I’m ashamed to admit that I suck at laundry. I used to be okay, when I had gallons of Napisan at my disposable. Now that we’re back in the States (and it would cost me $12 for a small thing of Napisan), I’m at a loss. I have two little kids and it’s not a pretty situation.
I’ve tried the Oxyclean stuff…the powder in the white container. I put the recommended amount in and soaked the stained clothing overnight in hot water. I then washed them with regular detergent, again in hot. It got out many of the stains, but stubborn stuff like spaghetti sauce and sweet potatoes didn’t budge.
I don’t know any of the specialty laundry aids and bleaches…which ones do you recommend? I’ve never had the need to use regular bleach or anything, so I don’t even know how to do that. Do you have any tips/techniques/routines to get out really bad stains? Advice from people who have little kids or waiters who work in Italian restaurants is especially welcome!
Well in spite of my user name, I have to admit I can’t really help but I’ll tell you what I do.
I try to pretreat my daughter’s clothes as soon as they are stained - usually just spot-soaking the stain with cold water gets out most of it. Blueberries and tomato stains are of course the worst!
If it is a protein stain (blood, poop) I soak and wash it in cold water. I don’t dry the clothes until I am positive that (a) the stain is gone, or (b) the stain is here to stay. Drying the clothes “sets” the stain and makes it pretty much impossible to get out.
I use a spray treatment that is especially for “Babies” although I deep down believe I have been sucked in by a marketing gimmick.
Have you tried the Tide Bleach Pen? It is supposed to work wonders although I have never used it, it is always in BabyStainz’s diaper bag just in case.
No, I haven’t…I’ll have to get one. To be honest, though, I think I’d really need the Tide Bleach Paintbrush…we’re just starting finger foods with my baby. Oy.
If Fels Naptha can’t get it out, it’s not coming out.
Ideally, if I have a piece of clothing with a stain, I’ll rub the stain with Fels Naptha before I toss it in the washing machine, and the stain will come right out.
Sometimes I forget about the stain, and don’t notice until the item is washed and dried. I take it back to the washing machine, rub it with Fel Naptha, toss it back in the washing machine, and more often than not it STILL comes out.
Fels Naptha has been around forever, it’s super cheap, and one bar of it lasts for decades. I’ve found it in most grocery stores I’ve checked. Best stain remover ever.
I treat with Shout or whatever pretreatment solution was on sale at the store, and then–here’s the secret–let it sit for at least a day. This has made a HUGE difference in my idea of what a true stain is; it works on almost anything.
Somebody (perhaps here on the board?) mentioned that a quick way to get rid of bloodstains is to pre-treat them with your saliva.
This sounds both gross and slightly disturbing, but it works. I’ve always had jobs involving glass (custom-framer, bartender, etc.) and consequently I cut myself on a regular occasion and sometimes get blood on my clothes.
I didn’t believe it til I tried it. Spit on the stain, threw it in the wash, and like magic it was gone.
I dunno if this would work if it isn’t your own blood. I also have no idea why it works. I kind of enjoy the mystery.
The best thing I’ve found for real blood and for menstrual fluid is salt water. Just put a tablespoon or so of salt into a bowl of lukewarm water and soak the stain for a few minutes. Or, if it’s a stain on furniture or carpet, use saltwater and a clean white cloth and dab and blot. Like…uh, brining a turkey, the higher salt:water ratio in your solution makes it so that the water in the blood rushes out to dilute the salt, taking the red color with it. Brilliant!
Any advice for sweat stains? My best shirt has stains around the neck (the “dreaded ring around the collar” from the TV commercials of 20 years ago). I’ve pre-soaked in Borax and Oxy, but no dice. NI’m not sure what else I should try. The fabric is such that scrubbing will ruin the shirt.
Have you tried just gently rubbing in some detergent directly on the stain and waiting a few minutes before laundering? Usually “sweat” stains around the neck are oil and dead skin cells. Detergent breaks down oils into smaller bits and allows the water to lift and carry the little oil bits away. Failing that Goop, Zout or even shampoo for oily hair might do the trick.
If you want more stain cleaning, you something other than soap.
Soap simply insinuates itself between the stain and the cloth, then floats away with the stain stuck to it. But the stain molecules are intact.
Enzyme cleaners break up protein molecules into smaller bits.
So get a laundry product with enzyme.
