Tuesday Tip: Sun Bleaching

Another great stain removal tip.

I cloth diaper my one year-old and as you can imagine her diapers can stain fairly easily. I had heard many a cloth diapering Mamas rave about sun bleaching but it took me forever to try it. Now that I have, I am (or would be if the sun and warmth were present) an avid follower.

It’s simple and you can do it with just about anything with a stain. Wash your garment as you normally would but instead of putting it in the dryer, place it outside in the direct sun light to dry. Inside, in direct light doesn't work very well. I like to leave it out most of the day, I’m not sure how long is actually required. The garments will be stiff but nothing a little air fluff in the dryer won’t soften up.

This also worked on food and other "natural" stains on my daughter’s clothes.

I've had one Mama tell me if it gets rained on then sun dried it works even better but I have yet to try it.

Speaking of stain removers.....

I have a 3 month old daughter who is breastfed. Breastfed baby=bright yellow poop! In the first two months, her diaper leaked a few times and I had the hardest time getting the yellow stains out of her adorable pink clothing. Finally, I mentioned it to my friend Davina, and she suggested the Dreft stain remover spray. Needless to say, I now swear by it. I actually used it today to get an old poop stain out of an infant onesie that my 3 1/2 year old son once wore. This poop stain was literally over 3 years old, had been previously washed and dried, and the Dreft still removed the stain. I was shocked and quite impressed!

You can click here to sign up for money saving coupons on Dreft products.

There is also a printable coupon here. It's a PDF file.

Tide Stain Release

I recently purchased the new Tide Stain Release. I had a $1.50 off coupon that came out of my daughters diaper box. I went online to read the reviews and after reading, decided I needed to try the product for myself.

I love it!! It made my whites look brand new and it made the random stains come out of our clothes with the exception of one, a grease stain on my white sweatshirt. Having 2 smaller children, it worked wonderfully because it made their clothes look brand new also.

I bought the liquid version mainly for 2 reasons: 1) a lot of the reviews I read stated that the duo-packs had a hard time dissolving and 2) the store was out of them. I am glad I bought the liquid because I can control how much I want to use. I was a little concerned though because I read in one review that it stained someone's clothes orange (which is the color of the liquid). I poured it directly into the water stream and have no new stains on my clothes!! It worked great!!

Tide Stain Release comes in three different form:. Dou-packs, liquid and powder. If you visit http://www.tide.com/, you can print out a $1.50 off coupon!! I recommend that everyone try it at least once!!

Happy Laundry-ing!!

~Jaime~