You don’t have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area or Baltimore to be excited about the big game this Sunday—you don’t even have to like football!  The back story of the two coaches—brothers!!—is enough to draw even the most disinterested fan into the hype.  Everyone wants to know what it was like to grow up in this famous football family, and if somehow, one brother has an advantage over the other.  One thing’s clear—this pigskin-loving family sounds a lot like the Clorox family—encouraging each member to do their best and meet life’s challenges head on.  What—yes, Clorox has siblings, too:  the powder and liquid formulations for Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster!  Dry Clorox2® is the older brother because it was developed first.  Liquid Clorox2® is younger, and is actually the middle child now that Clorox2® also comes in a Pack (sort of like having a kid sister).

So which one’s the best?  Baltimore or San Francisco?  Liquid or powder Clorox2®?  Take a page out of the coaches’ family playbook, and don’t pick a favorite!  Recognize that each son (and younger sister!) is talented and has a unique set of skills to produce winning results.  Liquid Clorox2® can be easily used as a pretreater to target tough stains directly.  The powder formulation includes enzymes, and is great for presoaking away ground-in dirt. The pack can be easily added to the basket of your clothes washer, improving the performance of a liquid detergent without mixing forms in the detergent dispenser.  Regardless of which product you stand behind and cheer for, each of them will give you better cleaning, whitening, and stain removal than washing with detergent alone.  Depending on how much bbq sauce is left on your tablecloth after the big party, that’s something to cheer for!

And of course if you must pick a favorite, it’s San Francisco all the way!  Who are you rooting for on Sunday?

Is it safe to use bleach to sanitize sippy cups and straws?

You CAN safely use a bleach solution to sanitize sippy cups! To make the bleach solution, add 1 Tablespoon Clorox^® Regular-Bleach to 1 gallon of water. To sanitize the sippy cups, disassemble all the different parts (mouthpiece, lid,straws, etc) and wash them with detergent and water first, and then let them soak in the bleach solution for two minutes. You may need to spin them around to make sure all surfaces contact the bleach solution for the full two minutes. When finished, you don’t need to rinse them, but they do need to air dry completely. This may be a little tricky for the straws, but if you prop them upright to make draining easier, that should help them drain and air dry.

I also want to clarify that we are in the process of concentrating our sodium hypochlorite based bleach products, so if you live in a part of the U.S. that has already converted over to the new Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach product, use 2 teaspoons bleach per gallon of water. The procedure and contact time are otherwise the same. Also, I am not sure if you are aware of this, but I wanted to note that you should only use the regular version of our bleach; the fragranced versions are not registered with the EPA and are not appropriate for sanitizing uses.

I have a white hoodie with a school emblem on the front. The top of the front has yellowed and has some blue faded on it. How do I get it out without messing up the emblem? I'm afraid if I bleach that I will not be able to contain the area!

The Clorox^® Bleach Pen^® Gel could be just the thing you need to remove a stain from one part of a white sweatshirt without negatively impacting a colored portion of the sweatshirt since it allows you to carefully control the application of the gel. Here are some important tips for working with the bleach pen specific to your situation to help you increase your chances of success:

1.  After applying the gel, the treated area should be rinsed and the garment washed immediately. DON’T let the gel sit on the fabric for a few minutes (like you might if you were pretreating with detergent) and definitely don't let it dry out on the fabric--this will leave behind a yellow spot that is irreversible.

2.  Normally items treated with the bleach pen are washed immediately after treating with detergent and Clorox^® Regular-Bleach--you don't have to rinse them first. This helps unify the overall appearance of the item (otherwise you can end up with a very clean section where you used the gel compared to the rest of the item--this is especially common on older white items that have never been bleached). Since you are trying to preserve the school logo, you may want to rinse the treated area and then wash the sweatshirt with detergent and Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster instead.

Something else I wanted to point out is that if the logo is printed on the sweatshirt, there is a very good chance you actually can wash it with Clorox^® Regular-Bleach after treating the stained area with the bleach pen. Normally I recommend a bleachability test before washing a colored item with bleach or the gel pen, but this would be difficult to test on your sweatshirt since a "fail" (color change due to bleach contact) would be permanent on the sweatshirt. Given that, you could try this if you are desperate or willing to live with the color change that could result. If the logo is embroidered on, the same thing applies--if the embroidery thread is polyester then it is very likely safe for bleach, but if it is cotton then it's harder to predict. I have a twenty-five year old sorority sweatshirt with an embroidered logo that I have been bleaching forever--I took the chance on bleaching it when nothing else was going to work to get a stain out. Hopefully in your case the bleach pen on its own will be sufficient to remove the stain--if it's not, only you can decide if following up using the bleach pen with a detergent and bleach wash is worth it.

How do I remove mildew from clothes?

Mildewed textiles need to be treated right away to help keep the problem from getting worse. You didn't say what color your clothing is or if any of the items are bleachable. If you are not sure, you can do a quick bleachability test to check: add 1+1/2 teaspoons new Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach to ¼ cup water; apply a drop to a hidden part of the garment like a hem or inside seam; wait 1 minute then blot with a towel; no color change means it is safe to bleach the item. For these items, the following approaches should work:

• At a minimum I would wash clothes immediately in hot water (or the hottest water recommended on the care label) using detergent and 1/2 cup Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach.


• If the problem is really bad, consider doing a bleach soak (use 3 tablespoons bleach per gallon of cool water; soak 5-10 minutes), then wash in hot water with detergent and 1/2 cup Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach.


• If the mildew is heavy, you may need to repeat the treatment for complete success.

