Your Best White Shirt Tricks

amother

Burlywood

Mon, May 07 2018, 1:02 pm

Hi,
DH wears a white shirt every day and I'm experimenting on how to get rid of the neckline stains, cuff stains and the hard stains that are just anywhere such as grease, sweat etc.

What are some tips or tricks you've culled over the years washing those white shirts?

TIA

FranticFrummie

Mon, May 07 2018, 1:25 pm

Get a bucket, and fill it with hot water and a quarter cup of Oxyclean. Swirl it around a bit, and then soak the shirts overnight.

There is also an Oxyclean pen that you can use directly on smaller stains.

Bonus, it gets rid of stubborn armpit odors, too.

Chayalle

Mon, May 07 2018, 1:27 pm

As I load white shirts into the washing machine, I pour a little detergent onto the collar, and scrub it down with a brush, then onto next shirt....keeps colors white. Ditto for cuffs, as necessary.

ra_mom

Mon, May 07 2018, 2:01 pm

Chayalle wrote:

As I load white shirts into the washing machine, I pour a little detergent onto the collar, and scrub it down with a brush, then onto next shirt....keeps colors white. Ditto for cuffs, as necessary.

This is great for maintaining the pristine white shirts. Don't let stains build up. Also put vinegar in the bleach holder, next to detergent, to break down sweat before it builds up.

FranticFrummie wrote how to soak stubborn stains. It's very effective. Sometimes you need to scrub after and do the soaking again too.

Last edited by ra_mom on Mon, May 07 2018, 2:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Emerald

Mon, May 07 2018, 2:02 pm

Replace often cuz whats quick doesnt work well what works well isn't quick. Shout spray prolongs some...

amother

Burlywood

Mon, May 07 2018, 3:37 pm

Thanks for the tips ladies..
I've been spraying the shirts with Oxygen cuffs & collar.. which works pretty well. But it often won't rid the deeper stains...

I'll try the vinegar tip.

thunderstorm

Mon, May 07 2018, 5:36 pm

Chayalle wrote:

As I load white shirts into the washing machine, I pour a little detergent onto the collar, and scrub it down with a brush, then onto next shirt....keeps colors white. Ditto for cuffs, as necessary.

I use to do this when it was just DH. Now ka"h I have been blessed with boys that are even bigger than my husband. I wash 40 white shirts weekly and have absolutely no energy or patience to scrub . I take OxyClean Spray and spray the collar and cuffs where it gets gray. Any food stains also get a spritz. I then let it sit for a few hours. Then I put it into the machine , with detergent and a quarter size of bleach , wash and hang to dry.
They are not perfect but spraying definitely makes a difference.
RAmom I will try your vinegar idea.

ra_mom

Mon, May 07 2018, 5:52 pm

mirror wrote:

Also adding Dawn dish soap to the load helps.

Dawn really cute down dirt and grease, but take caution with HE machines which can't handle suds. The machine can stop working.
I use Dawn on lots of stains but scrub and wash it all out before putting into the HE machine.

thunderstorm

Mon, May 07 2018, 5:55 pm

While we are on this topic, does anyone know how to take out the stains that come from sweat and deodorant combined in the arm pit area? The shirts get yellow under the arms because of this and I never figured out the right concoction

amother

Aqua

Mon, May 07 2018, 7:56 pm

Nature bright is supposedly very good. I have heard heard from a couple of people how good it is. Especially on white shirts. It's from shaklee. You need to find a shaklee distributor it's not sold in stores

ra_mom

Mon, May 07 2018, 8:06 pm

Sweat stains are very hard to remove once they've built up and become yellow.

https://www.popsugar.com/smart.....03483

Each soak should be for a lot longer than 20 minutes minutes. Scrub in between. Repeat a few times as necessary.

MGmom

Mon, May 07 2018, 10:08 pm

I’ve recently started using a white bar dove soap, wet, scrub, let sit a little and wash, great for sweat on collars and keeps it nice n white, I wouldn’t recommend soaking cuz when soaks too long the collars start bubbling up, as well as when u scrub with a brush it’ll start pilling.

amother

cornflower

Mon, May 07 2018, 11:06 pm

The proprietor at Brachsoni shirts on thirteenth Avenue in BP, told me that after a shower my son should dry his back of his neck really well. It’s a spot that is often neglected and little dirt particles from the air stick to the wet neck. This brings the dirt to the inside of the collar.

amother

Burlywood

Fri, Jun 01 2018, 12:04 pm

OP here:

I'm still trying to get the hang of cleaning white shirts...

I have a 4 white shirts that had stains that did not come out in the wash. So I took FF's advice, put it in a pail with water, and let it soak overnight.

Than I put it in the wash. One came out clean.
One still had the original spots on it, though smaller (It's orange stains, which dh thinks is from chulent.)

And the other two had new stains!!! Sad

It got large very light brown stains. I'm thinking maybe it happened because the water was not entirely covering all the shirts?

How can I get rid of them?

I am totally getting up with these white shirts!!

amother

Coral

Fri, Jun 01 2018, 12:23 pm

I soak all white shirts in a cup of oxiclean powder and one cup of detergent in hot water overnight in machine. I let it the load start nd when it is all mixed up, I stop the machine and restart the machine in the morning. Haven't sprayed a shirt in years with this method.

amother

Ecru

Fri, Jun 01 2018, 1:03 pm

amother wrote:

Doesn't hot water set the stains? I always knew once u wash in hot water, det or iron a stain it's there to stay

amother

Burlywood

Fri, Jun 01 2018, 1:08 pm

amother wrote:

I've heard that it's not good to leave water overnight in the machine. It damages the machine. Which kind of makes sense, cuz the machine is made of metal, and gets rusty sitting with water for a lengthy period of time.

amother

Burlywood

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 2:55 pm

amother wrote:

It got large very light brown stains. I'm thinking maybe it happened because the water was not entirely covering all the shirts?

How can I get rid of them?

I am totally getting fed up with these white shirts!!

Bump--

Any more advice for those shirts?

I have now a pile of 5 shirts that are not in use, because they have stains.