Mountains of laundry? Remove clothing stains without spending money

Posted on Jul 23 in Featured, do it more naturally, homemade, living simply, parentingby TalinaPrint

Yesterday our AC was out and we spent the day in a 80+ degree house waiting on the repair man. It started getting warm in the wee hours of the morning, like 3am-ish. The night was sleepless because of the uncomfortable temperature of the house and we all were up and at em quite early yesterday.

Got the call in to the repairman, N headed off to work and E and I waited around for the repairman. Of course they never come soon enough when something like an AC needs fixing. So we wandered the house in minimal clothing and tried to keep things nice and dark to keep the hot summer sun out and the temperature inside down.

I had E in just a diaper all day, even at nap time. Turns out that was a mistake because she’s able to remove the Velcro diapers if she wants to and she did just that.

We came in the get her after her afternoon nap and there she was standing up in her crib totally naked, diaper wadded up in the corner and a urine soaked bed. We lucked out because it was just a urine mess.

Today was another story, when N and E got up this morning there was poosplosion all over the crib. Much like the vomitsplosion we had a few months back. Poor thing had her diaper still on (because she wasn’t sleeping naked and thus didn’t have access to unfastening her diaper) but lots of poop leaked out all over the bed, her arms, her doll, blankets, crib bumper and everything else in that crib.

Needless to say the morning started off with a bath and some bed stripping. A poop covered laundry doesn’t scare me though. Never thought I’d be saying that. Ha, ha.

Seriously though, cloth diaper laundering has taught me lots about how to treat various messes on linens. I don’t need no stinking stain removers or heavy duty detergents either.

Just rinsed all the poop covered stuff in cold water, specifically in a cold wash & an extra rinse with NO detergent in the washer. Then I did a hot wash with Planet Detergent (my cloth diaper detergent) and then took the stuff outside to dry and sanitize.

I know I say this all the time but it is amazing how effective the sun is at removing a majority of laundry stains. It doesn’t cost money and it can lower your energy bills by drying the laundry as well as bleaching out stains. I love harnessing the power of the sun to remove poop stains, blood stains and other food stains (like pasta sauce, berry stains and more). If you haven’t already tried “sunning-out” a laundry stain I’d encourage you to do so, it is amazing!

Some other homemade laundry ideas are:

Homemade bleach (that is safe and non-toxic)

Combine 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide with about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, add to 15 cups of cool water. Mix and use int he wash as you would standard bleach. Can dilute further if you pan on soaking clothing in the beach or simply store in a cool, dry & darn location where it will keep for about four months.

Add Borax to the wash

Borax (Sodium Tetraborate) can be purchased at places like Walmart, a hardware store or even a local grocery store. It is a natural alternative to color-safe bleach, it naturally softens hard water and boosts the cleaning power of your existing detergent. It is also HE compatible and is an effective stain remover. Just add 1/2 cup to each wash.

What is your favorite laundry tip or your biggest laundry nemesis?

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4 Comments

• Brenda Freeman says:

  July 27, 2010 at 8:00 pm

  Thanks for the reminder of the homemade laundry tips. I can remember my mother using these. I also like vinegar for cleaning.
• Christine says:

  August 3, 2010 at 4:38 pm

  OK- so this may be a dumb question but I am gonna ask anyway. I totally love that you cloth diaper and will strongly consider it when I finally have children someday. What do you do when you leave the house? Do you put a disposable diaper on Everly or do you just hope that she doesn’t dirty the cloth diaper?
• Talina says:

  August 3, 2010 at 6:45 pm

  Not a dumb question! Like most parents, we have a “wet bag” that we put her soiled cloth diapers in when we are out. Wet bags can also be used for for disposable diapers (like on road trips and whatnot) and they are great to have in case baby messes clothes in either case (disposable or cloth diapers) so they are common for both cloth or disposable diapering parents.

  When we get home we deal with the cloth diapers she’s soiled in our usual manner and replace the wet bag in the diaper bag for another use. Actually, I feel that cloth diapering is easier when we are out and about because they are less messy (in my opinion) and I can change them right there in the car as opposed to having to find a changing room and a place to dispose of the disposable diaper. Plus, changing rooms always = getting sick for us it seems.

  I’ve even done a few diaper changes in the middle of retail stores without any ordeal. Probably because people don’t realize the cloth diaper is a diaper. LOL.
• plastic surgery says:

  August 28, 2010 at 1:26 pm

  oh. poor you. but kids are kids. it was bound to happen some or the other time. at least you handled it well.

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