I'm terrible with stain-treating. I mean, my kids (my girls, especially) have a tendency to get their clothing completely covered in....whatever....every time we're out. They just have a natural talent for this, I guess. If it would happen while we were at home, I'd have no problems. I'd simply whisk off their shirt/dress/pants and rinse it with water and some shampoo or detergent until the stain came out.
But when we're not home, and the stains have hours to set in....I don't know what to do with them. Normally, they just sit in a separate pile while I think about how I might treat them until finally I decide that I'm just going to throw them in with the wash and, of course, that doesn't work at all.
I have a few friends who swear by Oxi-Clean for their clothes. I see it in the stores all the time. I've even taken it off the shelf a few of those times but only to put it back a minute later after considering the price tag.
I know other friends who say Shout works wonders for them. But I must not be a very adept Shout user, because Shout has never done anything for me except...well...make me shout. At the lack of stain removal, that is.
I have tried baking soda, shampoo, regular liquid detergents, sprays, etc. and have found nothing to be very effective.
Aside from immediately stripping my children of their clothing and washing their clothes at that very moment, could some of you puh-lease offer me some advice on this one??? Our clothes would appreciate it!
7 comments:
I have had success with oxi clean, but love spray n wash's stain stick. It is small enough to fit in your purse or diaper bag or the glove box of your car. You can treat the area right away or even wait until you get home. You don't need to immediately launder (says you can wait up to 2 weeks to wash, but who has enough clothes to wait that long?!).
Spray'n'wash STAIN STICK is what I swear by. I have recommended it to many, and I've never had any complaints. I just smear it all over the stain at the end of the day and throw the clothes in the hamper, then wash them whenever I do laundry. Like the other comment said, you can leave it on for a couple weeks. For really bad stains, I do try to wash with detergent and water first, but then I put the stain stick on afterwards and it gets rid of the rest of the stain. Two things to note: I have heard you can not use this with a High Efficiency washing machine, because it makes too many bubbles. Also, don't put it on anything khaki colored until right before you wash or it might bleach out a spot on your clothes. Good luck!
I don't use the big bucket of Oxi Clean although I am considering it like you, but the price is a little overwhelming. I do use Oxi Clean Laundry Stain remover in the blue spray bottle (it is about the size of Windex). I just spray stains as soon as I get home and then keep them in a seperate container until I wash them and it really works well.
If you really need a stain out, bring it over and I will take it to my mother. She has some magic that she works that she can get seriously set in stains out. She has revealed her secret, but it never works as well for me.
SHOUT!!!!! I buy the Shout trigger spray and it has NEVER failed me. I've tried Oxy, Spray n Wash and lots of others, but they never work as well. Shout takes out blood, dirt and grass stains, grease, anything! My girls (16 and 12) play softball and I've never had a stained uniform (yet!). I have actually sprayed clothing and tossed it into the laundry and waited several days until I can get to it. Works like a charm.
THE best stain lifter that I have found is Fels-Naptha. People use it to make there own laundry soap. It's a bar soap and you can find it in the laundry aisle. What I usually do is place it in a tupperware container and add a tiny bit of water. Any time that I need to take a stain out, I will whip that out along with an old toothbrush and scrub it onto the stain. 99% of the time it will get the stain out. My stepdaughter had a catastrophe with a chocolate drink at church one night. It had practically set for 4 hours. All of it came out after using the Fel-Naptha.
I use Permatex Hand Cleaner. It comes in a blue tub and you need to purchase it at the auto parts store. It is used for cleaning grease off the a mechanics hand I suppose, but it works VERY WELL on clothing (and is safe) It has gotten out every stain I've ever used it on. Once I used it on a shirt that had bacon grease, olive oil AND barbeque sauce on it. I had washed the shirt a couple of times, to no avail, when Josh recommended the tub of stuff that was laying on the workbench. It was a MIRACLE!
My mom swears by Biz powder. I have no idea how much it costs, but she makes a paste with it (spray a little Spray N Wash on the shirt and then put a somewhat thick layer of the paste on) and lets it dry. She then washes it, and has great success with stains. I am not patient enough to do it often, but it does seem to work on pretty much everything, even things that have gone through the washer and dryer already. I have had it discolor something, though. My mom hasn't, so she thinks it might be whatever I used to make the shirt wet first. How's that for a rambly answer?
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