Neurotic About My Laundry. Need Help.

[momma_unlimited]

I am very embarassed to come out with this. I cannot blaim my mother because I need to take personal responsibility for my own actions; but I learned this method from her and I want to end it.

I really hate stains on clothes. My 2 sons and husband are stain magnets. So I end up doing the laundry, but setting aside items that are stained. Then I individually soak them (as soaking often "loosens" stains), scrub them, and do the boiling water trick on them. Or if they are baby stains and its a rainy day I set them aside and wait for a sunny day to hang them out to dry since sun removes baby stains.

The problem is I now have THIRTEEN rubbermaid totes full of clothes that are, as I term them affectionately, "special needs clothes". I just can't keep up with this trime intensive method. Some are towels or blankets, but most are clothes. How do we have that many clothes?

I don't know. I shop at the Salvation Army and maybe that is my downfall as I tend to collect too many.

Regardless, what do normal people do? I am assuming normal people's mothers don't have dozens of stacks of neatly folded clothes that need to be handwashed or soaked or scrubbed? Do you all just wear your clothes a few times til they get a stain, or do you wear them with stains (my kids do have a few "play" clothes for gardening and getting muddy).

My husband has started to hide his stained clothes from me so they don't "disappear into the abyss".

Maybe I need professional help.

[Denvergirlie]

Are they really stains or are they just spots of heavy dirt that very well might come out in the normal wash?

I would hit them with a spot of prewash "stain" treatment (shout, dawn, spray n' wash, Bac Out, etc, whatever you use) and wash them all and then re-evaluate them when the wash is done, but before you dry. If you dry them then the stain very well might set in, but you might find that the stain you are stressing about will come out in the normal wash.

If it really is stained, then maybe you need to evaluate if it's time to toss it, donate it, recycle it into a rag, etc. Or perhaps it's just those specific clothes that you then give your special treatment too.

Likewise, this might be a good time to pare down on the amount of clothing you all have.

good luck on finding a system that better fits your lifestyle.

[lightheart]

I wear clothes with stains, I let my kids wear clothes with stains. My hubby wears clothes with stains. It's really ok. It's not like every single article of clothing has stains on them and we have different degrees of stained clothing, something for parent teacher confrences and something for when we are justgoing to the grocery store and then outside/play clothes.

Towels, washcloths, linens, some have stains some of my cleaning rags are actually kinda scary looking but it's okay!

I would talk to your hubby about things, if he's actually hiding a stained shirt from you then you may be a little too far with the stains.

Could you work baby steps where you guys go through the clothes, both the ones set back to wash and all the clean ones, pareing down on the amount if you think you have too many clothes. Then you could maybe compromise with your hubby letting him wear his clothes,,, let him decide which ones are too stained for him. then gradually bring in the towels and blankets. With the possible hopes that you will be okay letting your little ones wear a shirt around the house that might have a small stain on it.

Stains really are okay. Try and enjoy your hubby and kiddos and know they will not look back on things and think oh goodness stains, they will look back more on the time you spend with them playing and reading and just hanging out instead of you being beside a sink scrub scrub scrubbing.

[Porcelain Interior]

I think you need to loosen up and throw caution to the wind and wash more of the special needs laundry babies and see how they do.

There's no real logical reason to treat a stain and throw it in a tub, why wouldn't the item be ready by the time you did the wash?

Just do it, and then if it doesn't make it get rid of it.

[nighten]

This is what I do: Buy some liquid Charlie's Soap detergent, use it to pre-treat stains and wash as usual. Stop the intensive stain treatment that is so time-consuming. And get a product that does the work for you.

If you go with an enzyme-based stain treatment (like Bac-Out) be sure to use it in cold water and follow with a hot water wash. The enzymes work best in colder water. But in order to prevent skin irritation, you have to use hot water after to kill off remaining enzymes.

I have one laundry container that is for pre-treated clothes and bibs. For the really tough stains that don't come out easily, I toss them in that container and once it's got enough in it for a full load, I run a cold soak and hot wash with Oxiclean.

[sunnysandiegan]

I mostly agree with the above.

