Laundry Schmaundry
Guest Blog by: Midge
My husband is very helpful around the house. He has to travel often and works long hours but when he is at home, he always offers to lend a hand with chores and watching the wee one. On one random Thursday (last week), he saw our laundry pile was looking quite diminished and decided that instead of adding his clothes to the baskets; he was going to put them right into the washing machine.
Our new economy-sized laundry soap container was sitting on the floor next to the dryer covered with a few pieces of clothes. (The clothes had just “dove” out of the laundry basket on their way to the washing machine.) Not seeing the laundry soap immediately, he assumed we were out of soap. He loudly raised his voice and shared that we were out of soap. Then he asked if he could he use the bottle of Clorox instead. You can already see where this is going, right?
Of course, I responded from the kitchen, over the rush of water flowing into the washing machine, that Clorox was bleach unless the bottle specifically says that you can use it on colors (like: Clorox 2). Five minutes later, he bounded into the kitchen, proud of himself for helping out by doing his load of wash. It was then we realized that he had not heard me correctly and had used bleach in the load, which contained everything but white clothes.
It actually only really ruined two shirts. But, ugh… talk about a laundry learning curve! My husband and I had a good laugh and he told me I just had to share it with you!
Have you ever made a laundry mistake like this? Is there any way to repair a shirt that has been bleached? My husband is thinking of making the shirts have an acid wash jeans kind of effect like those “rad” jeans from the 80’s. What are your favorite kinds of laundry products? How have you saved money while doing your laundry?
I haven’t done that, but I have gotten a crayon mixed in the load. We make all our laundry detergent and also stain remover. We don’t even have a bottle of bleach in the house, so this is never a concern!
Midge says: I don’t think I ever have had a crayon in the laundry but I remember my sister left her lipstick in her jeans in high school and it was a large berry colored disaster!
My husband accidentally knocked a bottle of bleach into a basket of dark clothes when we were first married. Ruined everything in the basket. Seventeen years later he still avoids the laundry room
Midge says: I just found out yesterday that a few more things were ruined in my husband’s wash(and they were his clothes!)… I am hoping that my husband won’t avoid the laundry room from now on!
Somehow some of our white clothes got over bleached and came out looking yellow. We solved the problem by soaking them peroxide…it took out the yellow! We were so glad the clothes weren’t permanently ruined. You do have to catch them before you put them in the dryer, though if this happens. I don’t think it would work on clothes already dried in the dryer.
Hope that’s helpful to someone.
Midge says: Thanks Joni for sharing that! I never knew that you could use peroxide. Hmmmm….