Note that it will not act on inert stains like rust, soot, and engine metalic stains
I occasionally prick my finger while quilting and my own saliva does work. But not one someone else’s: once I was quilting a piece my mom had assembled and saw her blood. That did not come out with my saliva.
I’ve had very good results with asking Google ‘how to remove (x) stain’.
What you must not do is use hot water because it sets stains. Until the stain is out you should be using cold. As for removing them, there’s plenty of different bars and stain removers but sometimes people come up with better remedies that you can find online. For instance, I had to remove blood from a coat. I did a search and saw that hydrogen peroxide was recommended by several people so I tried it. It didn’t take the colour out of my coat. What it did do was fizz up over the blood and remove it such that all I had to do was rinse it off with cold water and there was no trace of blood left.
I also got black magic marker on a red nylon jacket. Stain removers didn’t work (including the Tide pen). What did work was scrubbing it with a toothbrush and undiluted dish soap (another idea found on the 'net).
Sometimes you’ll have to read through several different sets of suggestions and try one or two, but I’ve found that some interesting and unorthodox solutions (ha) that work great are there to be had in internetland.
I think that’s true for blood and other protein stains, but I’ve never had good luck with cold water for food stains. The stains I’m having issues with are spaghetti sauce, jarred baby food, chocolate…kid-produced stuff.
Despite my inadequacy in the food stain department, I’ve got the poop stains conquered (we cloth diaper, all-in-ones). If anyone has a need for poop stain/pee removal, I soak overnight in Borax and warm water (the box says to use 1/2 c, but I just throw a whole bunch in there). Then, I run a regular warm wash with Sport Wash (it’s a liquid that’s supposed to preserve high-tech materials). Then, I dry. As soon as I get some, I’m going to add a couple drops of lavender oil to the wash. The diapers smell nice and clean after my little routine (and still absorb very well).
I don’t have kids but I was a nanny. I found that a prouct called Shout Stain Stick worked very well on spaghetti and other food stains. I usually just rubbed it on the stain right before I threw it in the wash. It worked great.
Okay, see, NOW I’m curious. I’m no longer pleased with the mystery.
Why on earth would your own saliva remove your own blood from fabrics, but not somebody else’s blood? I mean, it’s weird enough that it removes your own, but I could see, hey, saliva is kind of like your mouth’s very mild beginner-version of stomach acid–it begins the breakdown of food, etc.–so maybe that’s why it breaks down blood stains. Kinda like eating a very rare steak. The process of digestion begins immediately. I can see a correlation between the digestion of blood and the stain-removal of blood.
But why is it person-specific? Too weird.
I’m kind of assuming this might belong in some other forum–total hijack and I apologize!–but I thought maybe somebody has some kinda anecdotal reason for this.
I can’t give you the answer you want, but I’m just another quilter chiming in to relate that it does seem to be true…I’ve never had any problem removing pinpricks of my own blood, but it doesn’t work on the blood of others. Maybe the fact that I’m usually removing a fresh spot of my blood, and a dried spot of someone else’s factors into it. But I’ve also been able to remove overlooked, dried spots of mine as well. Of course, I’ve never tried it on anything bigger than a drop or two…there’s only so much spit I can generate!
Oh, turst me I have tried! The problem is I lent my (favorite) shirt to a buddy who had to go to work after the gym and had forgotten a dress shirt. It was returned to me laundered, but he evidently didn’t notice or do anything about the stain. He did not put it in the dryer, he air dried it on a plastic hanger, but I’ll be damned if I can get out the yellow ring-around-the collar.
I have been repeatedly hand washing. I tried Shout stick, pre-soaking overnight in Borax then scrubbing by hand with Ivory soap, then again with a much more powerful soap.
Another recommendation for Stain Stick. Best is if you put it on the stain as soon as you notice it. Then the stain doesn’t set before you get around to washing. Since I tend to spill food on myself worse than any little kid, I use Stain Stick a lot!
Okay…just got back from the grocery store. They didn’t have the Shout stick, but they did have Shout gel, that’s in a little bottle with a brush attachment. I got that. (They had a Tide stick, but it was tiny and cost $5.99, so I passed on that…I need industrial size stain-fighting products.) I also got Clorox2 liquid (bleach for colors) and Snowy (powder bleach with enzymes for colors).
They didn’t have Fels Naptha, but I do have a bar of laundry soap that looks similar, that my mom gave to me. I’ll throw that into the mix, too.
I’m going to try out each product with a small load in the next several days. I’ll let you know if any of these really suck or if I have spectacular results.