I CANNOT get his shirts clean. Already!

[Soonish]

I've just washed some of ds1's school shirts twice using persil and using a prewash the second time.

Zilch effect, the collars and cuffs are filthy and there are random grass stains too.

These are brand new, super ultra non iron ones from M&S that he has probably worn about 3 days each.

He's just started secondary and I am almost in tears of despair. I can't afford to keep replacing them every few weeks.

What do I DO?

I heard a long discussion a while ago about bio v. non bio for skin.

Apparently we are the only western country that has non bio. The early bio powders caused skin irritation because they were so strong, but in all the more recent tests there doesn't seem to be any difference for skin between bio and non bio. The key factor seems to be fragrance not the bio enzymes.

you can't boil wash them if they are the non iron ones as they are 60 % polyester.

ds had dirty collars after week 1. The next wash I sprayed collars with vanish and used bio on a 50 wash. they came up clean.

This thread just makes me believe it's MADNESS to make WHITE a part of any school uniform. they should all wear navy blue or grey.

Persil bio really pongs! Can't believe anyone would say it's low fragrance, it gives me a headache it's so strong.

Drum into him that he is only allowed to wear each shirt for ONE DAY before putting it in the wash.

That way you can get them reasonably clean- if they've worn a shirt for several days on the trot you can never get them properly clean again.

Rub lemon juice into all the stains and leave for a few minutes before washing - gets all ours out x

Green bar soap from fairy. Not the bathroom one, but they do one for the household. Someone recommended this to me years ago, claiming that it would get petrol/oil from clothes and it did.
Bloody good stuff and knocks the socks of all the over priced stain removers. Its very cheap and a bar lasts.
Arm him with the bar and the shirts and tell him to rub the bar into the cloth. Get a lather going and chuck in the machine with your normal powder.

Or arm him with a bottle of fairy washing up liquid and tell him to do the above.

Ariel stain remover. I pre-treat ds's shirt cuffs before bunging in the wash. Works marvellously.

It seems unreasonably harsh to make him stain treat his own clothes UNLESS it is just a part of sharing out the household chores. And as for making him buy new shirts with his own money - that's just cruel. These marks get there because he's a busy, active child, and because schools are not especially clean places.

Relax. It really, really doesn't matter if he has grass stains or collar/cuff marks. Who, exactly, do you think would be judging? How would it improve his life or yours if you did buy new shirts every few weeks?
Poly cotton goes grey or yellow anyway after a while.

Just replace them when he grows out of them.

On white clothes I put neat bleach on any marks and on the collar and if they are just generally looking a bit grubby I squirt in some bleach just before I put the wash on.

Works brilliantly but only on whites. Wish my kids wore white school shirts

stonecircle I use this on my husband's sports clothing and it is the only thing that stops the tom cat smell. www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/laundry/halo_proactive_sports_non_bio_liquid_25_washes_1l.html

Mychildrenarebarmy - thank you SO much. I will definitely try that. I've been scouring supermarket shelves for something to address the smell but everything seems aimed at stains. Today's offerings are currently soaking in a bucket of biotex outside the back door!

this is the gold stuff i mean. It got bike chain oil out of my dc white karate kit yesterday (and they have been washed several times since so not a fresh stain) so I'm fairly impressed with it!

Four boys here in white shirts and polos for School... Clean shirt or polo every day and then on Friday I spot treat any stain and the collars/cuffs and underarm! Then they soak overnight in napisan or similar white treatment from supermarket. Then a whites only wash and try and hang in sunlight.

But I can still end up with some marks and they won't be white white by the end of the year. I do get some new school shirts during the year, Xmas time normally but meh they just wear the stained/slightly grey ones as well.

Also an eczema sufferer to have to be very careful with washing liquid.

I think whoever decided on white for school uniform was a sadistic bastard!

For stained polo shirts at least (and it makes you look like a slattern) ...but hang them out in daylight -so if you have a rotary drier on the front line.
(Found daylight is the absolute best stain remover for tomato puree type stains)
If when they are dry they are still mucky just leave them out come rain and shine - if it hasn't rained on them for a while dampen them - when stains have gone wash again ...it took two weeks once but I've saved two polo shirts that were so badly stained they were only fit for the bin...

And Vinegar/lemon juice/cream of tartar is supposed to be good for grass stains...

And YY to normal soap before I saw sense and started buying dark coloured/black socks for DDs white socks with filthy soles were the bane of my life - found the absolute best thing was to rub them with soap in warm water before washing (this works for the pads on my steam mop too )

this is why we have navy polo shirts!

but I would question if they need to stay white, he is a boy after all.

Our primary used to have navy polos, they were great I could even hand them down! And then a change of ht meant a uniform change.

If they have been through the wash, they are clean.

School uniform is there to stop normal clothes getting ruined! :)

Thanks again all of you and thank goodness for MN.

I'm going to buy some of that lovely green soap and see how we go with that. I'm not sure how I ended up with Persil at all, (it is the powder) I normally get own brand but think it was on offer.

Interesting about the bio-non bio thing. I wonder if it's possible to get an unfragranced bio powder? Most of them seem very heavy on fragrance but then it probably smells awful without.

I wouldn't dream of punishing him for getting dirty, unless he gets really filthy deliberately (dust bombs anyone? sometimes three or four pairs of trousers in a day, which I cannot sustain) and then I shout a bit sometimes but he is half hound, and it means he is happy.

It just annoys me that Persil advertise using the 'dirt is good' thing and then their powder doesn't bloooody work.

5mad - we always meet on the anti uniform threads, I'm with you sista

Op I feel your pain.
My ds has also recently started secondary school and I've had to replace 3 shirts already though for an entirely different reason.

Ds has aspergers and struggles with buttons. In primary they wore polo shirts and now its a shirt and tie.

When he has p.e, he struggles to open the buttons and so just ripped them off and ripped his shirts in the process.

I had also bought marks shirts but have replaced them with ones from Matalan which seem fine and are cheaper too.

If you're near a home bargains they do a white restorer/stain remover, 3 sachets in a box and under a pound.

Same problem - here - with grass and ink, but honestly OP - grass is good - he needs to be active!
I just use white stain remover from Asada, on a 40 wash - is fine.
Definitely do not make him pay for new shirts! Life is too short - they are dead cheap in Asda (I don't have shares in Asda by the way )
And don't bother ironing them!

buy one cotton shirt (I usually get mine from Debenhams, which have frequent sales) as it will stand a hot wash with white cotton towels (no colours). If that gets it clean, look out for more. Polycottons will pucker in hot washes, especially the collars. Short sleeved shirts are less trouble in summer. He will have to learn to iron his own shirts, even if they are nominally easy-care.

Collars and cuffs are skin oil (teens are often oily but adults too) and exfoliated skin. Laundry sprays do work but so do the bars.

Powder and a hot wash get whites whitest (true).

My son is 15 and the problem is the sweat smell rather than grubbiness. I wash with bio on 50 and on a long wash about 1hr 45 min and that gets the worst although I do sometimes get the smell kicking up when I iron them. He uses deoderant but is a hormonal teenager!

Jelly, if you buy 100% cotton shirts you don't have the smell problem.

Polyester holds onto sweat smells!!