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Summer Stain Solutions for Grandma

When we watch grandchildren in the summer, or year round in Florida, we have the most typical stains to figure out how to get out.  July 2013 Parents Magazine quotes Joli Kerr, author of a blog called AskACleanPerson, and advises us about summer stain solutions.


My little grandson loves ice pops.  At two, he can open the refrigerator and freezer doors!  This is not a good thing.  A mother might scream and yell, but this Grandma never says no.  That can be tricky with the freezer and refrigerator doors open. So, the best thing I can do is give him a whole fruit no sugar added ice pop.  Containing him while he eats it is my next challenge.  I get him to sit in his booster seat by putting on Mickey Mouse on Disney Junior.  Now the whole house is not sticky and red.  Sticky and red is contained to his clothes, the table, the booster seat and all over him!  Ms. Kerr suggests getting fruit juice out as follows:


Fruit Juice. Eliminate sticky Popsicle or juice stains with a mild, eco-friendly laundry booster.  Toss ½ cup of borax into your wash along with your detergent. 

She suggests 20 Mule Team Borax Natural Laundry Booster.  Click here to buy for about $11:


How many times have you found a plastic bag containing a wet bathing suit in a diaper bag or travel bag while visiting grandchildren and realize you forgot to take it out of the plastic bag when you came home from the pool?  Ms. Kerr has a solution for us Grandmas:

Mildew.  White vinegar is the key to nixing this rank-smelling fungus that often grows on damp towels.  Add ¼ to ½ cup of white vinegar to a load of laundry along with your usual detergent.  To clean non-launderable items, combine equal parts water and vinegar in a spray bottle, and spritz liberally.  Set outside on a hot, dry day to help the odor dissipate.

She does not say to lay it in the sun.  I cannot imagine how that could hurt.


This Grandma has such a hard time getting a grandchild to stay in one place long enough to apply sunscreen.  Grandchildren run.  I do not know why they are so averse to sun screen application, but it is a grandma challenge.  Invariably, more sun screen is on their clothing than on them.  Ms. Kerr has a solution for this too for us Grandmas:


Sunscreen. Lotion often leaves greasy streaks or discolored splotches on clothing.  To degrease, pretreat the stain with a tablespoon of Pine Sol.  Pink and orange patches are actually rust stains that occur when a chemical in sunscreen oxidizes.  Remove’em with products designed to conquer rust, such as Carbona Stain Devils #9

Click here to buy Carbona Stain Devils #9 for about $6 including shipping:


This Grandma eats chocolate.  This Grandma feeds her children lots of chocolate.  Chocolate is always all over clothing and grandchildren.  So, I tried to find Jolie Kerr’s solution for this.  It appears she no longer prints her blog and she did not write about how to get chocolate out of anything but a leather purse.


So on the internet I found:

Chocolate is one of the more difficult stains to remove from any surface, including a white shirt, because of the milk proteins that stain the fabric along with the chocolate. This double-staining action tends to resist more traditional cleansing methods and requires a little more creativity. However, with the right ingredients, you can remove chocolate from any fabric, including a white shirt.


  1. 1.      Remove as much excess chocolate as you can by scraping it off the fabric. Attempt to scrape off the excess without expanding the size of the stain.

  2. 2.      Apply a laundry stain remover that is designed for prewash treatment of stains. Follow the instructions on the container to ensure that you treat the stain correctly.

  3. 3.      Wash the shirt in hot water, along with chlorine bleach. Check the shirt before your dry it. If the stain remains, the heat from the dryer will set it, making it more difficult to remove. If the stain persists, follow the procedures again until it is gone.


I like Jolie Kerr’s writing better.  Please help, Ms. Kerr.




Joy,



Mema

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