I is for Ink

You know that stuff that you find all over your clothing & washing machine after yet another pen hitched a ride into the washer in the pocket of your spouses uniform!

Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your hand if you’ve pulled pieces of pen and ink covered clothing out of your washing machine. I bet you are all sitting there at your computer with you hand waving way above you head. I would like to say I’ve only made the mistake of washing a pen once, but we all know that would be lie. 

There are certain things that happen over time that I believe are a “right of passage” for military spouses. There are the big things like, PCSing for the first time, learning the in and outs of deployments, attending your first military function, and figuring out TriCare. Then there are the smaller things like navigating your way around base for the first time, the first time you mistakenly go to the commissary on pay-day, and washing a pocket full of pens in the laundry because you forgot to check the pockets of your spouses uniform. 

Ways to Avoid Washing Pens and Getting Ink Everywhere 

You could go the easy way and check everyone’s pockets, but lets face it, there will be that one time you are in a hurry…and…ta-da ink everywhere! 

You could hang your favorite pair of jeans that ended up covered in ink above the washing machine as a warning…or better yet hang it above the laundry hamper as a reminder to your spouse of the hell you will raise if you lose another pair of jeans to the ink monster. 

You could have a daily pat down, when your spouse walks in the door, you check all their pockets for pens and other non-washables and remove them immediately. 

What to Do to Get Ink Out of Clothing if Your Attempts to Avoid It Fail 

I’ve tried a lot of the tricks out there when attempting to get ink out of clothing, but so far, the hairspray trick seems to work the best. Simply spray the ink spot with hairspray until it starts to go away, then add a little stain remover. In the past I found that aerosol hairspray works the best. I used to keep a can of cheap hairspray in the laundry room for getting stains out. 

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