"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

May The Filth Be With You

Helpful Hints from Evil Mom: Tip 5

I love my boys dearly but they get things unbelievably dirty sometimes. Truly, you would not even believe the level of filth they wallow in at times. We had one of those messes to deal with on Sunday. I know most of you remember the crayon on the shirt incident. Well, that time, I had to resort to a more exotic combination of things to remove the filth. This time it was much simpler. On Sunday, the offending objects mired in filth were Gabe's socks...
Before we left my parents' house on Sunday, Gabe helped my mom water the lawn and, in the process, created a mud hole that was just begging to be jumped in. The picture above shows what his socks looked like after the hole jumping had occurred. My initial thought was to throw them away...they were just that filthy. My second thought was rinse them and wash them with with a scoop of oxygen cleaner (like oxyclean or sun oxygen cleaner). Believe it or not, these are the same socks a few hours later...
For really tough stains, spray the stain with a spray stain remover, then sprinkle the oxygen cleaner over it, and spray it again with the spray stain remover. I've managed to get out spaghetti sauce stains and stains from red clay this way. Just be sure you don't leave the clothing treated this way sitting for more than 12 hours or it could affect the color of the fabric.

What's the filthiest you have seen something get and were you able to get it clean? Got any good cleaning tips and hints for us?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh oh. I'm guessing I'm just going to have to rethink my strategy of just throwing things out when they look like that *g*

(I might also have to rethink the 'she got it that dirty, she can wear it stained' train I'm on)

Seriously impressive on your part. I've got nothing here, because if oxy and sunning don't take it out, I give up.

Lynn said...

I love your stain removal tips! They are sooooo helpful! Anyone who thinks you don't have as many stains because you don't have children has never lived with my husband, lol! Stains seem to hunt him down!

The filthiest I've seen something get recently was when my niece was trying to "help" me and she dumped an entire plate of spaghetti and meatballs (complete with yummy tomato sauce) down my favourite pair of white scrub pants. Not good. Not good at all. I squirted it down with Shout and added some Oxyclean and they came out without a stain! Brilliantly white. And still my favourite pair =D

St Elsewhere said...

LOL, I am with Neeroc really. If things get too dirty, and I can afford to, I much rather throw the things.

But you are quite the superwoman!

The filthiest I had was marks of ink (blue ink blots) but was not able to get them off completely.

Shelly- Mom Files said...

WOW! now that was indeed filthy! You are a better momma than I am because I might have thrown those puppies out. Odd thing about my boy is he can't stand anything dirty. I am sure it will change eventually. I rarely have any major stains besides maybe grease. I have been using Oxy cleaner and it seems to work well on everyday stuff.