Remove Permanent Magic Marker from Clothes Using Whole Milk

My daughter came home yesterday with pink permanent magic marker stains on the sleeve of one of her favorite shirts.  This was not a cheap shirt.  My wife was not happy and my daughter was in tears because it was a Frozen themed shirt with Elsa and Anna on it, her favorite characters right now.  My first inclination was to start looking for a replacement because it seemed unlikely that this shirt would ever be OK to wear again.

Several family members and friends offered remedies that seemed completely farfetched, but given my reluctance to spend money on an article of clothing that we already purchased once, I decided it was worth at least giving them a try.

The option that was least likely to work, in my opinion was to soak the shirt in milk, but as it turns out, it was the solution that kept me from having to go out shopping for Frozen shirts.

We took a cereal bowl, which has seen its fair share of milk and filled it almost completely full with whole milk straight from the refrigerator.  There were pink stains around the cuff and also higher on the sleeve, but we decided to start small and just soak the first two or three inches of the sleeve and see what happened.  To our surprise, within minutes, the milk had already started turning a faint shade of pink.  We let the whole arrangement sit overnight.

The next morning, my wife checked on the shirt and noticed that the bowl of milk was almost empty.  We don't own a cat. so it seems that the shirt was rather thirsty and soaked the milk up slowly.  Fortunately, we positioned the shirt and bowl in the center of the counter so that it didn't get too heavy and fall off the side pulling the bowl with it.

Amazingly, the permanent marker stains were about 95% gone.  There was a slight mark left, but it so faint, it was almost unnoticeable.  The worst stains had completely disappeared.  Of course, the next step was to immediately wash the shirt so that my daughter didn't smell like sour milk the next day at school.  So today, I learned an important lesson: If you have a bad stain and nothing else will clean it, try whole milk.  You may be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

How to Clean up the Earth and Make Less Work for Our Children

Start by looking at the things you throw away. Are you disposing of your waste properly? Is any of it recyclable? If you are buying products that are harmful to the environment or do not decompose, are there safer products that you could use instead? Start or join a neighborhood clean up project or participate in the "adopt a highway" program if it exists in your area. If just one person makes a conscious decision to do better and think "green", the positive impact on the environment will be staggering. When lots of people get involved, others will notice.

Encourage as many people as you can to help you in your mission. Have a positive discussion with your kids about conservation and teach them good habits by setting a good example yourself. Remind adults that littering is wrong. If you catch a litterbug red-handed, don't ignore them. Report them to the authorities! Memorize their license plate and call your local police department. Some law enforcement websites even have pages devoted to reporting litterbugs.

Write or email your Senators and Congressmen and share ideas about conservation. Donate money to watchdog groups who fight to protect the Earth! Better yet, donate your time and energy to help their cause. It's up to all of us to protect the Earth's precious environment now, so that our children and every generation after them don't have to clean up our mess. Remember, some damage cannot be undone. Let's change our lifestyles before it's too late

Tips

•Are buying products that are harmful to the environment?.

•Encourage other people to help you in your mission..

Resources:

United States Environmental Protection Agency

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/aboutepa.htm

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

http://www.fws.gov/index.html