Monday, June 22, 2009

Bonus Post For Jennifer

Let's talk laundry:



So Jennifer, the cleanliness of whose home I can personally attest to being quite impressive, especially for a single mama, is having laundry woes. She says she washes some things five times and can't get the stains out. Her kids are eight and two, and from what I've seen, do not spend their time in swamps and tar pits.

Jennifer, my absolute best advice is to remove any garment that has a worrisome stain and use spot treatment immediately, especially if you can't wash it right away. I know this sounds like a pain, and I am not speaking out of OCD, I'm speaking out of clothes are fucking expensive yo, and we don't want our kids looking like some vagrants. This may sound overwhelming but stash an extra t-shirt and bottoms for Elijah and Zoe in your car for those spontaneous Target cherry Icee spills. Also, carry a stain stick, if not in your purse, in your glove compartment. Treat them and try to fast-track them into the wash. Again, I'm not being a freak. Other ideas are to have play clothes (hand-me-downs, Goodwill, etc.) and stick the kids in those when they get home, and to have Zoe use a bib if she doesn't already. If she balks, give her one of Elijah's shirts or some other special-type garment that will go over better.

Recap: Stain treat asap, have extras around, play clothes. Does that help?

7 comments:

  1. I put stained clothes in a bucket with hot water and 1 scoop of OxyClean x1-2 days. Almost always takes the stains out.

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  2. Jesus god I forgot to mention Oxy Clean. Yes yes yes, I put it in virtually every load. Thank you Emily. You were supposed to be in bed but a little whisper in the wind propelled you forth to show me up. It's cool. :)

    Yes Jennifer, Oxy Clean, which is how I came to be called Moxieclean.

    Way back, I boiled stained clothes in Oxy Clean. Beat that!

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  3. I boil my mooncup! HA! crap...that's not even the same is it? Pfft....

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  4. It's on my list to buy stain sticks an d stash them in every laundry deposit site so I can pretreat them when they get taken off.

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  5. Oxy-clean, cold water, and sit out in the sun. Whoa, you won't believe how clean it gets. I also do a cold rinse first. I found out that the warm or hot was setting in the stain, but the cold first got them out.

    I don't use Oxy-clean on dipes, just other clothes. The sun takes out the stains on dipes by itself.

    Cold rinse first, then do your normal washing (I prefer scalding HOT on most things, germ issues)!!!

    My kids have play clothes. The non stained, no holes in the knees, no wrinkled clothes are for outings and special occasions only. And I have a back up bag in the vehicle as well.

    Amy L.
    (the Depoe Bay Amy):-D

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  6. For stains I like two things (oxyclean never works for me and I don't know why!). I wet the stain and work in a few drops of Dawn dish soap (yes, it must be regular Dawn dish soap) or the Shout gel that comes in a stick. The natural stuff doesn't cut it at all!
    For some things like diapers the sun does do a beautiful job but it seems to fade colors pretty badly so I don't use it for everything.

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  7. I too am a fan of the Shout gel Megan, and feel the same way about Oxy.Clean as well.

    These are my laundry obstacles:

    -My kids spend every other weekend at their father's. Apparently his place is the grimiest of dirty based on the way their clothes sometimes return to me (I'm mystified because on outward appearances it seems ok to me)

    -My kids often obtain stains at daycare/school where it will be several hours before I can do anything about it.

    -I live in an upstairs apartment and hanging out in sun isn't really an option

    -We seem to get a lot of those grease stains

    -My son gets lots of grass stains and every few wearings gets a hole in his knees so I feel like they only live in play clothes

    -I also don't care for the general fading/dingy appearance our clothes seem to get

    -My hot water isn't very hot and I don't have good rinse cycles

    -My daughter and I especially don't have a lot of clothes so I try to wash everything on cold as much as possible

    Gawd! I sound like a total ingrate for all your suggestions and "works for me". I'm not, I love hearing all the tips. I may try the sudsy bucket for soaking.

    Probably my biggest obstacle is that I'm totally unobservant and usually find the stains AFTER they've been through a wash/dry cycle.

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