Even though I live in a relatively small apartment (roughly 1,200 sq. ft.) with only my two daughters (who are 6 and 5) half of the week, it is nearly impossible for me to keep it clean when they are around. Thankfully, both are past the age of writing on the wall, which has helped me keep my standard issue off-white paint relatively clean. That was until recently, when I had the bright idea of putting two barstools in front of the bar facing the kitchen where the girls could eat breakfast.
I've found that for the most part cleaning products from the dollar store perform fine. A while back you were able to buy Mr. Clean name brand magic erasers at the Dollar Store. So when I ended up with the wonderful Pollock-inspired stains below on the bar's white wall, I rushed to my local Dollar Store to pick some up.
The first stain was definitely a "N00BIE" stain when Larissa dropped a couple of blueberries and then smeared them with her feet on the wall. The second was a true challenge; red spray primer caked on the wall when Fabianna swung on the swivel chair and scraped the side against the wall.
It seems that the Dollar Store either ran out, or has decided to stop selling, name brand Magic Erasers and instead I found the only available product; Greenbrier's own Scrub it Quick Erasers.
The box comes with two 5x3x1" pads for, obviously, a buck - compared to the name brand stuff which usually runs for a little over $5 for a 4-pack. I snipped about a third off one of the pads as I felt the stains were not big enough to waste the entire pad (and honestly, the whole single dad with two little girls thing makes you cut corners everywhere) and gave it to Larissa because she wanted to help.
Unfortunately, even for the blueberry stain, Larissa did not have the "oomph" to get the stain out so I took over.
And as expected, the blueberry stain came off without any problems whatsoever.
The other stain I knew as going to be a challenge, and a challenge it proved to be. The first time around I didn't even tickle the freakin' stain.
I really wasn't expecting it to work on the primer but something told me to try it again and, as I've heard many folk here in the South say, "give it hell". I applied extra pressure (I guess I really applied a helluva lotta pressure) and eventually i was able to "erase" it off!
Above is Larissa's triumphant smile as she realized she would not have to go in the corner for 5 minutes since the stains came off.
After both stains were successfully removed all that was left was the bi-colored, used up carcass of the Quick Eraser which to my surprise performed above all expectations. This is definitely something every household should have, and for a buck it beats the hell outta Mr. Clean.
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