Introduction
We all know how art supplies can build up inside your home. Especially whenever you love to use old (broken) items to create something new. Recycling and up cycling can be so much fun! I don't throw out things easily, as I think there's another purpose for a lot of things. But on the other hand, I don't like to have closets or boxes that are filled with stuff that I may be able to use some day (or not). I have to find a healthy balance in between not having to throw out still useful items and not cluttering the house.
I'm currently going through the phase where my wardrobe part is already been sorted and the bedroom is nicely cleaned without any clutter in sight, while some corners of the house and the complete art supply closet are filled up with items that aren't sorted and maybe no longer needed.
Whenever this happens, it's time to have a nice round of sorting.
Lost paint, markers and pens in all colors
The most common problem here is whenever my daughter wants to paint, she can't find the "new" box of paint. It's been an issue for a few years now, I always have a few boxes of water color paint for her besides my own other paints, but she always loses her box of watercolor paint. We have a set place for her paint supplies, and yet, it's still always gone. It's at the point that now I don't even know where it went, haha.
We also have a huge collection of brushes, markers, pencils, watercolor pencils, crayons of all sorts. Expensive ones, cheap ones and those that are in between but actually can meet with the standards of the expensive ones. Since my daughter has my interest for crafting/drawing/painting, I always try to buy her the great stuff that I would use as well, but not the most expensive stuff. I do have some no-go's for her to use, as I'm afraid she'll drop them and the pencils will break inside.
Reviving dried markers
Some markers haven't been used for a while as I used them to draw things and it's been a while since I have done that. Especially as I bought myself a drawing tablet last winter. But while sorting out the markers, I discovered that even some that have barely been used are now dried out. Such a shame, and I refuse to just throw these away.
I only threw out the markers that had bad brushes by pushing to hard, or because they just weren't what I expected (and now dried out). This big set of markers in many colors that I showed above, was very easy to draw with, and the colors are amazing, so these need to be saved, or at least, I need to try! I read this is very simple to do, so let's see how many I can save from the garbage!
My daughter was very interested
She didn't want to miss a single thing when I started with the process.
So you only need a few things:
- dried markers (of course haha)
- a bowl
- hot water
- kitchen paper to dry the markers afterwards
I thought my bowl to clean brushes would be ideal, as I can lift the tips of the markers by using the inside metal part. You need to use hot water, I didn't boil it, but let the water run until it was really hot.
I took them inside and left them in the bowl for 4 to 5 minutes. When I dried them off, the paper was very blue, so at least the blue seemed to came back to life.
Once dried, you need to close them with the lid and leave them for a day so I read, but I was curious to check them sooner as I had the feeling they would need some more water.
I decided to switch to this glass bowl so that I could see them leaking, and it was more fun for my daughter who was constantly keeping an eye on them!
You can see air coming through immediately.. After a while 2 of them started leaking ink, so I took them out sooner. I repeated the process with the other ones that didn't seem to leak ink yet two times and then left them closed on the table for a few hours.
After another round, you can see I have a few good ones again. Some are still not where they need to be, they will be kept closed until tomorrow when I will do one last attempt before I decide that they can't be saved. I hope they can, because the last round a few of them suddenly started writing quite well again. There's still hope!
I noticed it's easier with thicker markers that have an actual brush compared to these writing markers. The others were revived very quickly!
Conclusion
You don't have to throw out the markers once they are dry, please first try to bring them back to life with this simple trick. It may not always work, but I'm personally very happy that I saved quite a few of them today.
My daughter thought it was super interesting, I never expected such a simple experiment to be so fun for her, so that's why I had to share it here in the community. Even those simple experiments that may also save you from throwing out things that are still good for use can get your little one excited if you create a fun class out of it.
What about you? Do you throw out dried markers easily or are you also someone that tries to bring them back to life again?
Very nice Idea, @thisismylife
You kept those plastic markers out of the landfill.
It is cool to watch the kids get excited about simple things.
!CTP
I don't like to waste anything if not needed. So this was a great way to keep them around a little longer.
And yes, it's awesome that they can enjoy these little projects!
!CTP
This is amazing. I'm definitely going to remember this ! 🙏 💚
Welcome, I have tried it on every marker before we left Budapest, but it doesn't work on every sort. You will find out soon enough though. I did get quite a few back to life though :) so to me, worth the try!
!CTP
I can't imagine how many good markers I would have been able to save with this technique, I really didn't know it, I thought that when it dried nothing could be done, but now I'm going to try it. Thank you very much for sharing it
You're not the only one, trust me!
Good to know for the future, right?
A few of them (I think it were 4) weren't saved, but at least a bunch of others were :)
Thanks for you comment and have a lovely Sunday!
Oooh, that's such a good tip!
I can't remember how many markers I have thrown away in my life, without thinking about ways to revive them! I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks for sharing! <3
You aren't alone haha. I have probably thrown out tons of them in my life as well. I couldn't save 4 of them. Tried repeating 5 times, but at least I saved a bunch of others while trying. So simple, worth the effort to check once a marker is dried out ;)
A really amazing trick I will have to try it.