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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 210434" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>I just went to a garage sale this morning and got a couple of things for difficult child 1 and girlfriend.</p><p></p><p>On the subject of towels (good or otherwise) - easy child 2/difficult child 2 & BF2 had a nasty leak in their hot water system (poor thing collapsing after such heavy misuse, I suspect) and they chucked a couple of towels nearby onto the flood to soak it all up. What with the delays and the landlord etc, the towels got dirty and the colour began to run from one towel to the other. Plus all the rust, and dirt from the old hot water system was making the towels dirty. easy child 2/difficult child 2 came to see us last Monday to do some printing from her computer (she has laptop but no printer) and brought the towels with her to ask for help - BF2 was going to throw them out, thinking they were ruined. But one of the towels in particular is easy child 2/difficult child 2's favourite, her best towel. So husband & I reassured her that it was an easy fix - and it was. For us - because we have an outdoor clothesline and an effective washing machine. We hung them on the line to dry out, then washed them, then hung them outside again to dry. No stains, no smells, even the colour staining was gone.</p><p></p><p>As for the unbelievably stinky, dirty, yellowed mess that teen/young adult males can get their things into - don't throw them out. There is an inexpensive, easy solution that has even managed to salvage difficult child 1's stuff. I first used it as a desperation measure on a suit I was given to clean (if possible) then wear, for a local drama production. The suit had previously been worn by a never-bathing, chain-smoking man running around the stage under hot lights in a heatwave. Ugh! The wardrobe mistress handed it to me on a stick. I'm not kidding! My house stank just form having the suit in a plastic bag in my laundry.</p><p></p><p>Solution - fill the laundry tub (or better still, an outdoor vat of sorts) with warm water (not hot, aim for blood heat) and a generous scoop of enzyme laundry detergent. While the tub is filling, get your garments in question and splash or spray white vinegar (cheap stuff, don't waste your good salad vinegar on this) GENEROUSLY especially on the smelly or stained areas. Hey, if it's bad let's just soak the lot in a bucket of vinegar first. Then put it all to soak in the warm enzyme detergent mix.</p><p></p><p>Leave it overnight. Then COLD wash the stuff using more enzyme laundry detergent. Do not put any of your own stuff in the wash with it.</p><p></p><p>Be prepared, if it's really bad, to have to do this up to three times. The soak water when I did the suit, was like a mix of coffee and dirty wash-up water. It took a double soak before I did the first cold wash in the machine, and I then re-soaked once before another machine wash. That suit came out with NO odour at all! OK, it took some ironing (and putting a hot iron onto sweat smelly clothing is a good way to find out how stubborn those smells can be) and even when being ironed, that suit didn't smell.</p><p></p><p>I've been doing this with the kids' clothing now for years, since difficult child 1 hit puberty. For even really smelly clothing of difficult child 1's, all I need to do most of the time is spray the armpits with vinegar and then toss the shirt in the laundry tub until washday. No pre-soak needed. Socks which haven't been changed for a couple of months need special treatment like the suit coat did, and may emerge with all brown removed and maybe only a little residual stiffness. I will even give sneakers the vinegar treatment. The other trick with sneakers is using carb soda powder sprinkled into the sneakers when they are dry. Sprinkling carb soda into the toes of socks before wearing can also help naturally deodorise feet.</p><p></p><p>Important things to remember - COLD wash, and never more than BLOOD HEAT soak. If you need to do more than cold wash, go up to blood heat. But NEVER do a hot wash because all it will do is cook the stains and smells in, then you will never get rid of them.</p><p></p><p>The vinegar interferes with the proteins in the stains and smells. The enzymes work effectively to digest them also, but enzymes will be killed by too much heat. Blood heat helps them work at maximum efficiency.</p><p></p><p>It's easy. It's cheap. Vinegar is the most important ingredient. For persistent stains you can also rub with a bar of soap. To make this easier, let the soap bar sit in a puddle for about ten minutes then rub on the soggy side. No need to scrub. Just toss it into the washing machine and next time you wash it should make a big difference.</p><p></p><p>If you need to, wear disposable gloves to touch the boy's clothes. I had to, with that suit. Honestly, if it had come off some alcoholic street vagrant with incontinence it couldn't have been worse.</p><p></p><p>Remember, if you throw stuff out then you're contaminating the environment (unless you compost it - and synthetics won't compost). He will only buy more stuff which, after one or two wearings, will be in the same state (because the problem is compounded when the wearer doesn't wash or wear deodorant).</p><p></p><p>I taught my kids to do this and it was actually easy child 2/difficult child 2 who got me onto using a spray bottle for the vinegar. And now that difficult child 3 is a malodorous teen, he is being told to routinely splash vinegar onto his shirts' armpits when he puts them in the washing basket.</p><p></p><p>it can be done, even after years of neglect.