Keeping Your Clothes Clean

Let’s face it, life on the road is just as dirty as life at home.  Mark used to drive in some sort of white shirt on trips.  Notice how I said used to?  It became a self-fulfilling prophecy as something always happened where he needed to get under the motor home on a drive if he was wearing a white shirt.  Even the boys commented on it when they were younger.  The last straw was on our cross country trip in 2004, also known as the blowout trip.  We blew a tire in Valley Forge, PA when Mark was wearing a white shirt.  I commend Pennsylvania for their nice, wide shoulders and prompt, helpful state troopers.  We got the tire changed and quickly went shopping for a spare.  Later on that same trip, in yet another white shirt, we had another blowout on I-70 about 70 miles east of Denver.  And again, praise to the state of Colorado for their super wide, all concrete shoulders.  This change was almost a game with Mark yelling, “Time me!”

This was 2004, long before we held the world in our cellphone.  While he dirtied up another perfectly good shirt, I used my handy dandy flip phone and called Discount Tire.  We were getting six new tires, come hell or high water.  I told the very nice person on the phone what we were looking for and she informed me that her location only had two of the Michelin tires Mark wanted.  She reassured me they’d still be able to help and asked for my number.  Just as Mark and the boys were finishing up she called back.  They would have 6 tires ready for us at the Arvada location in an hour.  Hallelujah!  No more blowouts this trip!  They were ready and waiting for us and we took a detour to the Coors Brewery while our motor home got six shiny new tires.

That shirt was just a mess and after a few tries at getting it clean without success, I threw it out.  There had to be something that could get stains out of clothes and also get those pesky yellow stains from the armpits of shirts.  There just had to be.  Alas, none of the items in the laundry aisle were up to task.  The battle raged through soccer, volleyball, tennis and football seasons.

One night I searched for home-made stain removers on Google and this website came up: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/how-to-remove-yellow-armpit-stains

She’s updated the post since then; her original post featured getting the armpit stains out and also some grease stains on a blue shirt.  I had to give this a try.  What did I have to lose?  I had everything in the house.  I mixed it together and pulled out all of our white shirts.  Her post talked about letting stubborn stains sit for a bit so after scrubbing all the armpits, I let them sit overnight.  I can’t tell you how excited I was the next morning when I pulled those shirts out of the washer with nary an armpit stain in sight.  This little concoction is now my number 1 stain fighting machine.  It works on everything:  food stains, grease stains, blood, grass stains.  So far the only thing I found that it doesn’t work on is pen ink that has gone through the washer and dryer splattering on an entire load of laundry.  For that, you’ll need Soilove.  Credit my mother-in-law Gail for this one.  She didn’t realize an ink pen was left in a campground washer until after she pulled her clothes out of the dryer.  She found it for the best price at the .99 Cent Store.

This homemade stain-fighting concoction literally takes two minutes to make and can be easily stored in a mason jar.  You guessed it, it travels well although I use one of those round Ziploc plastic containers with a screw-top lid for the RV.  It’s one part Dawn and two parts peroxide.  You can add a little baking soda for better scrubbing power.  Be warned, there is a little chemical reaction with the baking soda and if the jar is too full, it will foam out around the top.  Sadly I speak from experience so now I sprinkle a little baking soda on the stain then use a toothbrush or a spoon to add the concoction to the baking soda.  I few scrubs with the toothbrush and it’s ready to go into the washer.

This stuff will seriously change your stain-fighting life.  No camping trip clothing mess is a match for its cleaning power.  Let the stain fighting begin, I can’t wait to hear your stain success stories.