How can I remove a yellow color on white handkerchief?

I wish I knew more about your wash habits--since your white handkerchiefs have yellowed over time that could indicate a long term cleaning issue.  Here are some factors that affect cleaning and whitening that you may be able to change and see better results.

1. Detergent choice— Make sure you are using a good detergent that contains brighteners and enzymes in addition to surfactants and builders.  Review the ingredient list—better detergents often list the purpose of the ingredients, too. 

2. Use the correct amount of detergent— Under using detergent will result in poor performance, especially if you wash heavily soiled items or extra-large loads, or if you have hard water. That’s when you actually need to add extra!

3. Choose a “hot” wash temperature— The higher the wash temperature, the better the cleaning.

4. Don’t overload the washer—Clothes need to circulate/tumble freely through the wash water for optimum cleaning.

5. Use the correct amount of bleach— ¾ cup for a regular load, and 1 ¼ cup for an extra-large or heavily soiled load.  Perhaps your clothes washer has a bleach dispenser that limits the amount of bleach you can add to 1/3 cup.  In that case, you can experiment with smaller loads, and fill the dispenser to the “max fill” line.

It’s also important to note that there are also a few situations where using Clorox® Regular-Bleach can cause whites to yellow:

--Fabric not safe for bleach—You should never bleach garments made with wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex—they are damaged by exposure to bleach, which can include yellowing as well as fiber deterioration. I doubt your handkerchiefs include any of these, but it's still good to note.

--The fabric finish yellows—Sometimes a finish applied to the fabric/garment will react with bleach and turn yellow.  Hopefully these are garments labeled "non-chlorine bleach only".

--Concentrated bleach exposure—If cotton is exposed to undiluted or extremely concentrated bleach solutions, it can yellow.

--Poor water quality—When the household water supply contains large amounts of metals (like iron and manganese), they react with the sodium hypochlorite active in bleach to form colored materials that can deposit onto clothes.  The best way to handle this problem is to install a water treatment/filtration system to remove the impurities.

Since your handkerchiefs have yellowed over time, there’s a good chance you can whiten them up again (as long as the yellowing wasn’t caused by metals or concentrated bleach exposure).  Here are some techniques you could try:

1. Soak the handkerchiefs in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  Fully submerge them for 5 minutes, then rinse the soaking solution and finish up by machine washing in hot water using detergent + ¾ cup bleach (or fill the dispenser to the max-fill line).  This is ideal for dingy yellow build-up from poor cleaning over time.

2. Try an overnight pre-soak with powdered Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Add 1 scoop Clorox2® to 2 gallons hot water, and stir to be sure the product dissolves.  Fully submerge the handkerchiefs for 8 hours or overnight.  Rinse the soaking solution, and then wash in hot water using detergent and additional Clorox2®.  This is ideal for white items that contain a small amount of spandex, which should never be washed with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

How do I remove mustard stain?

First, blot away any excess and rinse the stain with a little cool water, reducing the amount of stain you have to work on.  Next it’s important to pretreat the stain—what you use depends on the color and fiber content of the item.

For white bleachable items (always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex) rub the stain gently with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel just before laundering.  After pretreating, wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  Air dry the item (it’s important to keep it out of a hot dryer to avoid heat setting any residual stain) and check for success.  If any stain remains, repeat the treatment.

For colored items (and white items labeled “color safe bleach when needed”), apply Clorox 2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster. Rub it into the stain and wait 3-5 minutes.  Wash immediately in the warmest water recommended on the care label using detergent and Clorox 2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster.  Air dry the item and check for success—again, it’s good to keep the item out of a hot dryer so can repeat the treatment if the stain is stubborn.

