OT: Laundry question

[SASM]

How do you get INSANE salt crust out of cotton??? DH sweats like crazy and has accumulated a crust under the arms of his cotton tees. IT IS SOOOOO ANNOYING!! Periodically, throughout the years, I have tried new ideas on how to get rid of this but nothing works!! My favorite experiment was boiling his shirts with detergent on the stove. :) ANY IDEAS??? For once, natural sunshine doesn't help. :) There MUST be some solution out there!!!

TIA (I hope)!!

[shilo]

i spray DH's with a solution of about 9 parts hydrogen peroxide (you can buy a quart for a buck or two at any drug store - usually the bottom shelf in the first aid aisle - dark brown bottle) with 1 part Dawn liquid dish detergent (the blue one). i read about this on some random cleaning site on the web for fruit stains, and one day, when i was particularly frustrated with DH's white polo shirts, i went to town with the stuff and it actually worked pretty well. now i spray the pit area until saturated, let it sit a few hours or overnight, then launder the next day. it doesn't make them completely white again, but it does better than anything else i've tried (and i've tried a lot). i do know i've read time and again that bleach on this kind of stain actually makes the things more yellow and crusty, not less.

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[elliput]

Have you tried soaking/saturating the area with white vinegar? It definitely won't hurt.

[SASM]

Ohhhhhh...I haven't tried this one! Does it work on colors and darks or just whites? I KNEW someone here would have an idea that I haven't tried!! I am heading to the grocery store! THANK YOU, Lori!!!

[SASM]

Ohhhh...I do not THINK that I have tried this one either. I definitely have white vinegar on hand. :) Thank you, Erika!

[shilo]

hydrogen peroxide does have a very mild bleaching (not chlorine tho, so more 'green' if you tend toward that kind of thing) effect, but i've used it on non whites. doesn't seem to harm any of the pastels or print on white T shirt type stuff i've tried. it can make darker colors bleed, so be sure to check on a seam or some other inconspicuous spot first, especially if it's a really prized item. for darks, i often start with zout or zout/powdered detergent paste depending on the stain and then if that doesn't help it, i pull the item before it goes thru the dryer and try just the plain liquid dish detergent first. if none of that has worked and i figure it's try the peroxide or live with the remaining stain, i often try the peroxide mix. also, from what i first read when i tried the peroxide mix, the plain peroxide works on stains too, but not as well as the peroxide 'activated' by the detergent. something about the two together really does seem to work best in my experience. and really, the proportions don't matter, that 9:1 ratio is just what i've found fills my little squirt bottle and seems to work well - play with the ratio's if you want, won't hurt anything - and a little more of the liquid detergent helps on anything that has a grease or a fat base to it (like butter/oil spatters, etc).

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[bubbaray]

Regular ammonia (not sudsy) in the wash (1 c for a full load) works on stinky athletic clothing quite well. Never had the crusty stuff, though.

HTH

Melissa

DD#1: 04/2004

DD#2: 01/2007

[SASM]

Ohh...that's a good idea! :) I do not think that it'll get rid of the nasty crust (YUCK!) but it is a VERY good thing to know.