Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Permanent.

When you hear that something is 'permanent', is it really permanent?? There are so many cleaning solutions out there, nothing should actually be permanent. But, alas, I'm here to tell you that permanent markers are actually permanent; on certain surfaces.

Picture this. I jump in the shower yesterday morning for approximately 8 minutes. Eight minutes. The minute I get out of the shower, O yells (nonchalantly, I might add), "moooommm, come see what Aldy did. He colored on the couch".  p.s. in parenting, 'come see what ____ did' is never good. I come dowstairs and see three distinct scribbles, one on each cushion of the couch. Then scribbles on two throw pillows. I immediately think, 'where the heck did he find a black marker??' My head whips 90 degrees to the kitchen to where I find a dining room chair pushed up to the wall shelf that holds some pens, pencils and.....you guessed it, sharpies. GAH!! 


I then assess the damage. I look at the couch and shake my head..which then leads me to the scribble on the couch arm. Then my eyes are distracted by the scribble on the carpet and then the ottoman!!! He had went on a scribbling rampage. I was speechless.

After the very stern talks and lengthy time outs were initiated to both the Scribbler and the lazy one who didn't care to tell me what was going on, I took a breather, hands on head, and basically did a circle around my house. But wait. Out of the corner of my eye, what's that on the couch in the sitting room?? Oh yes, a scribble on each cushion there, more scribbles on the window sill and the window, the throw pillow......and his tiny police car. AHHHHH!!!!





My heart sank. How was I going to get this permanent marker off of all this furniture? Now, I immediately rushed to the computer to do a search. Turns out, I'm not the only parent this has happened to. (I even read a story about a woman whose 2 year old scribbled all over her friend's couch with a sharpie....that sucks.) So, rubbing alcohol seemed to be the answer for the microsuede couch; hairspray for cotton fabrics; and I surrounded myself with various other recommended products, nail polish remover, furniture cleaner, Melaleuca Sol-U-Mel and carpet cleaner. Enough to give me the largest headache ever. I scrubbed for two hours straight. Two hours of serious scrubbing and the results are in:



I am happy with the results, even though there are still faint signs of the destruction. All the cushions have been flipped in the sitting room (thank God we are planning to do away with those couches....soon), the marker came out of the throw pillows, except for a small faded line on the yellow one. Oh well, I'll flip it the other way. It easily came of the window and sill and ottoman. But most importantly, the microsuede couch. If you didn't know the faint marks were there, you would never tell. And I'm okay with that.

As for now.....I've learned my lesson. The markers are put away.

2 comments:

  1. Oh.My.God. I knew this story before, but reading it, along with your photos, made me laugh out loud!!! I especially love the photo collage at the end with the captions of "gone" and so forth. Amber, you kill me and I love it. Keep it coming. Hopefully not in Sharpie though. :)

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  2. We call those "no-no markers" around here. We've had to scrub baking soda on our table several times because of Sharpies... definitely "crazy mom" inducing....

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