STAINS!!!!
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STAINS!!!!
| Tue, 09-12-2006 - 2:36pm |
hello, everyone!!! im having a problem that im sure many of you can relate to and i could use some feedback...or if not, at least, thanks for listening to my vent-lol. i feel like that woman on the shout commercial where she throws her washer out of the window...no matter what i do, my girls clothes get so stained up and ruined-im going nuts. i do laundry-once or twice a week depending on my work schelude(and how much energy i have that particular week-lol)and every time i get their clothes out, it seems the stains did not come off and by the time i see that they didnt wash out, its already been baked by the dryer and im ready to scream. i dont know how they can get that dirty!! my dd has a shirt that my sister and i wore that she wore on sunday-i just washed it today and it has these dark gray spots all down the front of it. well, unless i can work some magic with bleach, that shirts destroyed. my sister and i wore the thing and we never got stains on it like that-my dd wore it last year and she never had a problem-this year, spot central. and i dont know what to do-ive used stain removers and they do work-but not all the time. i wash them in hot hot water and rinse them in warm...i use a combo of laundry soap and dish soap (to get the greasy food stains off) and still. plus im very particular-if a shirt has even a small stain on it, i wont let them wear it-i want my girls to look clean and polished, without spots on their clothes. it drives my hubby nuts cuz he always says "theyre KIDS!!" yes, i know, but i dont want them to look all sloppy...it seems whenever i know they have stains on their clothes and we go somewhere-all the other kids clothes look like they just bought them and theres no spots anywhere-im strange, i know, but thats how i am...so ladies any wonder cleaners out there? anything i can use to remove dryer "baked in" stains? thanks-and thanks again for letting me vent!!!!
JOANNE
MAMAN2GOONS@AOL.COM
JOANNE
MAMAN2GOONS@AOL.COM
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I hear you.. the worst for Aubrey is her sleeves once she starts wearing long sleeves. I dont' know what she does with them but I'd say there are a couple of inches of just stains by where her hands are on her shirt. DRIVES ME CRAZY!!
I'm looking for tips too.. Aubrey has really super sensitive skin and so we use All Free and Clear and it just doesn't do the best w/ getting the stains out.. I've given up and unless they're really bad, she still has to wear the shirt. I can't keep buying clothes! And yeah.. of course none of her little friends seem to have this issue. LOL
DD's not allowed to wear anything with spots on it to school or "out" ~ those items become playclothes. The only thing that's ended up in that category in recent history is a pair of pink capri style pants that got wet & grass stained & muddy & sand stained and in spite of countless washings, whatever synthetic was used to make the material just won't release the stains. They're her "park pants". She's a very rough & tumble kid and tends to get messy (she's come home with paint in her hair twice now from school)
I do laundry once a week. All of our laundry gets washed with Borax & Tide. On the warmest appropriate setting for the clothing. Stains get dabbed with Clorox 2 before they go in the wash (very heavily soiled items get soaked in warm water & clorox 2 according to the clorox 2 instructions). Greasy stains get treated with Dawn dish detergent before they get washed. Blood gets treated with peroxide.
There are some stains that don't show up til "afterwards" (baby formula is notorious for looking clean til after the article sits in a drawer or box and then "poof" there's spots all over it). Perspiration, perfume, deodorant and anything with "tannins" (tea, coffee, wine) in it can do that also.
If you're having a hard time knowing or remembering what stains are, look at the kids' clothes before they go in the hamper, if there's a stain on it, ask them then & there what it is so you can spray it with a pre-treater or make a note of it and keep a running list of what's what (e.g. red koolaid on white peterpan collar, chapstick on sweatshirt, washable marker on jeans).
it's entirely possible that the shirt from when you were a kid is just showing its' age ~ fabrics do that. Maybe take it to a dry cleaner or a fabric restoration shop if you're interested in having it fixed.
Be sure you're not overloading your washer, that you're using the appropriate amount of detergent (too much leaves residue) that there's nothing on the inside of the wash tub that's putting marks on clothes, etc.
Good luck!
All of our laundry gets washed with Borax & Tide
hello! thanks for all the tips. ill have to see what i can try. i did wash the shirt (and a pair of her khaki shorts) in the "bleach load" this morning and the stains are almost gone-theyre still there, but very very faint. im hoping that maybe by the next time i wash it, they will have disappeared completely. and im wondering if the reason we never seemed to have stains on our clothes when we were kids was because my mom used the same combo you do...borax and tide-and she used to do laundry everyday...i cant say that i can concievably do wash every day like she did, but i can try some of the ideas you gave me-thanks!!
JOANNE
maman2goons@aol.com
I thought of this thread at lunch ;o) dd had gotten home from school and had purple paint on her t-shirt (light blue) and red, yellow & green paint on her jeans.
Hopefully it'll come out LOL
Oh and if you end up trying the borax ~ it's also useful for making "slime" for kids to play with. In a bowl mix 1/2 cup of elmer's glue & 1/4 cup of water, tint w/ food coloring to desired color. In another bowl, mix 1/4 tsp of borax & 1/4 cup of water. Mix the borax/water into the glue/water. Squish with hands until slime forms. Our dd loves this & she loves making it for her friends as "gifts" (I'm sure their parents want to strangle me though LOL)
I always joke with my 6 yr old DD that I should just squirt the ketchup directly on her shirt and save her the trouble of eating! LOL She hardly ever has a clean shirt at the end of the day. Between the ketchup, catalina dressing (for dipping carrots), markers, paint, etc, she is always a mess! Her pants rarely get dirty, just her shirts. I have always had good luck with OxyClean. I use a few scoops of powder mixed with hot water in a dishpan and soak the stained item for a few hours or even overnight. This works on stains that have been through the dryer already too, or ones that have been sitting in her laundry basket for a week before I get to do the laundry. And even old stains that I never noticed when I put those clothes in the attic after her big sister wore them...so a couple years later, OxyClean is still able to get those mystery stains out too. I used to never let my kids wear clothes with stains on them, but I just cannot keep up anymore. I have 3 kids and I would be buying new clothes every other week! I don't let them wear the ones that look horrible and are full of paint that wouldn't come out, but a tiny little pen mark or stain that wouldn't budge even with oxyclean are tolerable.
Good luck!
Donna