</p><p></p><p>Maybe you can give difficult child a bottle of cheap vinegar when he moves out?</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 210434, member: 1991"] I just went to a garage sale this morning and got a couple of things for difficult child 1 and girlfriend. On the subject of towels (good or otherwise) - easy child 2/difficult child 2 & BF2 had a nasty leak in their hot water system (poor thing collapsing after such heavy misuse, I suspect) and they chucked a couple of towels nearby onto the flood to soak it all up. What with the delays and the landlord etc, the towels got dirty and the colour began to run from one towel to the other. Plus all the rust, and dirt from the old hot water system was making the towels dirty. easy child 2/difficult child 2 came to see us last Monday to do some printing from her computer (she has laptop but no printer) and brought the towels with her to ask for help - BF2 was going to throw them out, thinking they were ruined. But one of the towels in particular is easy child 2/difficult child 2's favourite, her best towel. So husband & I reassured her that it was an easy fix - and it was. For us - because we have an outdoor clothesline and an effective washing machine. We hung them on the line to dry out, then washed them, then hung them outside again to dry. No stains, no smells, even the colour staining was gone. As for the unbelievably stinky, dirty, yellowed mess that teen/young adult males can get their things into - don't throw them out. There is an inexpensive, easy solution that has even managed to salvage difficult child 1's stuff. I first used it as a desperation measure on a suit I was given to clean (if possible) then wear, for a local drama production. The suit had previously been worn by a never-bathing, chain-smoking man running around the stage under hot lights in a heatwave. Ugh! The wardrobe mistress handed it to me on a stick. I'm not kidding! My house stank just form having the suit in a plastic bag in my laundry. Solution - fill the laundry tub (or better still, an outdoor vat of sorts) with warm water (not hot, aim for blood heat) and a generous scoop of enzyme laundry detergent. While the tub is filling, get your garments in question and splash or spray white vinegar (cheap stuff, don't waste your good salad vinegar on this) GENEROUSLY especially on the smelly or stained areas. Hey, if it's bad let's just soak the lot in a bucket of vinegar first. Then put it all to soak in the warm enzyme detergent mix. Leave it overnight. Then COLD wash the stuff using more enzyme laundry detergent. Do not put any of your own stuff in the wash with it. Be prepared, if it's really bad, to have to do this up to three times. The soak water when I did the suit, was like a mix of coffee and dirty wash-up water. It took a double soak before I did the first cold wash in the machine, and I then re-soaked once before another machine wash. That suit came out with NO odour at all! OK, it took some ironing (and putting a hot iron onto sweat smelly clothing is a good way to find out how stubborn those smells can be) and even when being ironed, that suit didn't smell. I've been doing this with the kids' clothing now for years, since difficult child 1 hit puberty. For even really smelly clothing of difficult child 1's, all I need to do most of the time is spray the armpits with vinegar and then toss the shirt in the laundry tub until washday. No pre-soak needed. Socks which haven't been changed for a couple of months need special treatment like the suit coat did, and may emerge with all brown removed and maybe only a little residual stiffness. I will even give sneakers the vinegar treatment. The other trick with sneakers is using carb soda powder sprinkled into the sneakers when they are dry. Sprinkling carb soda into the toes of socks before wearing can also help naturally deodorise feet. Important things to remember - COLD wash, and never more than BLOOD HEAT soak. If you need to do more than cold wash, go up to blood heat. But NEVER do a hot wash because all it will do is cook the stains and smells in, then you will never get rid of them. The vinegar interferes with the proteins in the stains and smells. The enzymes work effectively to digest them also, but enzymes will be killed by too much heat. Blood heat helps them work at maximum efficiency. It's easy. It's cheap. Vinegar is the most important ingredient. For persistent stains you can also rub with a bar of soap. To make this easier, let the soap bar sit in a puddle for about ten minutes then rub on the soggy side. No need to scrub. Just toss it into the washing machine and next time you wash it should make a big difference. If you need to, wear disposable gloves to touch the boy's clothes. I had to, with that suit. Honestly, if it had come off some alcoholic street vagrant with incontinence it couldn't have been worse. Remember, if you throw stuff out then you're contaminating the environment (unless you compost it - and synthetics won't compost). He will only buy more stuff which, after one or two wearings, will be in the same state (because the problem is compounded when the wearer doesn't wash or wear deodorant). I taught my kids to do this and it was actually easy child 2/difficult child 2 who got me onto using a spray bottle for the vinegar. And now that difficult child 3 is a malodorous teen, he is being told to routinely splash vinegar onto his shirts' armpits when he puts them in the washing basket. it can be done, even after years of neglect. Maybe you can give difficult child a bottle of cheap vinegar when he moves out? Marg [/QUOTE]
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