Eau de Peanut Butter

Once when I was a young child of, I don't know, five maybe, I decided that I wanted a new necklace.  Having been the creative type from well, birth, I decided to make my own.  So, I chewed up some gum, took it out of my mouth, stretched it around my neck and stuck the two ends together.

Viola!  A necklace!

A necklace that I didn't want to pull apart and ruin, so I took it off like you take any large necklace off.  Over my head.

Well, I tried anyway and as one could guess, I got that necklace pretty well stuck in my hair and my darling mother, may she rest in peace, had to control her anger while wielding what seemed like a gigantic scissors to cut that gum right outta my hair.  

Not the smartest idea I've ever had.

And, you know how parents sometimes mutter things under their breath to their children?  Things like "I hope someday you have a child just like you" or "Someday, someday you'll be in this same situation, and you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to watch and laugh as you try to parent through it with grace and patience."

Yeah, yeah, I know, and I know that my mom has been laughing from above as I've tried parenting through my own little gum situation with grace and patience.

No gum in the hair in our house, but unfortunately my little gum problem wasn't something I could just grab scary scissors and cut out.  

My gum problem was a sticky, linty, streaky mess through the inside of my dryer.  Oh no.

Oh yes.  Somebody (me) didn't check the pockets of clothes belonging to someone else (probably my six year old son) and I had an epic mess on my hands.  Well, not on my hands.  On my dryer, obviously.

I considered my options.  Clorox wipe?  Fail.  Goo-Gone?  Flammable solvent into my dryer, probably not such a smart idea.  Ice and a chisel?  I had neither.  So, while I have never needed this secret tip in the past, I decided to give peanut butter the ol' college try.  (And by ol' college try I mean try it for two years, five days and then quitting and never looking back.  Oh look, my mother just rolled over in her grave.)

I sat on my basement floor dabbing peanut butter all over the inside of that relatively new and oh so necessary appliance.  I talked nicely too it, telling it how much I love it and appreciate all of its hard work and if it could come clean I would never forget to empty its lint filter again.  You know, typical deals with the devil dryer.

A tablespoon of peanut goodness and 30 minutes later, plus some elbow grease and a few wasted paper towels, and the inside of my dryer is back to its sparkly white nearly new condition and I can get back to climbing Mt. Laundry without a harness or ropes. Heaven help me.

And as a bonus, this little problem could make me irresistible.  Cocoa butter legs and peanut butter clothes will make me a walking, breathing Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.