Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stains and laundry

Is my washer causing clear oil stains?

Tim McDonough — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:44:40 -0800

I know that if a Chapstick goes through the wash, it will stain my clothes, but could identical stains be indicative of a washing machine malfunction? The stains in question look just like baby-oil stains, not grease or motor-oil. The research I've done so far suggests that a washing machine seal break or leak would result in a dirtier type stain, more grease-like. We don't use any kind of fabric softener or dryer sheets, so I've ruled those out. Thanks in advance!

Out, Out, Damn Spot

EmpressCallipygos — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:25:25 -0800

How do you remove a stain....if you don't know what the stain is? I have a white rayon tunic shirt which long ago developed some mysterious brown stains on the front. It almost looks like I dribbled tea down the front. Except - I didn't. I just pulled it out of the closet one day and noticed all these drips of an unknown stain on them.

All I can think is: I used to live in an apartment where the "closet" was open space under a platform loft bed, leaving all my hanging clothes open to random weird floating gak in the air from inside or outside. So this stain could be ANYTHING.

I've tried stain spray, I've tried diluted bleach, I've tried Oxy-Clean; it's still rather stubborn. I even got desperate and tea-dyed the whole shirt to see if the rest of it would take on the same hue as the stain, but...that just made the stain a little darker too, so you can still see it. Researching all the "stain removal tips" web sites out there require you to know what the stain is first, but....I don't know.

Help?

Help me get our yellow pillowcase white again (without bleach).

gchucky — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:13:15 -0800

Laundry Filter: Help me get our yellow pillowcase white again (without bleach). We have a white pillowcase that has taken on a rather strong shade of yellow as of late. I put it through the wash but that didn't help, so I didn't dry it. I'm hoping to avoid using bleach on it 'cause I don't own any, and I've accidentally stained a few things over the years.

So what alternative solutions are there to get this pillowcase back to its original color - or do I have to use bleach?

How do I get dirt stains out?

otherwordlyglow — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:22:55 -0800

How do I remove dirt stains on pants? My daughter came home from daycare with the knees of her pants totally saturated with a mixture of sand and dirt. She's a crawler and I expect this to happen a lot but have no experience with dirt stains. (I don't do a lot of stuff that leads to dirt stains on me). For the most part it doesn't matter too much: the pants were cheap and I'm sure she'll grow out of them in another month but what's the best way to treat these kinds of stains? I'm sure there will be plenty more.

The complicating factor is that they've already been washed and dried and still have stains on the knees. Is there any hope of getting them totally clean? Generally, I know to pre-treat stains but I neglected to do that this time. So the question really is two-fold: What are best practices for dirt stains and then what do I do in this case where it's already been laundered but the stain remains? I'm in the U.S., so product recommendations will be most helpful if they're available here.

Bonus side question: Does anyone remember a solvent/stain removal product that used to be available maybe up to the 70s and 80s? It was alcohol based and came in a narrow, tall-ish glass jar with a felt tip that you dabbed on to stains? I can't find it anymore which leads me to believe it was toxic and so they've taken it off the market but it worked like a charm on a lot of things.

What's the best way to remove stains from a shirt that has been washed over and over?

gchucky — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:23:19 -0800

What's the best way to remove stains from a shirt that has been washed over and over? (And anyone from NYC ever find that their shirts come out worse after washing?) Hey all. Let me get this out of the way: I know there are a bunch of posts out there like this already, but I think this one is a little different.

So here's the problem: we have a bunch of shirts with armpit stains and other spots on them. And no matter what we do, we just can't get the stains out.

We've tried all the methods suggested in other posts. We've used Biz to pretreat the shirts half an hour before washing them. We've tried treating the shirts with Biz the night before, which also didn't work. Vinegar, Oxi-clean, you name it - we've tried it. And nothing works.

So I come to you guys for help. What's left? Do we just have to accept that the shirts will never be in their original state? Is there some miracle cure that we just don't know about?

I mention the NYC question because I'm starting to believe that the water here is making the shirts worse. Maybe it's my laundromat, though the place is pretty darn clean. But have any of you living here in the city found that your laundry stains come out looking worse after a wash?

The dirty and the not-quite-so dirty (lanudry)

iamisaid — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:18:26 -0800

When doing the wash, I refuse to mix my laundry with towels that our puppy has peed on, for fear that my clothes will somehow end up smelling like pee afterward, even if only faintly. My roommate, on the other hand, thinks this is completely irrational and that you can mix anything in the laundry because the soap and hot water get it all clean anyway. So, neutral third party, I ask you: who is in the right? And if you agree with my roommate that it really doesn't matter, just where would you draw the line? What if it were poop instead of pee, would that make any difference?

By the way, when I had my own washer/dryer this wasn't even an issue to me, but I now have to use coin-operated machines, making me question (slightly) the wisdom of paying to do separate laundry loads.

Has anyone had any success with removing sweat / antiperspirant combo stains?

GleepGlop — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:21:14 -0800

Has anyone had any success with removing sweat / antiperspirant combo stains? On my black undershirts the armpits are kind of caked on with white and on the white undershirts the armpits are stained yellowish. There seem to be 'recipies' out there to remove armpit stains but I was curious if anyone has found success. I use Mitchum clear gel antiperspirant if that makes any difference.

Laundry stains = creatures?

gusset — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:49:28 -0800

Have you seen illustrated decals that embellish laundry stains and turn them into "creatures"? A few months ago I came across a female artist's portfolio website. The artist had only one item for sale: decals or iron-on transfers that embellish laundry stains. They came in four different designs - one was robots and another I think was aliens - with illustrated heads and appendages that you place around your unremovable stain to turn it into a creature (the stain becomes the belly). They were simple black line drawings and were really unique and funny.

The decals might have been priced in UK pounds, but I found the site from a U.S.-based blog. Now I can't find the artist's website, remember the artist's name or the original blog I found it through. Can you shed some light?

Red is an asshole

saysthis — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 01:09:23 -0800

I have an awesome polo shirt with a white collar that got accidentally tossed in with a red shirt that bled all over everything in the load. Most of the other stuff was either jeans or house tees, but is there any way to salvage this collar without ruining the rest of the shirt?

Out Darn Spot!

genevieve — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 21:18:47 -0800

It’s laundry day: After doing my second load of laundry, I discovered some not-so-tiny black spots on one of my favourite shirts, as well as many other items in the load. [mi] So, I washed it all for a second time. Surprise, the little spots have multiplied and the situation looks hopeless. They don’t look like burns (which I had originally though) or ink marks. They’re just…random spots in random places, sent to ruin my day. I’m currently sending it all through for a third time, and using Shout (spray) to *try* to get them out. There doesn’t seem to be anything on the inside of the wash tub. Regular load, regular liquid detergent, regular softener. Help?

How do you remove yellow armpit stains from white cotton T-shirts?

Peter H — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 09:02:19 -0800

ULTIMATE USE OF ASK METAFILTER: Yellow pit stains on the white cotton t-shirts. What are the remedies? Throw the shirt out or do you have a proven bleaching/detergent technique?