We've always just put clothing with (say) berry stains in the wash.
Recently we were shown that at least cranberry stains dissole "like magic"
if one stretches the cloth and runs *cold* water through the stain. It
just fades away. I'm not sure how universal this is. 

35 responses total.

We use a product called "Stain Stick," but who knows, maybe Rane's method
would be as good or better?  The Stain Stick says it's good for all fabrics
except Khaki and fluorescent colors.

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 We could always call you "Tide Free" Valerie instead of popcorn ;)

  Actually, I've heard that Lestoil is a great grease remover as is
Era Plus with protein. Other than Tide, that's what I like the most.

About 25 years ago, the big thing was enzymes.  The detergents were compounded
with enzymes that aided the breakdown of the various stain agents.  I don't
know if this still is marketed, but most products used enzymes for a while.

 My mother still uses Biz, which I believe is an enzyme product.

Our bottle of liquid Tide and box of powdered Biz both list "enzymes" as a
cleaning ingredient. They don't really do very much, however, so all the
hype settled down while new ingredients were touted. I notice that the
most popular new ingredient in our collection of detergents is something
called "NEW!". 

Some things rinse away well in *cold* water, especially when fresh --
I have no experience with cranberry juice, but blood stains respond
favorably to a cold presoak.

A lot of iron-based stains will come out easily with oxalic acid, but 
keep it away from pets & kids - it's poison.

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Use dish detergent on grease stains, it is made to remove grease.  I
remember a time when a friends kitten fell into an oil drain pan in the
garage right after the oil was changed but before the drain pan emptied.
We arrived that evening for a party and found poor little (long haired)
kittie looking a horrible mess even after several washings.  I told the
friend to use Dawn as it had no trouble cleaning my greasiest pots and
pans.  She didn't have Dawn so we used her Joy instead.  Kittie looked
fantastic and was her fluffy little self again with just a light washing.

Did you use the detergent "straight"? I've used that trick for
greasy stains. The straight detergent "solubilizes" the grease,
so that it disperses easily when rinsed. You can do a nice experiment
on this by putting a clear dish detergent in a small glass, and adding
a few drops of cooking oil. It will disperse very readily and become
cloudy. Then add that to a glass of water, and the oil stays dispersed.
However if you mix the detergent first with the water, it is much
harder to disperse the oil.

It was many, many years ago so I really don't remember.  We did wash her
in the bathtub.  I think we wetted her down, squirted the detergent on her
and lathered her up, then rinsed.

considering my last name i thought this the place to say hello!

 Welcome to Grex, Jodie.

I hope you don't remove yourself from here. In fact, I think that
this conference needs an alternate fairwitness, and who better than
someone named Staines?

well, since i am new i don't know
yet what that means.
ill find out.

The fairwitness of a conference is like a moderator, though generally
doing less moderating than stimulating. The fairwitness has limited
powers, but can edit the conference login and logout messages, and can
link items from other conferences to their's (this leads to the same item
appearing in both conferences). The fairwitness can also retire items -
launder them, so to speak ;). 

 I was thinking the very same thing, Rane.

just chking up on you guys! :)

Hey! We're all clean!

Any hints on accumulated staining?  I'm specifically thinking about the
yellowish type that gradually appears in the underarms of white shirts...

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Re #21:  Isn't that what people used to call "Ring around the collar"?  I
remember when I was a kid that Wisk based its advertising campaign on the
fact that it was good at removing "ring around the collar".  I never knew what
the heck they were talking about until someone explained it to me later.
Maybe Wisk would work?

 I've heard that sweat stains can be removed with vinegar in the wash water.

You can get stain help online. http://www.clothesline.com which is the
Tide web page.

I've heard of eliminating the accumulated _scent_ of sweat with vinegar, but
I didn't know it worked for the stain also...

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You can try working straight liquid dish detergent or shampoo into the
stain before washing it again. Don't use much. 

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Let us know if it works. 

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Could they have spread out to the point they could not be noticed? I
would not expect grease to do this, but oil could, as it wicks into
the fabric.

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Lately, I've had great success with the little "Tide Kick" device for 
stain removal. It's like a cup with a roller ball that kind of smushes 
liquid detergent into the stained fabric. It has even worked on some very 
old "mystery stains". Most recently, and partly because of an immediate 
cold rinse, it took soy-taco-mix drippings (reddish and vaugely greasy) 
out of a beloved lilac-colored sweatshirt.

I do that on stains with my finger, using liquid dish detergent. 

As a cat, I use spit to keep me
clean.

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