Day 119: Waxing poetic? (Or, how to get wax out of clothes)

Scented candles smell so nice,
but wax on clothes is ick.
To get it out, don't use ice;
a warm iron will do the trick!



So... my antsy, very tired toddler knocked over an entire Scentsy wax burner the other day. I was completely freaked out - FIRST, that he may have burned himself (...which he did not; the wax, thankfully, was not hot enough) and SECOND, that there was a pile of wax and bits ALL over the table, the hardwood floor... and my son's clothes. He looked like a melted candle. Of course, the blue wax was all over a brand new outfit. And, of course, company was coming over in just a few minutes. I was able to scrape the wax off the table and the floor with a little, plastic tool once the wax cooled. Then I cleaned off those surfaces, as usual. But what about those clothes?!?! I'd never had to deal with THAT mess before!

I looked online and found a few interesting solutions to wax removal (Note to self: be sure to clarify CANDLE wax in the search box!) but finally settled on a warm iron and paper bags. I tried to scrape some of the wax off first with a butter knife, but I didn't have too much luck. SO... I used some lunch bags that I tore open, and, believe it or not, after just setting the paper bag pieces directly on top of the wax and gently ironing it (yes - straight onto the bag) with a warm iron, the wax melted onto the paper... and the clothes were, relatively, clean!



You can see all the greasy looking splotches on the paper bags (it took about 4 bags total), but the wax came out, and I just washed his outfit as I normally would! SUPER easy! And I didn't set any paper bags on fire! ;)


Now, THAT's neat!