All of our clothes are getting wrecked! What do I do?

[hugsandpugs]

DS had an art lesson in school the other day and some yellow stuff leaked onto his clothes. DH put the stuff straight in the washing machine when he got home but now even after two lots of washing machine cleaner the washing machine is staining everything bright yellow 😭😭 (see photo) so many of our clothes are now wrecked because of this - school polo tops, my fave white nirvana jumper, loads of towels etc.

Is there anything I can do or am I gonna have to get a new washing machine 😔 this one is only 6 months old

Do you know what the yellow stuff is? Ask the art teacher what it was they were using so you can find a suitable solvent to remove it.

Have you run a maintenance/cleaning wash or just continued to use it?
Have you run it empty at the highest temp possible?
Ideally, we would know what the “yellow stuff” so we can offer better advice.

I am waiting for a call back from the art teacher. Tried ringing the school yesterday and still waiting for a call back today so I’ve just called them again.

He said it’s some kind of paint stuff but without knowing what kind of paint im at a loss. Can’t wash anything now because don’t want to risk ruining any other clothes! 😭

I have used two lots of washing machine cleaner on it after the initial wash DH done and it’s basically done nothing because everything is still getting stained yellow 😢

gosh, that’s bad.
have you tried any sort of bleach on anything such as the towel?

Have you tried running a wash with some “colour catcher” sheets in to try and draw the dye out of the machine?

I’d do a few quick cycles of that and see if the colour catchers eventually start coming out white still.

That's really bad of the school, bit silly of the teacher not to know what type of paint it is.
I hate to say it, but I think it must be oil based to stain that badly

I think it’s her DS who doesn’t know, she’s waiting to hear from the teacher.

So the art teacher has called me back, she said she remembers the day the dye was on him/his clothes and it definitely wasn’t paint or anything from her lesson as there was no staining when her left her lesson but she seen him later in the day and asked him what it was.

All he said to me was that something must have leaked onto his clothes/in his bag as even the inside of his Nike bag was stained with it. (You could see the orange/yellow staining on the label).

The teacher said it could be something he’s put in his bag from another lesson or maybe someone else has put something in his bag.

I’m wondering if it’s something from a science department as don’t they sometimes work with dyes/chemicals.

I’ll upload a photo of what his original polo top looked like (didn’t obviously wash this just put it in a clothes bag to be thrown).

you can see obvious orange dots on it ….

without knowing what it is it’s difficult to know what I can do to rectify the issue to stop anything else getting wrecked 😩

Whatever it is transferred onto his skin which did thankfully wash off in the shower but on his skin it was like a yellow colour. Looks more like some kind of ink/dye to me rather than paint?

I had this problem after using some dye in the washing machine. If you get lots of wet wipes and clean right inside the door seal (you have to get your fingers right inside it) all the way around it, you might find as I did that that is where all the colour is hiding

That looks like an iodine stain.

I would guess iodine too. Did he have a science lesson that day?

No idea how you would fix the washing machine though. As PP’s have suggested, clean the seal and keep running empty loads to flush it through.

Looks like iodine based on the colour.

Edit to add rinsing will take a lot of time. Dyes are so strong and can stain litres strongly from a barely visible spec of pure dye. Ammonium and bleach may be your best hope, with a clear everywhere you van reach with wiped before and after then more flushing.

Just looked up iodine and that does look similar. He doesn’t seem to know where it’s come from, the teacher said it could be someone put something in his bag. 😩

Now to work out how to get this iodine or whatever it is cleaned out of the washing machine 😢

I’d be more concerned he has no idea what/how he got covered with something that was also all throughout his school bag. Seems odd. Looks like iodine, but what if it had been something else, toxic, then you would be worrying about a lot more than a washing machine.

This is what I don’t understand. He doesn’t seem to know where it’s come from, I’ve just asked him again but it’s got to be somewhere in school because that’s the only place he went that day

We had an issue with DS and diesel/oil/grease. Had to clean the washing machine (especially around the seals). And I did about 5 washes with loads of soda crystals before usable again.

I’ve got some soda crystals here so I can try that, did you put it on a 40 or 60 cycle? Or another type of cycle to clean it? Can’t seem to see like a deep clean setting on the washing machine

Iodine is a bit like blood where is best to do initial soak in cold water then wash warm.

So was he wearing that top all day at school?

My DH used a Roche Posay Sun cream, and around the neck and across the shoulders it stained his white linen shirt yellow. It didn’t wash out and as a last resort I put it in the sink with whites washing powder and a scoop of soda crystals and really hot water.

The shirt came out brilliantly white and I have since repeated this with his pillow slips.

It worth a try putting the yellowed towels into the machine with soda crystals and Whitening washing powder on the hottest wash your machine does.

I don't know how old he is, but could it be vape juice?

No it was towards the end of the day

Honestly don’t understand how the school don’t seem to know what it is either 🤷‍♀️