Odd Trick Cleans Ink Off Dryer

We have all been there. You open the dryer door, and out falls the empty carcass. The darn machine has moved on from socks and on to munching a pen which wouldn’t matter if it weren’t such a messy eater. Your clothes look like a pointillist study in blue dots. After the weeping, wailing, and some carefully selected vocabulary, sanitized somewhere between brain and mouth, it’s time to self medicate with chocolate hold a moment of silence to gather your composure then get to the business of cleaning the dryer to deter further casualties. Conventional wisdom says grab baking soda, soft scrub, Magic Eraser, rubbing alcohol, and maybe even nail polish remover and WD-40, but we tested all of those plus some, and none of them worked as well to clean ink off the dryer as the strange trick my husband found.

 

Not too long ago he was doing laundry and destroyed the bulk of my summer bottoms. Now, Florida can be center-of-the-sun hot with tourists in various stages of undress in public, but I do still prefer to be fully clothed. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen during the brief few weeks we turned off the AC and proclaimed it “winter”, because that would’ve meant jeans would’ve been my staple pants. I was busy spraying my shorts and capris with hair spray for a rewash, and my husband started desperately grabbing random cans trying to find any chemical to salvage the dryer.

Being thrifty, I used a clear shoe bag on the back of the laundry door to organize. It’s not as pretty as matching baskets, but it is space saving, cheap, and easy to use. I’m an out of sight, out of mind person. I like to see my stuff, and it makes it easier for other family members to find stuff, too. So he saw all that stuff hanging there and started grabbing and spraying, pouring, scrubbing…

And he found this can. Do you recognize it?

Did you see that rag? (No you didn’t, because I lost the pictures for this post. Trust me that it was BLUE!) That was after he started using that can. Have you guessed what it is yet? That miracle cleaner is something that may shock some of you. It’s Cutter Backwoods insect repellant. In Florida you need serious mosquito protection, and I have essential oil blends, too, but I raised Boy Scouts, and essential oils don’t cut it for scout camp. This stuff does double duty: it repels Zica virus and cleans ink out of dryers. I can safely say that this is something I’d have never tried. I’d have searched the house for other possibilities, but I would’ve passed right over this one, the most effective cleaner out of the bunch.

I suggest you take the precaution of wearing a mask and goggles and ventilating the room if you treat your dryer for mosquitos use Cutter to clean ink out of your dryer.

I’d like to hear how you’ve dealt with your ink disasters. (Has anyone else tried a different brand of mosquito spray? LOL) Drop your dirty dryer stories here in the comments, and share your successes.