Stains! Dammit!

[orikes]

Does anyone have any advice for getting stains out of shirts?

I bought a bunch of shirts for this summer and I'm starting to become very discouraged with the stains I'm getting on them. A couple I've only worn once before getting a stain that won't come out. It used to be that as long as I pretreated a shirt, the stain would come out. Now, I pretreat like crazy and the stains are still there.

I got a nice sage green henley from the Big Dog store at the outlet mall and promptly dribbled a bit of mayonnaise on it. I practically poured an extra half cup of detergent on it and scrubbed the heck out of those stains. Went to wear it yesterday and found the stains were still there. ARGH.

Does Shout work? Does it work after you've already washed it once? I'm really going to be pissed if I have two ruined shirts that I only wore once unstained.

Comments

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I've been living here since January 2002 and I don't remember having this problem before, but it's possible the water could have changed somehow.

Any recommendations on how to fix the problem?

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Well, you should probably test to see if your water really is too soft. Take some detergent. Lather up. Do you get a lot of lather? If yes, then too much softener. If no, then you have hard water. Run a control using bottled water and the same amount of detergent.

If you have hard water (which can also make it hard to get stains out), then you can add water softener to your wash. If you have too much water softener (because while nobody wants mineral buildup, really soft water can also be a problem), then I'd try pre-treating with detergent or Shout , then when you hand scrub, pouring on some bottled water to help stuff along before tossing it all in the wash.

I've used Shout. It does work. So does Clorox Oxy-clean.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Here's a quesiton. Will that stuff work after the garment has already been washed once? I generally don't put my shirts in the dryer. I hang dry them.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Clorox Oxy-clean will definitely work even after something goes through the dryer, but I would recommend pre-testing in a safe spot first. Shout works well for protein-based stains. Also, are you washing in hot, warm or cold water? If you have a stubborn stain, you should use hot water. If you scrub a stain in cold water, it may not come out because detergent molecule binding is also dependent on temperature.

For an oil-based stain on a hang dry, any detergent should work on it. My personal favorite detergent is Tide.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I usually wash my clothes in cold water. I wash towels and sheets in hot water, but for some reason I've always been paranoid about washing clothes in hot water. Will hot water shrink clothes? I know putting some things in the dryer will shrink them, but I've never been sure about letting stuff get hot in the washer.

I'll try and get some oxy-clean before my next wash and try that on things.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Well, then the oil-based stains probably aren't coming out because you are using cold water. Hot water will shrink cottons, but not polyester. It should not shrink polyester blends. Hot water will make bright colors bleed, so don't wash whites with colors in hot water. Hot water will cause faster fading of colored clothing. So, the best recommendation is to use warm water for colors and hot water for whites. Unless you want to be environmentally friendly, then use cold water and live with stained clothing. :P