps in the garbage. Use a clean rag to wipe again once you think you have it all cleaned. Be sure to clean out the rubber door seal (all the way around) & door if you have a front loader.
4. Shake all the clothes out & try to get off as much of the diaper goo as you can. Not an easy task or a clean one, but necessary...it will just clog up the washer again if you don't shake it off. I just shake it on the floor in my laundry room and wipe it up when I'm done, luckily it's easy to wipe up. If you have carpet in your laundry room, this is not a good idea!
5. Put your laundry back in the washer and run another cycle with an extra rinse.
6. If your laundry comes out clean, you can dry it...if it doesn't, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll need to repeat the steps and try again. If you cleaned well, you shouldn't have any problem.
7. Once your clothes have come out clean it's probably a good idea to clean your washer. Wipe out your washer once again, just to make sure you got all those little gel clumps, don't forget the rubber seal & door. If you have one of those lovely new washers with the cleaning settings, use it! If you don't, just run a regular cycle with an extra rinse. Use a washing machine cleaner tablet or 1/2 cup of vinegar as a cleaning agent.
8. Check your laundry carefully next time! (hopefully I've learned that lesson now!!!)
Now I can finally put my feet up...
~Adel~
So this happened this weekend....discovered a new way and it's much much easier......you add like a cup of salt to a new laundry cycle let it soak, while soaking I went in and moved the wash around a bit then let it cycle thru, then put in the dryer. The salt breaks down the gel :)
ReplyDeleteJust woke up to the jelly blob! How do I tell my husband ONCE more that he's not allowed to do laundry? In a loving way, of course!
ReplyDeleteGoing to try the salt!!
I just did this and one piece of advice I read was to go ahead and put the clothes into the dryer. Apparently the gel will dry up and go into the lint screen....
ReplyDeleteThis helps sooo much I’ve done this twice now works good then you use a lint roller or wash the clothes again then dry them again
Deletegramma helping with the laundry, yup, damn pullup left in the clothing. What a mess. Did what you said, hoping it never happens again!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing such a useful post.
ReplyDelete