sigh-whites not really white. what do you do?

[booyhoo]

i use formil washing powder and when i wash whites i use the dylon white sachet thingy in the wash. today i washed them again with a scoop of vanish white oxy stuff because the first wash still had some marks on it but then they were still there after the second. the marks are suncream stains, food, grubbiness on the soles of socks from ds walking out side

My dh still maintains he is blonde- despite the most recent photo of him actually being blonde was taken in 1985.

bucket of cold water

cheers.

It amazes me the number of people who spend a fortune on special stain removing substances when all you need is some bio washing powder and a plain ordinary bar of soap.
Treat stains when they are fresh. Soak bad stains with bio and give a bit of a rub with any sort of a bar of soap (Does same job as vanish soap). Fairy liquid for grease.
No stains on my clothes.

My mother would love to adopt any of you, it still breaks her heart knowing I put white stuff in an ordinary wash with dark items. If she is there are the time a look of pain crosses over her face.

Have you tried Napisan?

Follow the instructions for nappies, ie soak for a couple of hours, but then wash normally (I think with nappies you don't add detergent)

For really, ahem, "stubborn stains" I make up a paste of napisan and warm water, smother the stain in it, leave for half an hour or until I say "Oh fuck, the bloody washing!" and then put through the wash. A word of warning - this second method can sometimes overdo it and you end up with a big bluish-white circle on your slightly-greying-but-you-didn't-really-notice garment.

Oh and don't use Napisan for colours. Ever.

Serious question now: Does anyone have a cast-iron method of getting grease marks out of silk? I have two really lovely silk crepe dresses which I bought for special occasions. Unfortunately, as both special occasions involved food and alcohol, (always a bad combination for me) I have managed to drop stuff on my frontage and both dresses are unwearable due to tiny, but highly visible grease blobs.

Dry cleaners say they can't help.

Hobbs and LK Bennett dresses! Just cannot afford to be wearing them once only!

Oh yes, napisan is amazing - I am evangelical about how it keeps your whites lovely. Am otherwise a washing slattern though.

Grease marks on silk - a just warm iron, two sheets of brown paper, and patience. You put the area between the sheets, and iron over gently, and the grease does come out.

Otherwise, working fullers earth powder or dry hair shampoo in with absorb the grease

Tiggy we use Sticky Stuff Remover from Lakeland to get rid of grease and tomato based stains, not used it on silk though. Could also try some dry cleaning fluid, this can be used on silk, have used it on DH's ties.

Love this thread, have just taken out a pink wash and pooped in a yellow one in (DD's cardigans and DH lemon shirt). [sad git emotion]

Also have to have matching coloured pegs.

Really want the laundry room of AlouiseG.

Tried dry cleaning fluid on one of them. didn't work. Have hand washed it now so it might be beyond help.

I'll try iron/brown paper, with sticky stuff remover as my back-up plan on the other. (have some in the cupboard.) Got nowt to lose really!

When I have a pristine load of whites on the line, on a beautiful sunny day, it makes me feel strangely smug/content. (I'm a crap housewife generally though, apart from cooking.) I start to wish a visitor will arrive unannounced so I can offer them coffee in the garden and they will leave with snow-blindness and laundry envy. I might have to start dragging strangers in off the street.

I hope you really didn't "poop" in a yellow wash BoiledEgg or we will be starting another thread to help you out.

Tiggy you are so like me in matters relating to household drudgery. Cooking tick, laundry, tick.

Washing floors - hahah look the other way!

Yes, good idea, decent coffee and cake in the garden with clean laundry as the backdrop.

When people come in my house and offer to take their shoes off I tell them it might be wiser to keep them on...

I blame the dogs.

No carpets though. Strictly hose down surfaces for me.

I have just pegged out a load of whites and I have discovered that I have utterly ruined my most favourite cardigan. It's a long drapey silky-feel crocheted affair. Except now it resembled a tight clump of string that would barely fit a five year old.

It's my own stupid fault - I got carried away because it was white, and stuck it on a 40 degree cottons wash. I forgot it was delicates/hand wash only. Don't know what came over me, and I can only apologise.

I deserve to be shunned, excommunicated, and blackballed from this thread.

I've let you down, and most of all I've let myself down.

And I don't know what I'm going to take on holiday with me now....you know, for those evenings when you need a little something over your arms after sundown, but an anorak won't cut it.

tiggy, hang your head in shame

onepiece the sad thing is, I previewed the post, I blame the heat...

Tiggy before your cardigan dries or is lobbed in the bin, try putting it in a bowl with a small amount of cold water lots and lots and lots of hair conditioner. Keep kneading the cardigan and gently stretching it, this can sometimes work for shrunken woollens, it might be worth a try.

I'll be busy today what with the and the greasy posh frocks.

(Tiggy gets cardi out of bin, brushes off toast crumbs and dog food)

Tiggy I am not chatting with you any more.

If it's any consolation I did the same years ago with a fluffy manmade white jumper (In my defence I was only 18) I stuck it in a tumble dryer at the launderette. Shame there wasn't a little girl with a barbie doll around, it would have been a perfect size at that point!

Matching pegs? How do you mean?

I have green and yellow pegs and admit to alternating them fairly religiously.

As most of our washing is not green and yellow(if only I was washing for Norwich city) I can't get them to match.

I have pegs in various colours. I have a system. If at all possible pink and white clothes are pegged out with pink pegs. (exception for dh's white items) I have some blue pegs for men's items. I also have some yellow pegs which I am less fussy about.

obviously it an item has two pegs they must be the same colour.

I then have some random pegs that if desperate I will use for stuff like dishcloths.

Each item must have matching pegs, and preferably match the colour of said item.

Doesn't everyone do this?

Er....No. I thought I was the most anal Window Twanky. I see am not.

Colour coded pegs???

At this point I bow out of the laundry thread and rethink my life goals...........

Gavi di Gavi probably covers most of them