Laundry 101: What NOT to do

The other day, Cinco (11) decided to wash his laundry For some random reason, BJ Dude (13) decided to throw his backpack in with his brother’s load. I only know about this because of the screaming I heard and this placed before my face:

 

Yes, that is his Sunday shirt.  Yes, that is Pink Highlighter.

It turns out that BJ Dude emptied out his papers and books, but left everything else:

 

Yes, that is pens, pencils, Highlighters, glue sticks, deodorant, erasers, wisp toothbrushes, magnetic oval thingies, permanent sharpies.  Oh yeah, this is what I pulled OUT of the washer after I got all the clothes out.  Those are PIECES of the highlighters, the rest came out wrapped in the clothes all broken up.

And here’s the rest of the damage.  I spent over an hour soaking and scrubbing trying to spare the other shirts and shorts.  Seriously, how do you not want to steal all your kid’s money to go repurchase new clothes and want to throttle him besides??!!    I was seething after scrubbing for so long my arms hurt.

But alas, I decided the best approach was to chuck the Sunday shirt (I will have to buy a new one of that) and take pictures and post about it.  It seems to ease the frustration, I suppose– sharing my laundry grieviences with you all.

I still cannot figure out why you would put a back pack in with clothes anyway because of the damage it could do from the weight of it.

Oh well, lesson learned, I hope.

1.  Pink highlighter does NOT come out very well.

2.  Blue highlighter comes out better

3.  DO NOT put backpacks in with regular laundry

4.  If you do put your back pack in with regular laundry, PLEASE get EVERYTHING out!

*deep sigh*  I feel better now, getting that off my chest.