Why a teacher would allow a bunch of 7 year olds to sit on
the floor with dry erase boards and markers to do group work is beyond me. It is probably because she doesn’t have to do
their laundry. Back in February, I
shared with you how I let dry erase marker get the best of me by ruining
another one of Gray’s shirts. Well
three days in a row, Gray came home covered in dry erase marker – seriously
with multiple colors and on the back of his shirts too. So now I was looking at ruining three more
shirts and a pair of khakis.
The first day I started my ritual of pre-spotting and
washing. When I pulled the shirt out of
the washer and saw the marks still there, I stopped. Not this time. I laid the shirt aside and planned on sending
it with Matt on his next trip to Greensboro.
Then three more pieces came in, and they all went in the pile. I know we’ve shared that the sooner you
address stains, the easier they are to remove.
Oh, and yes we do have dry cleaners in the middle of nowhere,
Tennessee. But I’ve worked for A Cleaner World since 1996. I know the training our master drycleaners
receive. I also know how much care goes
into each garment. So I waited.
Matt dropped off the four pieces at our Golden Gate
location and talked to the manager, Bryan Cabler. Matt told Bryan what was on the garments, and
Byan replied, “We can get that out.” He
did, but he had to work hard on the stains – and there were lots of them.
I was amazed when I saw the clothes. These pictures don’t do justice to the amount
of marker Bryan had to deal with. Marker
is one of the harder stains to get out. In
fact, Bryan told me he thought car grease was easier to remove than this.
So I’d like to end with my two takeaways from this big
adventure. First, know your limits. For instance, I know I can get out grass
stains. I know I cannot get out
marker. I’m not going to risk ruining a
shirt over pride. I’m just going to send
it to my expert. Second, if you get
something on your clothes, be sure to tell the CSR at drop off. Bryan told me that knowing the stains helped
him use the proper spotting agent from the start. That made this monumental task just a bit
easier.