I must have had one wild 40th birthday party with my family because when it was all said and done, I had some surprise counter, fridge, wall, and floor art courtesy of my 3 year old 🙄 Never mind you, I still have some signature crayon art all over the seats in my car courtesy of my 5 year old I have yet to get to. This post will be all about “surprise art” crayon clean-up …the hard surface edition.
The Damage…
What Didn’t Work…
Before I indulge in sharing my victory of what did work, let me tell you what didn’t…
- Soap and water with a towel…nope ❌
- Soap and water with a flat plastic scraper…uh, uh ❌
I’ll admit I wasted some precious time I can’t get back fooling with those two methods. Although to be fair, that second method was working but it was taking WAY too much effort and too much time.
The Answer!!
I remembered from my quest on the modern day encyclopedia we we refer to as Google seeing some suggestions for getting crayon out of car seats. I decided I’d give that a try on these hard surfaces as well. It was simple…a little toothbrushing for the surfaces and the toothpaste…Dawn dishwashing liquid 😊 (And of course a little water)

This worked like a charm for the floor, fridge door, and cabinets! I was finished in no time. One note I will gift you with is that you have to apply just the right amount of “light” pressure so that it will bring the crayon off. Press too hard and it won’t help. Press too lightly and…well, you know what won’t happen.
Taking it a step further…
I had to take it a step further for the walls y’all. The toothbrush, water, and Dawn combo wasn’t quite cutting the mustard.

The abrasion of the baking soda was just enough to get against the texture of the door and the wall to hoist me over that finish line to victory!!

Patricia Wiley
Well Mom All Over the Place strikes again!!! Well I guess you kinda gets that from Mama Pat who never gives up on anything after the first try. Staying in there until the job is defeated and not until the job defeats you. Way to go Porsche!! Well done 👍🏾