Yesterday morning I opened Lyssa's drawer looking for a nice clean shirt for my little monkey to wear. Upon noticing that shirt after shirt after shirt had some sort of chocolate or orangey grease stain, I came to a few conclusions.1. Lyssa is a really messy eater.
2. My baby must eat a lot more chocolate than I realize.
3. That scoop of Oxiclean I keep adding to the wash water really isn't making a difference. That or my clothes must be really dirty.
I decided to take every single shirt in her drawer and in the dirty laundry and tediously scrub all the stains with strong dose of Shout. 30 minutes later I happily returned to the washer hoping to be greeted by clean, fresh clothes. The same dirty stains glared back at me. Not a single one had been removed.
Curses! Time to pull out all the stops. Carefully I scrubbed out every little brown and orange spot on Lyssa's white shirts with the help of a toothbrush and bleach water. Luckily most of her clothes were white where the stains resided, but what of the colors? Nothing I can do for those. With a deep sigh I threw them all back in the wash, and moved on to the next task at hand.
I smiled as I folded and tucked away all Lyssa's sparkling clean shirts this morning, just like new. I can't help but analyze why this matters to me so much. Why do I care if my daughter's clothes look like new? Why does anyone care?
1. I will quickly write off part of my caring as a mild case of OCD. Anyone who has seen my floors, let alone my house may be asking "What the hula hula are you talking about!?" I get giddy looking at a rainbow of crisp colors, and love when things sparkle and shine with cleanliness, but I don't do a very good job of keeping a clean house. Hence I joke of a mild case of OCD.
2. Simply stated, I want to keep Lyssa's clothes nice enough that if someday another wee little female of the Parkinson variety joined our family I would already be stocked with clothes. This should in no way be taken as some sort of announcement or foreshadow of things to come in the near future. I just like saving money and have the room to store extra stuff in this sweet home of ours.
3. People treat children differently that are dressed nice and cute vs. those who are not. Even if a child is very badly behaved, if they look cute people are more forgiving. Is it right for people to judge a child based on how they are dressed? No, but I'm not going to even try to figure out how to teach the world how to stop judging people based on their appearance. We all do it. It's natural, and at times it's even a good thing, but that is not my point. I think my little Lyssa Lou is one of the cutest little monkeys the world has ever known, but she can throw a fit like nobodies business. Within financial reason, I want to give her every opportunity to have the world treat her well (and yes, this also includes trying to teach her good manners).
Does this mean I always pick out her outfits or do her hair? Goodness gracious, heaven's to Betsy, resounding NO! (I guess I'm not all that OCD after all.) I just want to make sure all the tools are available, and cleanliness seems to be part of those tools.
So my question to all of you... how do you keep your kids clothes looking nice? Is there a miracle stain remover on the black market out there that I just don't know about? Do you use fabric softener and if so what do you find are the benefits? Do you throw your kids clothes in the dryer or drip dry? Is BabyGap and Gymboree really where it's at? Where you do you find quality, multi-generation lasting clothes at affordable prices? Please, spill your secrets.
13 comments:
I have pretty good luck with Oxi Clean Max - it's a spray on stain remover. I try to get to any chocolate stain right away, as those seem to be the most difficult to get out. No fabric softener, and I hang dry anything from Gymboree (good quality, but does tend to fade). I am a BIG fan of Baby Gap & Gymboree, but only on sale/ with a coupon. I honestly think that Baby Gap has good quality, and Gymboree turns over their lines so frequently that I seem to have good luck with their sales (especially at the end of season, when clothes go to 60% off, plus I usually find 20% off coupons). Hey, when I can buy Baby Gap for the same price as Target, I'll take Gap ANY day. You can also find LOTS of Baby Gap/ Gymboree on ebay.
Chlorine bleach is where it's at, girl.
I'm excited to see what other people have to say.
I try and have some really nice outfits in each size for my son. (Though I can't remember ever paying full price--I'm a sale shopper). I use those for church, going to the mall, play group, library day, etc.
Then, I also have a set of garage sale buys that I use for days at home, going to the beach, etc.
But I totally agree that as long as Caden is dressed cute and has gel in his hair, people think he is adorable no matter what mess he is making!