You should be able to restore items that picked up color with a bleach soaking solution as long as an item is safely bleachable.  First, check the care labels - Don’t use the soaking solution on items that contain wool, silk, mohair, spandex, and leather - These should never be bleached.  Next, you didn’t say if the items that picked up color are white or another color (or combination of colors, so you may need to check for colorfastness to bleach with this simple bleachability test:  dilute 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach in ¼ cup water; apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of the each item (like a hem, cuff, collar, or inside seam); wait 1 minute then blot dry; no color change means the item can be safely bleached.  Now for the bleach soak:  fully submerge the item in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach diluted in 1 gallon cool water for up to 5 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.  Air dry the item, and check for success (it’s important to keep the item out of the dryer so the heat doesn’t set any remaining dye).  Hopefully the fugitive color will be gone, but if it is lighter, then repeat the bleach soak again.  However, if the bleach soak leaves the dye transfer color unchanged, you may need to try RIT Color Remover, which can usually be found at drug and hardware stores.  A dilute RIT solution works best to limit the stripping-off of the original color of an item in addition to the fugitive dye, so be careful.  Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.

My puppy came down with parvo. Can I use Clorox® on pine wood floors?

Regarding your wood floor, as long as it has a finish (in good condition) on it that effectively makes it a hard non-porous surface, a singular bleach treatment should be OK.  Even so, you should still test a small, less visible section first so you will know what to expect from the treatment.  Our EPA-registered protocol to kill canine parvovirus on hard non-porous surfaces is as follows: prepare a disinfecting solution of ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach and 1 gallon water.  Pre-wash the areas, then mop or wipe with the disinfecting solution.   Let stand for 10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly and air dry.  Consider working in small sections to be sure you can manage rinsing quickly and efficiently, and be sure the room is well ventilated.  You should also wear eye protection and gloves because you will be working with the bleach solution for a prolonged period of time.

How do I remove color bleeding during laundering?

Most garments that are new bleed a little, but usually they do stop after a few cycles, so washing newer items alone or only with like colors is a pretty effective strategy for limiting dye transfer.  To restore items that have picked up fugitive color during the wash cycle, you can often do this with a bleach soaking solution as long as the items are safely bleachable.  First, check the care labels and don’t use the soaking solution if the item contains wool, silk, mohair, spandex, and leather--these should never be bleached.  Also, you didn’t say if your items are white or another color (or combination of colors), so you may need to check for colorfastness to bleach with this simple bleachability test:  dilute 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach in ¼ cup water; apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of the each item (like a hem, cuff, collar, or inside seam); wait 1 minute then blot dry; no color change means the item can be safely bleached.

For items that are not on the “avoid bleaching” list and pass the bleachablility test, you can try a bleach soak:  fully submerge the item in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach diluted in 1 gallon cool water for up to 5 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.  Air dry the item, and check for success (it’s important to keep the item out of the dryer so the heat doesn’t set any remaining dye).  Hopefully the fugitive color will be gone, but if it is lighter, then repeat the bleach soak again.  However, if the bleach soak leaves the dye transfer color unchanged you may need to try RIT Color Remover, which can usually be found at drug and hardware stores.  A dilute RIT solution works best to limit stripping off the original color of an item in addition to the fugitive dye, so be careful.

How do I remove massage oil from sheets and towels?

Oily stains benefit from more concentrated cleaning solutions.  Larger items like sheets and towels that have the stains spread over them can be presoaked for more complete stain removal.  To do this, use powdered Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Fill the scoop to line 3 and add to 2 gallons of very hot water (or the hottest water recommended on the care label) and stir to dissolve.  Fully submerge the sheets and towels (remember to sort whites and colors, and soak them separately) 30 minutes for colored items or up to 8 hours for white items.  When the presoak time is complete, drain the soaking solution and then wash the items as follows depending on the color:

--For white sheets and towels, use detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in the hottest water recommended on the care label.

--For colored sheets and towels, use detergent and more Clorox2® in the hottest water recommended on the care label.

