Remove Gum From Your Clothes Dryer!!

I don't know how our parents survived without the Internet at their constant disposal. I get wonderful stain remover tips from there all the time. Sometimes, when you read them, you're like, that seems like a really weird solution to this problem, but then when you read the comments below and everyone is singing its praises, you know you better try it.

Well, this morning, on a day when I had mountains of laundry to attend to, I came across this as I was just about to put the first load in the dryer:

Oh yeah. Gum. My favorite thing to find first thing in the morning. Please note sarcasm. Want a close up?

What a mess!!

What's a girl to do? I don't want all that all over the rest of my clothes.

To the Internet!

I opened the first three sites from my search. The second site had a lot of different ideas for getting gum out of the dryer. They involved WD-40, Goo Gone, acetone (nail polish remover), and an ice cube paired with a scraping device. They all sounded very messy, and with the exception of the ice cube method, they all said to wait at least a week for your dryer to air out so your clothes don't end up smelling like the chemical you used. The one with the acetone also warned against risking a fire with your dryer since it's a flammable substance.

Well, I didn't have a week to wait. I needed my dryer now! I also really didn't want to risk blowing up anything in my house. Particularly something as expensive as my much needed and used clothes dryer.

The first and third sites told me to try the following method, which, I admit, I felt a  little skeptical about. But, once I read all the comments praising how quick and easy this method was, I decided to try it out. After all, it did seem pretty safe and much less messy than everything else I'd read.

Guess what? It worked!! I was so elated I wanted to share it all with you and I even took pictures while I did it (in case it actually worked), to prove how well it works.

1. Soak a dryer sheet in water for 1-2 minutes. You want it fully saturated.

Step 1

2. Place soaked dryer sheet directly on top of gum. If you have more than one giant spot of gum, use another dryer soaked sheet on that one. I'm sure it'll save you time. I, thankfully, only had one spot. Leave for 10-15 minutes.

Step 2

3. Using the dryer sheet, start scrubbing away. Fingernails come in handy in this step.

Step 3

Check it out! My first big chunk of gum came off pretty quickly!

And it kept coming off!

What a relief!!

It took some elbow grease, but I only had to scrub for about five minutes. Then after the biggest mess was gone, I scrubbed the little splotches of gum that were scattered all around the drum. I didn't even have to soak those ones. They came off pretty easily.

 4. Wipe with a clean, damp cloth.

Step 4

5. Jump for joy, breathe a sigh of relief, or do whatever it is you do when you claim a homemaking victory! Me? I blogged about it.

There you have it! Clothes from the washer can go right in!

   O frabjous day! Callouh! Callay! 
   (S)he chortled in [her] joy.

                                ~Lewis Carroll, from the poem Jabberwocky, from the book Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Brilliant poem. One of my favorites. The dryer sheet was my vorpal blade. Please click the link to read the rest of the poem.

Now on to more laundry! I just heard the dryer beep.