O.M.Gum!!!!

For about the 100th time since summer started I could literally wring my son's neck!!! 

     At 16.5 (as I am regularly reminded) years old my oldest child has decided that he is an adult and we parents know nothing.......come on, we have all been there, and usually admit we are wrong about the time we become parents ourselves. My wonderful child has decided that texting is the form of communication of choice (as most teens in this era have), that his dad is an idiot (I have to admit, I do occasionally agree), and that he no longer has to check his pockets when it is time to do the laundry!!!!

     While trying to prepare my Boy Scout for reality without Mama in his not so distant future (come on mom, you'll do my laundry forever, right? ~ Um, NO!) I have taught the boy how to check pockets while sorting clothes into various piles, how to use the Washing Machine with all it's fancy cycles and temperatures, and the dryer with all of it's different settings and impressive knobs and buttons, did I mention that the silly things sing a song when they are finished with their cycles? Well, they do. So you would think that with all that training, and the implanted knowledge that you fold while the clothes are still HOT, that the boy would have learned to do the job properly, BUT NOOOOOO!

     I go to the laundry room to start a load of the Ladybug's clothes only to find that my son did not finish the laundry he started..............three days ago! So, STRIKE ONE is the souring laundry left in the washer, UGH! Warm water and vinegar to the rescue! After a cycle of the warm and vinegar I washed it AGAIN with laundry detergent and softener. That's better. STRIKE TWO, not folding the laundry in the dryer while it was still hot enough not to get wrinkles, wait! What is that sticking to the glass of the dryer door? Could it be? REALLY??? Yes, yes it is, MY Orbit Spearmint GUM (so that's where it went)! AGH!!!! I pulled each piece of clothing out of the dryer checking it for gum and residue, blessedly it seems to be only on the glass and the dryer itself, not the clothing. 

     O.M.Gum! I have NEVER had to deal with this before, and I had NO CLUE how to get gum out of a dryer. I tried ice, but the streaks of gum were not thick enough for ice to do anything to it. I tried alcohol, didn't really do anything. I tried peanut butter (hey, it works for hair!), but that also didn't do anything. BUT, as I was using a paper towel and vinegar to get the peanut butter grease out of the dryer the darnedest thing happened! The gum started to come off! I tried another area that I hadn't used the peanut butter on, just to make sure it wasn't a combo effect. Nope, the gum was still coming up with just the vinegar. Sure it smelled strongly awful, and hot (ever smelled hot vinegar? NOT pleasant!), but IT WORKED!

I can now officially say: Been There,  Tried That on removing gum from a dryer drum! 

(not that I ever wanted to be able to say that, but whatever!)