I CANNOT get his shirts clean. Already!

Only one of everything chocolatespiders (trousers/shirt/jumper) so it's a nightmare trying to get it all washed, dried (no tumble drier) and ironed between Fri night and Sun night sometimes. No idea why he only has one; his Mum is far from poor ! but that's a whole other thread

So I'm going out to look for 100% cotton shirts, yes? But not easy-iron as they may end up smelly?

Only one school shirt poor boy good for you for going to buy more for him.
I donate all old uniform to a reuse place near us that helps families who struggle to buy it.

100% Cotton Easy iron shirts are coated with stuff that makes them less breathable so they are in effect very similar to wearing a polyester shirt in that they will smell rank pretty quickly. Engrained dirt is waaaay more difficult to shift than a regular cotton shirt.

He needs a clean shirt every day, pre-treat with stain remover on the collars and cuffs, and stains obv. and wash at 40 in non-bio.

Every other wash I'd give the shirts a hot wash with stain remover and bio, and an extra rinse cycle to get rid of product for his ezcema.

Don't tumble dry if you can or minimise - it wrecks them as it shrinks the stitching so the seams will pucker. Fasten top two buttons and hang on a hanger to dry - poly cottons or easy iron dry v quickly anyway.

Napisan shifts anything in my experience.

my primary school children have a clean shirt every day. They are cheap and cheerful from tesco and are short sleeved to prevent mucky sleeves/cuffs

I always had a clean shirt every day, DDs have one most days.
DD2 has too many school shirts and DD1 too few, so it's a bit of a pickle at the moment.

My teens wear a clean shirt every day.

Oh my goodness, do some of your teens have a new school shirt on every day? I have a 14 year old step-son, and it has recently come to light that he only has one school shirt

Discovered it yesterday morning and it hadn't been washed for over a fortnight (he only comes to us every-other-weekend) and the inside of the supposedly white colour was almost black - bleurgh! I'm going to go buy him a couple of new ones now.

Blimey! Talk about 1st world worries.

Why does it matter so much if his shirts are stained? You know they are clean. He knows they are clean. His peers don't care and his teachers certainly won't.

They have to keep their blazers on all the time, except PE obviously, in my DS's school so we only iron the front!

As long as they don't smell, who cares, really?

I would never have believed that this thread would get 85 posts!

I use a variation. For general grubbiness I add Vanish Oxi powder and only wash whites together, no other colours.

If necessary I soak the shirts in Vanish for a couple of hours, a lot better than the spray. I also like Dr. Beckman's Stain Devil, the stuff comes in various versions, depending on the type of stain. I get chocolate and blood out with no problem.

I never use Bio, I don't find it necessary and I dealt with usesable nappies when DD was a baby.

Somebody asked about sweat: I had a couple of work tops and found they got smelly. I made a paste of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar and rubbed it into the arm pits, left it for a couple of hours and washed it with another slosh of vinegar in the fabric conditioner slot in the machine. It needed a second run but all the sweat smell was gone. Now I just rinse with vinegar every now and then. Only the kitchen now smells while they soak....

combust22 I am the same with line drying, maybe that accounts for DS's neon white shirts :)

My son has the same M&S ones and they come clean with Ariel, Aldi's own cheap stuff and whatever else I happen to use. He has 3 of the shirts and been in the school 3 weeks, they come clean on a 15 minute mini wash as well.
So far we've had grass stains (contact rugby playing!), tomato ketchup, hot chocolate and gravy and no problems.

sorry if this already said but I spray underarms with Vanish spray before washing, helps remove/reduce sweat smells.

Dreading school uniform, (our primary doesn't have it) why the hell do we still insist on it, they'd be much happier knocking about in a t shirt and jeans like all those european kids!

I use these little sachets I put in with the white wash. DS's shirts come out a brilliant white after that.

My colder running DD2 likes M&S three quarter length sleeved blouses.

Some makes of white polo shirt are better than others. No one bought she expensive logo'd school ones, the collars went grey really quickly.

I only buy short sleeved shirts after getting heartily sick of grubby cuffs. Neither DD nor DS have complained of being cold - they get a bus to and from school, and classrooms are always overheated. Agree with only one day's wear and sunlight, plus a hot wash every so often. I work in a factory environment and wear navy polo shirts, I wish the uniform was the same!

Don't ask how I discovered this, but any clear alcohol gets grass stains out. Waste of vodka maybe, but works a treat! Everything else is soaked in bio before washing. Pen marks etc just stay and fade eventually.

My son is in P3 and All his shirts were ruined the first week. They use hand held white boards. White board markers and 7 year olds are the stupidest idea, ever. Ink spots and lines all over the shirt, his arms, his hands, and his pants are grey so probably there too, but no matter.

Why on earth are primary school shirts WHITE? I vote grey or brown, dark blue or green. (I have seen red polo shirts around town, now there is a nightmare. I bet at least half the kids have socks and underclothes that didnt used to be pink!)

Dry outside.

UV light from the sun bleaches stains away. My kids have pristine white shirts- I line dry all year round- even when there is snow on the ground.

Korma - it can be a bit fiddly, but cut off the buttons, sew them on the front as though they are done up, then replace with press-studs/poppers or Velcro. Poppers look neater, Velcro is easier, either will (hopefully) save the shirts!

just saying - DS shirts which never get clean in school wash - wash them at 60 - 90 degrees and as brave potato says - rinse them again if you need to .

For smells like underarms, urine or even the smell when things have sat around wet for a wee while (like swimmers and towels tend to do in the summer terms) add a good handful of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) to the wash and use white vinegar instead of fabric softener. Smells GONE!

The vinegar smell goes away on drying so you don't need to be worried about smelling like a chippie

whiteboard marker - you need to dab it with nail varnish remover, that gets it out.

Now have Ds 3 at Secondary and having experienced sweaty grimy shirts with 1 and 2 my formulae -have persuaded him to shower each am and a clean shirt daily.I use Fairy powder and if very grubby scoop of soda bicarbonate crystals (they come in bag and cheaper than vanish), 40C wash hang on washing line when possible facing sun which bleaches stains.Also frost does the same. I extract shirts from school bag or bedroom floor every couple of days,have found if leave it til Saturday dirt too entrenched. This means I do several smaller loads of whites a couple of times a week and put in tea towels, white socks and DHs shirts sometimes depending on colour.Reckon it's easier than rewashing a bigger load that hasn't come clean. In IME MandS school shirts do wash better and last longer than other makes. They usually have 20% off or 3for2 in May every year so I buy them then. Hope he's enjoying his new school.

I use flash with bleach on whites with bad stains, or the green fairy bar, which is amazing stuff as it has nearly got all the sun cream out of some of my whites.

Soak in Napisan (Tesco baby section) overnight & rub gently before throwing into your regular 40 degree wash... Has removed paint & grass stains and general school grubbiness from our M&S shirts...