For non-bleachable colors (or non-bleachable fabrics like wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex that should not be washed with bleach) it may be difficult to remove mildew completely since the best mold and mildew removers are products with sodium hypochlorite. Even so, you can try the following:

• Carefully brush off any obvious spores and then wash in the warmest water recommended on the care label with detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2^® Stain Fighter & Color Booster.


• Try a 1 hour presoak with Clorox2^® Stain Fighter& Color Booster following label instructions.


• Air dry items in the sun.

Is Clorox^® Regular-Bleach safe to use on my granite countertops?

Yes, Clorox^® Regular-Bleach is safe for sealed granite countertops. Remember, bleach should never be used full strength for cleaning any surface--it should always be diluted with water first. For disinfecting countertops, use a solution of 3/4 cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water (or ½ cup Concentrated Clorox^® Regular Bleach). Apply the bleach solution and let stand for 5 minutes, rinse thoroughly, and allow to air dry.

Can I put Clorox2^® in my LG washing machine bleach dispenser?

The bleach dispenser on your clothes washer should only be used for regular household bleach (i.e. Clorox^® Regular-Bleach). That's because the clothes washer will delay flushing the compartment into the washer until later in the cycle. For best results, Clorox2^® should be added along with the detergent, and the dispenser compartment should be large enough to hold both products. Also, you should use the same form of detergent as you do Clorox2^®, powder + powder or liquid + liquid. For example, you don't want to add a powdered additive with a liquid detergent in the same compartment.

When I wash my bath cloths the dark stains don’t come out, what is the problem?

I wish I had a little more information—do you mean wash cloths and/or towels? I realize you may not know what the stain is—this happens when you don’t notice a stain until later! But for a bath towel, here are a few possibilities: blood from shaving accidents, mildew from towels sitting damp in the laundry hamper, and oil from lotions or creams are all possibilities. It would be great if your towels are white, and the stains haven’t been “set” in a hot dryer—once stains are exposed to dryer heat they become extremely difficult to remove. Even so, for white towels you could try a pre-soak with ¼ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water. Let the towels soak for 5 minutes, then drain the soaking solution and run the towels through a hot wash cycle with detergent plus ¾ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach (or ½ cup Concentrated Clorox^® Regular Bleach. It may be necessary to repeat the treatment if the stains are set in.

If you think the stains are oily, then you will need to pre-treat the dark area with a little liquid dishwasher detergent first—rub it in and wait 5 minutes.  Then, if the towels are white, wash in hot water with detergent plus ¾ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach (or ½ cup Concentrated Clorox^® Regular Bleach).

If your towels are colored, you can do a quick bleachability test: add 2 teaspoons Clorox^® Regular-Bleach to ¼ cup water.  Apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of the colored item (hems, cuffs, and inside seams work well).  Wait 1 minute, then blot dry.  No color change means the item can be safely bleached.  If they don’t, and the stains are mildew, it will be difficult to remove them without bleach.  Repeated washing in hot water with detergent and Clorox2^® Stain Fighter & Color Booster may help you make some progress.

Q: Bleach sometimes affects my asthma when I clean with it; how much liquid bleach do you recommend when mopping floors?

A: You probably know this, but it’s always good to clarify: Clorox^® Regular-Bleach should always be diluted when used—we never recommend using it full strength for cleaning any hard surface or fabric!

For mopping floors (ceramic tile, vinyl, linoleum—not marble or other porous surfaces that aren’t safe for bleach), mix up a solution of ¾ cup bleach added to 1 gallon of water (or ½ cup if you are using New Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach). For disinfecting, wipe or wash the floor, then apply the bleach solution and let stand for 5 minutes. Rinse well and air dry. Also, be sure the area is well ventilated while you are working.

After taking down our Christmas tree, our clothes have little drops of pine sap in multiple places. Is this considered a stain, or can I simply wash them with detergent?

Christmas trees are a wonderful Christmas tradition, but unfortunately pine sap is a very difficult stain to remove with typical laundry treatments. I would recommend trying to treat the stains directly with De-Solv-it® or Goo Gone®, which you can find at hardware stores. I would not expect a problem with using these products on the items, but I would first check for colorfastness by applying a drop of the products to a hidden part of the garments, rinse, and blot dry. If there is no color change, spray or rub a little into the sap and then wash with detergent in the hottest water temperature allowed on the care label. Allow to air dry and check for success. Air drying is very important since the heat from the dryer can permanently set sap stains. In order to do everything you can to increase your chances of success, you may need to repeat the treatment to fully remove the stains. This may include increasing the length of time you pretreat the stains.

The collar of my shirts get very dirty, how can I treat this?

I’m guessing you have a shirt with “ring around the collar”, a combination of sweat and body soil that rubs off the neck and onto the inside collar of a shirt, leaving a dark stain that can be difficult to remove when it has been allowed to build up over time. On a white dress shirt, pre-treating is key, and we have a great product that makes this easy and convenient—Clorox^® Bleach Pen Gel. It’s got the same active as Clorox^® Regular-Bleach but at a much lower level so it’s safe to apply directly to bleachable white fabrics, providing concentrated cleaning power for tough stains. Just apply a little gel directly to the stain, gently rub it in with the soft scrubber tip, and then wash the shirt immediately in hot water using detergent + ¾ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach (or ½ cup if you are using New Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach). You didn’t mention the color of the shirt with a dirty collar—if it has color, then you’ll want to use liquid Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster to pretreat the stain before washing. Just pour a little Clorox2^® directly on the collar and gently rub it in. Wait 3-5 minutes, then wash the shirt in the hottest water recommended on the garment care label using detergent and more Clorox2^®. You can prevent collar stains from building up by doing this each time you wash the shirt, and it’s also good to only wear a shirt once before washing it.  Please let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks again for writing.