However, I wanted to add a super simple thing I do that prevents stains from even occurring most of the time:

As soon as something spills, drench it in cold water.

DD (age 7), DH, and I all know this trick and will use our drinking water when we are out to douse a little spill. Wet the spill thoroughly and use your fingers to work out the "stain", then use a little more water to remove the residue. Viola! It dries and the clothing item goes in the regular wash. We have very few stains now that DD is old enough to take care of her own spills.

The mechanics of this can be daunting to some, so I'll spell it out. I open my water bottle (take lid completely off) and literally press it up to my clothing/body where the spill is and tip the bottle. Water drenches that exact spot, but generally doesn't make a huge mess. This works very well for any organic spill (food, drink, body fluids, etc). Cold water works best, but room temp works, too. At home, we usually take the item off and get it wet, work out the spill with our fingers, and let it air-dry before putting in the laundry sorter.

I have Bac-Out for bigger organic stains and a stain stick of other stains. We'll wear stained clothes, too, depending on the item/stain/occasion. The very simple water trick really reduces the number of real stains and GREATLY reduces the time spent (and focus) on stains in general. As much as possible in life, I work on a "do it now" principle. It is almost ALWAYS faster to take care of something as soon as it happens rather than wait and simple is often just as, if not more than, effective as the complicated option.

BEST WISHES!!!

[momma_unlimited]

Thanks so much for all your great ideas, I am going to print them out and hang them over my washing machine to begin trying new ways.

Really, its not so much that I am too attached to the clothes as that I have this thing ingrained in me that I am "not a good steward" if they don't retain their former luster. My mother was a frugal housewife so we could live off dad's salary and send me to private school, so she literally had clothes that looked almost new after 15-20 years!!! I guess that's good because the eighties came back in for a while and she was stylin' again. I have to really talk myself into the fact that my laundry IS NOT a moral issue. A stain on a shirt is not a stain on my soul

The other thing I realized is that I have so many because in the past 4 years, my husband and I have gone through maternity (he gains weight with me) and have rotated through 3 different sizes each with my two pregnancies. So maybe we ought to donate our "skinny" clothes as I'm bound to be pregnant again soon without any birth control.

Thanks again ladies!

[TefferTWH]

I wanted to add that I tend to soak my stained items in Oxiclean, and I just keep a pile on the dryer. When I get 2-3 items that need to be soaked, I just throw them in together or make a paste and rub it in while the machine is filling, then add them to the next appropriate load. It does work, as I'm sure the other methods do. Find one that works, try it, and if it doesn't, then either throw the stained item into the playclothes bin or rehome it.

[His Own]

In my house we mostly have oil-based stains to deal with (food). I use 'spray-n-wash' STICK (not spray) on any stain, and the stains are usually gone with one regular wash. You just paint the stuff on, as though you were using a very fat crayon, and the results are great. None of the other brands work for me.

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by momma_unlimited

and do the boiling water trick on them.

Using hot water on spots may set them into stains.

Always use cold when dealing with spots.

[thixle]

I keep a bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap near the machine, I wet the bar, rub it on the stain and toss it in the wash... gets out 98% of the stains, but I really don't mind the stains too much (okay, except the dry erase marker stains all over DD's new school clothes and new pjs... they tick me off, but they aren't coming out, so she wears them anyway).

The longer a stain/dirty spot sits on cloth, the harder it is to get out... so I hate to say it, but most of the clothes you have set aside to do later are probably never going to come clean.

[slsurface]

Um, I'm too lazy to "work" on stains. If I know there is an item with a stain going into a load, I just add a scoop of oxiclean and never look back. It usually does the trick since most of DS's stains are food related and DH's are car-oil related. If the stain doesn't come out of DH's or my clothes, well, then that item becomes "weekend" wear and is no longer worn to work. I let DS wear stain clothes - he's a kid. To paraphrase the old 80's saying, "Stains happen".

[Llyra]

Oxiclean.

