Laundry Riddle

Q: What happens when your 5 year-old tosses his pull-up in the laundry basket full of whites and it inadvertently gets thrown into the washing machine because his mother was in manic-mode trying to get the laundry started while rushing the kids into the car for swimming lessons?

A: A HUGE (we're talking H-U-G-E) MESS! The pull-up disintegrates into millions of pieces of lint and the water-absorbing crystals not only clog every single hole of the laundry tumbler, but they also absorb every drip of dirty rinse water and then get stuck in the rubber ring that surrounds the door. So basically the only way to clean up the mess is to hand clean one tiny hole at a time and to wipe up the rubber liner over and over and over as more and more of the grime keeps coming to the surface. I don't have pics of this (should have taken them), but it took me 1 1/2 hours to clean it up. Oh, and then you get to hand rinse every article of clothing that was in the machine because they are also covered in both lint and crystals.

Lesson learned: Don't ever, ever, ever let a pull-up or diaper go through the wash if you have a front-loading machine. Many thanks to Brent for today's laundry lesson.