Friday, July 08, 2011

How to Get Deodorant off the Wall

Yes, you read that right.  During naptime earlier this week, while the rest of the house was sleeping, my precious son decided to take my stick of deodorant from my bedroom and smear it in several different places in his bedroom.  In his words, they were drawings of "dinosaurs".  Some were just practice ones because they didn't turn out, and then one or two were "good ones".

For me, it meant several really sticky, greasy messes to clean up.  His locations of choice included two places on the wall, the headboard of his bed, the side of his dresser, and the wicker ottoman that sits beside his bed.  Yes, wicker.  So of course, the deodorant was also embedded in the little cracks between the fibre weaves.

How I cleaned it up:

1. Having never had to clean deodorant off of anything before, my immediate reaction was to head to my trusty friend, Google.  Believe it or not, apparently this kind of thing hasn't happened before, or at least, it hasn't happened to anybody who's thought to write about it and share their wisdom with the rest of the world.  The best I could come up with was how to get deodorant stains out of clothing...not really all that helpful.

2. Since Google failed me (*sob* I can't believe it...), and I was left to my own devices, I decided to attempt to tackle the problem using the old tried and true method of vinegar and hot water.  I made sure the water was as hot as I could stand, and I added a significant splash of vinegar to the bucket to make the solution as effective as I possibly could.

3. Then I took a regular kitchen cloth, and Reuben and I went off to the bedroom to do some serious scrubbing.  (His punishment was that he had to stay inside and help me clean up while Daddy and Kaylee went out to play in the sprinkler.  One of these days, he's going to learn he's not allowed to take Mommy's things from Mommy's bedroom.)  So we set to scrubbing with less than stellar results.  Deodorant is extremely greasy, and it didn't take long before my cloth was coated in it.  It was very difficult to rinse off, so that by the time I got to the last and worst section of deodorant-covered wall, it took me quite some time to get it cleaned enough to call our job done.  In the end, it felt like all I was doing was smearing the deodorant around more, and you could still see the greasy outline of my son's "dinosaur" drawing.

4. Talking to my Mum later, she suggested dish soap as a way to cut the grease, so I went back for a second shot at the residue I just couldn't get off with the vinegar and water mixture.  The dish soap seemed to work well, although it took quite a lot of rinsing to get the soap off the wall.  Unfortunately, I think I waited too long to try it because after the wall dried, you can still see a grease stain on the wall, but I couldn't feel anymore residue on my fingers.  It really doesn't help that the paint someone used in that room is the non-glossy stuff, so everything just soaks right down into it right away.  Whoever THAT genius was clearly wasn't thinking when they painted a potential child's bedroom with that kind of paint...

In conclusion, I think dish soap is the answer for getting deodorant off the wall...or any other surface it might happen to have been rubbed on.  Heck, it may even be the solution for getting it out of clothes, although the Google searches generally conclude the vinegar and baking soda option works best. 

I think from now on I'm going to keep my deodorant under lock and key...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My first thought after reading this was oboy you have your hands full with that little guy and then my second thought was I wonder what kind of awesome career he's going to have when he grows up. (but I could be wrong and he goes for a normal job like most of us)
Aunt patty

Crystal K said...

Thanks for posting this, My dear daughter thought her room was stinky and used the deodorant on the walls to freshen it up. Google failed me too until I came here.
Thanks again,
Crystal

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I've been trying to get the deoderant off the wall (thanks to my 4-year old) for the past week with vinegar and was thinking it was permanent. Going to try the soap first thing in the morning!

Icelandic Association of Utah said...

I have a similar problem, but mine is on a TREADMILL! UGH!!! I'm going with the dish soap theory first because it seems more logical to me that it would work better, but I guess I'll see! Thank you for posting something about this since nobody else apparently admits to their kids doing something like this!!

Unknown said...

The given information is really very helpful. Thanks a lot for providing such useful information. Hope, I will get more information regarding the same. Green liquid laundry detergent

Unknown said...

Thank you!! We are renting our house and are now moving and my daughter put deodorant all over her walls also. I will try that hopefully it will work. Thank u again.

Water Blaster said...

Thank you for sharing this article, it is very easy to understand and informative. You can also use water blaster to help you clean faster and easier!

Scott and Abby said...

Well, I've officially joined the club. My 4 year old just got a hold of my deodorant and drew circles and X's all over my family room! Ugh. Not cool.

Louise said...

Thanks for this! Came up top in my google search! My autistic son decided to express his anger by smearing deodorant stick down his bedroom wall.

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