Quick: Laundry Maven Help Needed!

[WatchingThemGrow]

I tried the OxiClean paste + boiling water trick on several 2nd hand items this afternoon. I let the items soak in the hot water (likely mistake) while I took a bath. When DH pulled the items out of the hot water, the whites had turned turquoise/blue and the white stripes on the turquoise shirt looked blue.

I have a packet of Rit Color Remover and a packet of Rit Whitener and Brightener or some colorsafe bleach on hand - as well as the Oxi.

What's the best way to save the beloved white hannas as well as the striped shirt?

[wencit]

I don't know about the Rit Color Remover, but the same thing happened to me with a Gymboree shirt that had a red crab on the front. The color from the crab leaked and turned the white area around it quite pink. I sprayed a ton of Shout With Resolve on it and put it back in the wash on COLD, then crossed my fingers. I didn't want to use warm water and make everything worse. To my surprise, the Shout removed all of the pink, to the point when I asked DH if he could tell if there was anything strange about the shirt, he said no.

Good luck. I guess now we know not to use the Oxiclean + boiling water trick on clothing that has color that might bleed.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Waaaaaaaaaaah. It was all over the shirts, more than some spray would have taken care of. The colorsafe bleach did nothing. The Whitener and Brightener seemed to work on 2 shirts, but the Color Remover ruined 3 fun Hanna shirts. I guess 2 of them were pretty stained before (in play condition), but I totally ruined the collar of DH's favorite tee on DS1

Not sure what I should have done to make it right.

[gatorsmom]

Argh! I just lost a long response in cyberspace. Briefly, if you have any all-white clothes or almost all-white, you can try applying diluted bleach to the white areas. I'd try 1/4bleach to 3/4 water. Don't let it set- just rub it around a bit then rinse well with water. This will take out ALL color, including any stripes or other designs on the shirt, so try to keep to the areas you want to be white.

If there are some clothes that have designs or patterns on them, and you've had color bleed into them AND you tried various things to get the bleeding out, then I'd guess the stains are set in. If some of these clothes are dear to you, you could try taking them to a dry cleaners. They have more powerful chemicals to take out stains and probably won't charge you anything more than a regular dry cleaning charge.

Good luck!

[melrose7]

Not sure how to help now but what I do with the oxi clean is slightly different and may be worth a try next time. I put the oxi clean powder in a bucket/sink with boiling water so it gets mixed up nice and good and then let it cool a bit, even add some cold water if needed and then put my stained clothes in. That way the oxi clean can still do it's work but it doesn't ruin my clothes. good luck