[JTA Mom]

Ok, for your old stained clothes:
toss them in the washing machine & let it fill with HOT water. Toss in 1 to 2 full scoops of oxiclean (1 for front loaders, 2 for toploaders). Let it agitate a bit, then stop the machine & let soak for 2 hours. Turn it on again & agitate it for a bit. Then stop it. You want to mix up the clothes into the water every so often so nothing get's stuck on top, but you don't want the wash water to drain. Do this for 6 hours, then let the machine run its normal wash. Do an extra rinse. Then look through the clothes. The majority of your old clothes should be stain free. Those that are not go back into the machine with the next pile of stained clothes.

I've destained baby clothes that were 20yrs old & stained, some very badly stained. All but one came out like new. The one was a while dress that somehow go on top a blue romper (ya, I was real smart, lol) that ended up transfering some dye.

For newly stained clothes:
Zout or Shout is your friend. Right before you toss the clothes into the washer, liberally spray and rub in either product. I prefer Zout--not as perfumey & it seems to really get the stains out. Launder like normal. To make sure, you can double check them before tossing into the drier. If still stained, try oxiclean.

After having a baby, EVER.SINGLE.SHIRT of mine gets stained up by the end of the day. I don't know how, they just do. The Zout removed the majority (90%) of the stains in ONE wash. I have 2 yr old maternity tops that I still wear that are stain free.

Ami

[hellyaellen]

i just wash almost everything in cold water........ most everything comes out fine. when something doesn't come out ok then i have a choice, relegate it to play clothes/(messy) work type clothes or pass it on....... i'm pretty tolerate to slight variations in the color on most garments however and will wear most stuff even if it is slightly stained......dh is a little ticky-er about it

[Purple*Lotus]

[QUOTE=JTA Mom;12549560]

For newly stained clothes:
Zout or Shout is your friend. Right before you toss the clothes into the washer, liberally spray and rub in either product. I prefer Zout--not as perfumey & it seems to really get the stains out. Launder like normal. To make sure, you can double check them before tossing into the drier. If still stained, try oxiclean.
/QUOTE]

Yes, exactly this! I use Zout and I am amazed at what it takes out of DH's work shirts!

[1littlebit]

wow. your like my polar opposite... i hate laundry with an undying passion and wash every single solitary thing the same way... except diapers they go on hot instead of cold.

i am a mess. literally. what i do is as soon as i spill something, drop something, or bump into something i wet paper towels or a wash cloth or w/e and drench the stain in cold water and wipe until it is gone. this might be a more effective method for a stain-o-phobe then letting them sit yk? its like preventative health care for laundry. i would also invest in a tide stick or 12.

[oneKnight]

We wear stained clothes, but hanging things on the line takes care of most our problems.

My mom has some regular powder laundry detergent from Watkins - I have done laundry at her house and stains that ordinary detergent (Purex, Tide) didn't get out the Watkins detergent took out in the regular wash. When I use up this bottle of Purex I'm getting the Watkins stuff. It's really high efficient, as in you use a TINY scoop compared to the normal brands.
Mom uses Zout for stains, put it on for like 10 minutes before you wash the item. I would recomend that.

[kamilla626]

I also shop at thrift stores, and I find that it's easier to let go of clothes because I've only spent a couple dollars on them.

Kids clothes - if they're stained, it's not that big of a deal to me. It's just what happens to clothes. I wouldn't send dd to school in a white shirt with blueberry juice all over it. But a pair of jeans with a tiny grease spot on the leg, or a sweatshirt with greyish cuffs? Absolutely.

My clothes - "weekend clothes" can be a little stained. Work clothes need to look good, but they rarely get stained anyway.

Dh's clothes - He's the primary cook in the family and for some reason he always gets grease spots on his work clothes. I will try once or twice to get the spots out, but then I just donate the clothes if they're still wearable.

Dishrags and washclothes - who cares? They are meant to get gross looking over time, IMO.

It sounds like you also just have too much stuff. Can you just trim down what you all have to 2 weeks of clothing? Or maybe decide on a number - like 15 shirts, 10 pants, 2 jackets, etc...? Then when you do go shopping, you only need to worry about replacing the last few things that got ruined.