I love Shout. I bought a pack of it at Sam's Club and it came with some heavy duty shout in a blue bottle. It's somewhat gel like. Anyway, I love it. If I have a tough stain, I put a little bit of the shout gel on it, rub it in, and then stick it in a small container and soak it for a while. Usually a day or so will do the trick. Probably less. Anyway, that works well for me.
As far as brands, I love Carter's. I prefer to shop clearance or sales there and always have a coupon. I just think they wash well and I love how soft they are.
With whites I have found that good old bleach and some soaking time works best. Natalie Jones once gave me some MIRACLE pink soap that does wonders. She says you can only get it in Arizona,,,I think I'll be giving her a call soon since I am out. I am NOT very good at this next one, but pretreating right after the stain occurs seems to make a big difference. But lets me honest, that doesn't happen much. Especially with how Isaac eats. As far as buying clothes I agree with Amy, if I can buy baby gap or gymboree (only on sale or if grandma is buying) for the same price as target then I will get the deal. I do think the quality is better. But kids grow so fast that I am just fine with Target and I LOVE consignment shops. Great deals and finds with out dealing with the internet.
When M was first born and her onesies would get poopy from blowouts... I just threw them away. I learned pretty quickly though I couldn't afford to do that every time! So I just try to stay on top of it... My laundry room is basically in our kitchen, so right after M is done with dinner for the day, I take her clothes off right there and spray the spots instantly with Oxy Clean BABY - I love that stuff. Fels Naptha soap is good to scrub hard spots too.
GAP clothes are great quality. Almost all of M's clothes are hand-me-downs, and the ones from GAP are still nice looking and wearable. So when I do spend money on clothes for her, I don't mind shopping the sales at GAP because I know they are going to last a long time. And they're stinkin' cute.
I'm right there with you, Chrissy. My magic potion is spraying it with Spray n Wash, then adding the Oxy Clean to the wash. For tough stains, I spray then soak in the warmest water appropriate with Oxy Clean...and the toughest stains of all, I make a paste of sorts with Spray n Wash, Oxy Clean and a little water and stick it right on there. Then wash. And it usually works (though I did accidently remove some of the color from one of Dallin's shirts with that method, but it's only happened once....)
Obviously I feel passionate about stain removal, seeing as I have such detailed methods.......
:)
Pre-treating (which I'm also bad at) with shout works for me. Bleach for the regular whites, and cheer free and clear soap. I use a plain dryer sheet to knock out the static. I'm partial to baby gap but that's mainly due to my sweet discount. Old navy works for basics but Jakob's head is too big for a lot of the shirts. :) I like their jeans so far (that nice discount again) but once he's more active, we'll see how the knees wear.
Once upon a child is great as far as consignment shops go. I sell my old stuff and get a credit--in addition to the money from the clothes I sold--and buy a couple "new" things. Good times!
You could make like Angelina Jolie and dress your kids all in black. The stains don't show as bad. :-)
Luckily, Nora has passed the extremely messy stage and Aron doesn't eat anything except crackers... but when I do have a stain that needs treated, I soak it in a mixture of oxy-clean and Tide with bleach alternative for days or until I do laundry the next time. Then I check for the stain before I dry it and will re-soak if needed.
I dry all the kids's clothes... but hardly dry any of my own... not my shirts, not my pants.. I do use liquid fabric softener... I like how it makes everything smell, but I don't use much.
I think anything carters brand is the BEST! and I love, love, love "The children's place", old navy, babies'r'us and target (because they sell carters clothing) really childrens place clothes last the longest for me. and as far as the stains go I use oxi-clean, in combo with shout and "all" free&clear detergent a really GOOD soaking is what all stained clothes need...hope this helps
i have no stains from little ones however i once got my nephew a polo shirt from the gap and he covered it with strawberry juice at the berry farm and the stains came out. i believe my sister in law uses shout the kind with the gun/hose situation. and it's totally true- cute kids get away with way more. my mom pre-treats with oxyclean.
My mother is the master of all stain removers. She keeps a cheat sheet in her laundry room of what works on what kind of stains. For instance, did you know that milk will take out ink stains? It works! Anyway, she is a huge supporter of tide and Biz. She also uses bleach and lets her clothes soak for hours if there is a stain she is working on. I will have to get that cheat sheet and pot it, it was really interesting. She also says that dawn, the dish detergent will take out quite a few stains that other stain removers couldn't.
Post a Comment