Get Sharpie off of White Quartz Counters

If you looked this up because you have a disaster on your hands, I feel your pain.  Don’t worry, there’s an easy solution. 

(This isn’t a sponsored post)

First, a quick story:  Twelve years ago we built our home, with the 3/4″ red birch hardwood floors of my dreams.  Not long after that, our two and three year-old sons decided to surprise me one morning by sneaking downstairs and mopping the kitchen.

I woke up to two proud little boys beaming up at me, begging me to come see what they’d done.  They ran ahead shouting, “We washed the floor with the cups!”

I died.

I’m not exaggerating, there was a half-inch of water covering the entire kitchen.  There were plastic Ikea cups and bowls floating around the island — which was LITERALLY an island.  

And here and there they’d left half-eaten hot dogs — a nutritious breakfast, for sure.

I don’t know how I managed to be calm.  It was miraculous.  With my heart breaking, I smiled at them and thanked them for trying so hard to do something nice for me.  Then I asked them in the nicest way possible to never wash the floor with cups and bowls of water again.

All day long, the popping sounds of warping wood stabbed my broken heart.

Why am I telling this story?  Well, it makes me laugh.  But also, because it’s the reason we re-modeled our kitchen last year.  New floors, re-finished cabinets, and gorgeous new WHITE quartz counters.

And do you know what my kids did?  They decided to take some of my latex food prep gloves and make balloons of them.  Then they drew faces on them with RED Sharpies.  The marker transferred off of the balloons and ALL OVER the white counters.

These two boys are eight and eleven and I wasn’t the miraculously calm mother I was the first time around.  This time I was an incoherent, crazed mess of a person.

We tried everything to scrub it off but it just made a big pink mess.  Magic eraser, Goo Gone, and white vinegar all failed me.

I was holding back tears and trying not to hyperventilate as I desperately searched the internet.  

Then I found a message board that suggested Bar Keeper’s Friend.  I had some!  I use it for pots and pans.  With all the hope I could muster, I hurried to the kitchen to try it.  

I sprayed the spots with water and then sprinkled Bar Keeper’s Friend all over it.  I almost bawled.  The white cleanser turned pink.  It lifted the ink right out.  With some very light scrubbing the stains were gone.  And it didn’t hurt the finish on the counter.

Then I apologized to everyone for being a psychotic mess, and asked them in the nicest way possible to never touch a Sharpie again.

So there you go.  If your kids are anything like mine, tuck this away for later.  Or never buy anything nice.  Either way.

.   .   .   .   .

And I hear my mom’s voice echoing in my memory, “This is why I can’t have nice things!”

{ha ha} 

Sorry mom.  I guess this was karma.