Best Time To Get Out Stains

luppamom

Mon, Jan 19 2015, 4:26 pm

Sometimes I take out my clothes from the washing machine and find that some of the stains which I tried to pre-treat have not gone away. Most of the stains are from baby poop and food. What is the best thing to do? Should I spray the stains again while the clothes are wet? Spray them again when they dry? Dry them regularly (hanging indoors. I don't own a drier.) Hang them to dry in the sun?

zaq

Mon, Jan 19 2015, 5:08 pm

The best time to remove a stain is right when it happens. If this is not possible, try to keep the stain wet until you can attend to it: hit it with a spritz bottle of cold water or toss it in a small basin of cold water. Stains that are allowed to dry, and especially those that have been left standing for days, are much more likely to become permanent.

How long do you let the pre-treat stand before washing? Instructions often say let set a few minutes. Nonsense! The stuff needs time to work. Give it an hour or two at least. Often you can and should leave the pretreat in for a day or two before washing--check the label.

Protein stains like blood and spitup will set permanently if washed in hot water. The heat literally cooks the protein into the fabric. they must be treated with cold water first, an enzyme product if you use those (many people avoid them because of allergic potential), and wash in hot water only after the stain is removed. Read labels carefully. Enzyme products need a specific temperature range to work. When in doubt, use a cooler rather than warmer temp because water that is too hot can inactivate the enzymes. Here, too, the enzymes need time to work. Give them plenty of it. Overnight is good but if soaking in a basin, keep the basin away from toddlers. Lo aleinu, a toddler can drown in a bucket with an inch of water in it.

If you already washed the clothes in hot water and the stain is lighter, give it another go. If the stain is the same or is darker, it is probably set. You may still be able to rescue white fabrics by using bleach or lemon juice plus sunlight, but your coloreds are probably stained for life.

Smile1234

Mon, Jan 19 2015, 5:15 pm

zaq wrote:

How long do you let the pre-treat stand before washing? Instructions often say let set a few minutes. Nonsense! The stuff needs time to work. Give it an hour or two at least. Often you can and should leave the pretreat in for a day or two before washing--check the label.

Im in israeli and once let a baby outfit sit with oxygen for a week (till I did my next round of those colors) and it ate the material.... and then I read the directions on the bottle and it said not to let it sit on stain for more than 10 minutes before washing...

zaq

Mon, Jan 19 2015, 6:02 pm

Smile1234 wrote:

Uhh, yes, a week is too long. oxygen bleach, which is really peroxide, is a much milder chemical than chlorine bleach but it is still somewhat corrosive and will eat away fabric given enough time. Still, there is a lot of space between an hour or two and a week! When in doubt, find a hidden part of the garment, like the bottom of a shirttail or the reverse side of the collar, apply stain treatment, let stand however long you plan to use it on the stain, then rinse and air dry. If the fabric is noticeably lighter, discolored, thinner or otherwise damaged, you know to use the product for a shorter time period. If it is undamaged, go for it.

ra_mom

Mon, Jan 19 2015, 8:03 pm

luppamom wrote:

I find that the only way to make sure stains come out is to pretreat and scrub them out before they go into the washing machine.

Best way to pretreat:
Take note of where stains are on garment as once they are wet the stains are often not noticeable.
Run garment under cold water.
For oil and food stains (those are the most common types of stains), spread some dish soap over your palms and rub over clothing. Remember where to look for the stains and scrub out stains with cleaning toothbrush.
If more aggressive pretreating is necessary, use oxiclean as per package directions with BOILING water or look up how to take out that specific stain based on what the stain is from.

luppamom

Tue, Jan 20 2015, 1:50 am

Smile1234 wrote:

This. The bottle says to wait 5-10 mins. I have the Sano type. OK, thanks for all the helpful tips everyone! Next time, I hope I catch them similar. I just push off washing stuff b/c it's so gross (the baby poo) and also I need to have my hands free and can't pick up the baby when I'm in the middle Wink

But, if I take something out from the wash and it's still stained (sorry if this was answered, I just didn't see it), should I take out my stain remover and immediately treat, wait let's say an hr. and then rewash or should I let it try and then treat, wait an hr. then rewash?

Miri7

Tue, Jan 20 2015, 4:52 am

If you find that it's still stained after washing, keep the garment wet, don't allow it to dry. In free with the posters above that it's much harder to get out stains that have washed and dried.

Treat it immediately with stain remover (enzymes, oxi clean, laundry soap, etc). Then wash again. Keep it wet, keep treating with stain remover until the stain is out. (I had to do this cycle 4 times yesterday to get a brisket stain out of DDs cotton dress but it finally got clean!)

For baby poop, I first swish the item around in a toilet of clean water to get the poop out. I then put it to soak in a small tub of water with laundry soap so it stays soaking until I have time to wash it.