how do you get the knees and tummies of their clothes clean?

[spu]

with all the crawling around that they do, their outfits constantly have dirty knees and bellies. I can't seem to get them clean from the washer. Plus food stains! carrots and avocado are the worst!

What detergent do you use? Do you use warm or cold water? Most of their clothes are 'lights' so I wash them all together - even some of their bright clothes (though the brights don't show the dirt). I usually wash on cold and I usually use whatever detergent is on sale.

So what's the best way to get them bright and clean again? Should I use a color-safe bleach? I've never tried one before. I'm afraid to use anything bleachy since the clothes are colored, but maybe a color-safe would get the dirt out? warm water instead? I've even tried shout - over and over again, and over night. Works great on DHs blood spots from cuts from shaving, but not on food or dirt stains.

so much for those commercials! tell them to come to my house and try it on our laundry! :)

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte & else

[lukkykatt]

I am by no means a laundry expert, but I am obsesseive about getting stains out of clothes, and the easiest thing I have found is to soak the stained clothes in OxiClean. Then just wash as usual. I have found it to work on almost everything.

Also, one thing that I try to do is to avoid getting the clothes stained to begin with. Which is why my poor baby wears the long sleeved Baby Bjorn smock-type bib. It is great. Now that the weather is (finally) getting warmer here on the East Coast, not sure how much longer I can use it, but it has been a lifesaver. Ok, now the one other thing that I sometimes do is to try to match the food to the clothes (don't laugh!). So I will give carrots on days where he is wearing an orange t-shirt, etc. I only do this with foods that are BAD stainers, btw.

[sweetbasil]

Susan,
I've been pleasantly surprised by how well color-safe bleach works on our clothes- it's never been a problem. As soon as I see stains on DS's clothes (and have removed the clothes from his body!), I spray them with a stain-removal spray (shout, spray-n-wash, whatever) or for really set-in stains, I use the shout gel with a brush top that scrubs the gel into the stain, then wash. As DS has outgrown his clothes, I don't think there have been many, if any, outfits that we've had to throw away because of stains- it all came out in the wash ;)

Good luck,

[egoldber]

I have great luck with Zout and with Biz. I also wash all her clothes together and I have never had a problem. I wash them in warm. I was once told by a laundry repair guy that if you wash in cold that often times the detergents do not work properly.

HTH,

[SASM]

Hi Susan,

Can't say that I have experience with this type of stain yet but I have to completely second Beth's endorsement of Zout and Biz!! I am amazed by these two products. I also have to suggest Gonzo stain remover!! Yesterday, PRUNE JUICE spilled all over my khaki twill sofa slipcover, wool rug, and the back of my jeans (don't ask)...Gonzo removed the stain from my slipcover without a problem!!! Yeah! I just saw a $50-60 dry cleaning bill float away :-) What a beautiful sight!! Good luck with the stains!

[August Mom]

I have found Shout to get out all the dirty crawling stains. I just spray some on before washing and throw them in. I've never had to rewash those outfits.