Another Laundry Trick

It never fails...my children always manage to get something on their clothes that makes a dark spot on the clothing when it comes out of the laundry.  For some reason the laundry detergent just doesn't cut it to get this spot out.  Neither does any Oxiclean, etc.

I did some digging online and decided to try putting some dishwashing detergent on the spots.  Would you believe that more often than not, the spot comes out?  I've tried using this on oil stains as well with good results.  You just have to make sure you put it on like right after you spill a bit of oily stuff on yourself....otherwise, it doesn't come out as well.  I've used both Palmolive and Joy (what I had on hand) although I imagine that Dawn is probably the best...

Don't buy Oxiclean! This Works Better!

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  I'll admit, I was skeptical that this DIY creation would actually work.  It does work and I had to share!  Just mix some hydrogen peroxide, water, and baking soda in a bottle and use on the stain.  Then wash. Voila!  Stain gone!  I used it on a pasta sauce stain and it took it right out.  No multiple washes and pretreats to get it out.  And this is a cheaper concoction than buying some bottled Oxiclean anyway.   It's a win-win!

Stubborn Stains: Part Deux

Ok, I'll admit it...I am guilty of bleaching a shirt (or two) by accident. The shirt must have gotten put on a surface that had bleach on it and the bright green shirt (and bright blue shirt...) now have some pure white spots....sigh...

There is good that has come out of this though! I created some new duds for my youngest! Here are a few before pictures (sorry they are not great since I forgot to take before shots before I "created" the new shirts...)

This is the green shirt with a gorilla on the front.

This is the bright blue shirt.

I decided the best way to "fix" what I did was to bleach tie dye the shirts. I took a paper towel soaked with bleach and blotted the shirts all over front and back. No rhyme or reason to it. Just what I thought looked good as the color started to fade. The blue shirt has a more subtle tie dye to it. The blue shirt had a huge stain on the front that I was trying to get out (hence how I accidentally got bleach on it in the first place...) The green shirt has a much bolder brighter white and green tie dye on it. I just used more bleach and occasionally dripped some bleach from the container on the shirt in places to get more defined white spots.

Here are the after pictures.


This is the green one. I think I like this one least...it was the second one I did and I think I used too much bleach in places after I did the final rinse and then washed it. It looks a lot better than it did with just one section of bleach on it though...


This is the blue one. It came out great in my opinion. I like this one the best out of the two. You can't see the stain or where I dropped a little bit of bleach on it in the first place at all.

Why do this? I really wanted to salvage these shirts so they could be worn. I think they can be now. Cheap way to change a shirt into a new one too!

Stubborn Stains

Lately, I've been faced with some very stubborn stains on clothing in our household. Usually it involves a white piece of clothing coming into contact with spaghetti sauce. I've also acquired some clothing for my kids that had that strange "off white" hue to areas of the white shirt where some weird old stain or spit up or something didn't quite come out. I used to just try some stain remover in one wash cycle and if it didn't come out, I just used the shirt or whatever as a play shirt or rag...I decided to be more proactive this time around. I was determined to salvage these garments as best as I could. After all, money doesn't grow on trees, right?

First I treated the stains with Tech (my mother in law bought this at a grocery store in Illinois. I have not seen it anywhere on the East Coast, but please prove me wrong...) or if that was unavailable some OxyClean Stain Remover. I let that set for a bit then soaked the clothes in warm water with OxyClean for an hour or so. Then I ran them through the wash on cold water with detergent and a Tide Stain release. No bleach in the wash only because the shirts in question had areas of color that I didn't want to risk bleaching. This usually lightened the stain. Then I took a paper towel and poured enough bleach on it to make it damp in a small area. I then blotted the light stains (only if they were on an only white area of the shirt) with the bleached paper towel. I believe in using as little bleach and harsh laundry additives as possible since they affect the longevity of the garment.

I was amazed at how effective the bleach worked! I could see the stain fade in front of my eyes. Even old stains that had probably been there a while! Even shirts that didn't get stain treated for several days after they came into contact with spaghetti sauce! I then rinsed these shirts out and ran them with the next load of laundry I did. Voila! Stain gone!