Air dry the items and check for success—it may be that if the care label recommended cold or warm water, you may not have achieved complete removal, but you can rewash the items in hot water and get much better results as long as residual oil has not been heat-set in a hot dryer. Or if you went with a shorter presoak time, you could try soaking for the full 8 hours. Something else to consider is your detergent choice--powdered detergents generally clean better than liquids so that can help, and you want to be sure to use the recommended amount.  Using too little detergent also can hurt cleaning performance.  I also want to mention the importance of using hot water again—sheets and towels generally can (and should) be washed with hot water for maximum cleaning.  When you consider the amount of body soil these items pick up, it’s really critical to get them as clean as possible.

Since you didn’t say how large the stained area is, I also want to address what to do if the massage oil is localized—that is you have a small spill in one area.  You can definitely pretreat the stain directly with a little liquid Clorox2® or liquid laundry detergent.  Apply a little product directly to the stain and rub in, wait 5-10 minutes (but don’t let the product dry out on the fabric), and then wash the towels as described above.

Finally, I have one last suggestion.  If your sheets and towels are colored, check to see if you can safely bleach them with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  To do this, add 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach to ¼ cup water and apply a small drop to a hidden part of the item.  Wait one minute then blot dry—no color change means the item can be safely bleached.  In that case, you would either presoak or pretreat the sheets/towels as described above, and then wash with detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

How do I get strawberry stains out?

For strawberry stains, start by blotting away any excess (if the stain is fresh) and then rinse the stain with cold water.  What you do next depends on the color and fiber content of the item with the stain on it.                                                       

For white, bleachable items (always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather and spandex) apply Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel to the stained area right before laundering, and then wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach.  Air dry the item and check for success.  If any stain remains, repeat the treatment.  You want to avoid tumble drying in a hot dryer until you know the stain is all the way out.  This is important to avoid heat setting any residual stain so you can’t get it all the way out with a second treatment.

For colored items (or white items that include a small amount of spandex, for example), apply Liquid Clorox 2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster directly to the stain and rub in.  Wait 3-5 minutes, and then wash in warmest water recommended using detergent and more Clorox 2®.  Air dry and check for success, and if necessary repeat the treatment.

Q: I used Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster to remove a stain and it bleached my white shirt where the stain was. How do I fix the shirt? Is this a side effect of the product that sometimes happens?

A: It sounds like the white shirt may actually not be as white as it used to be; fabrics can become dingy over time when washed in cold or lukewarm water, especially if you have hard water.  You should be able to unify the appearance of the rest of the shirt with an overnight presoak.  To do this, add a capful (filled to line 1) of liquid Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster to 2 gallons of very hot water and mix.  Add the shirt and make sure it is fully submerged – weigh it down with a dishwasher safe plate if necessary – and let the shirt soak overnight.  The next day, wash the shirt in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and more Clorox2®.  This should catch the rest of the shirt up to the treated spot.

Something else to consider (especially if the presoak doesn't unify the shirt's appearance) is how long the liquid Clorox2® was on the fabric before the shirt was washed.  With pretreating, you want to allow enough time for concentrated product to work effectively at remove a tough stain, but not enough time for the brighteners and blue colorant to permanently dye the fabric.  Contact time for a pretreatment should be limited to 5-10 minutes, and the product should never be allowed to dry out on fabric.  If that is what's happened in your case, then you still could try to unify the color by soaking the shirt in a more concentrated soaking solution.

Q: How do I get mold out of outdoor patio cushions?

A: There are different treatment options depending on the type of fabric the cushions are made of (polyester, cotton, etc.) and brand. If they are made by Sunbrella®, there is great cleaning information on their website, which you can check out at http://www.sunbrella.com/cleaning/upholstery.php. Note that for general mildew removal on machine launderable textiles, we recommend a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  Items should be fully submerged for 5 minutes, and then rinsed before finishing up with a hot water wash using detergent + 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  Sunbrella® recommends a more concentrated bleach solution for mildew removal, which actually matches our recommendation for mildew removal on exterior surfaces like vinyl siding.  Since Sunbrella® fabrics are 100% polyester (which has a high resistance to bleach) this makes sense. 

For non-Sunbrella® fabrics, as long as they are 100% polyester the same solution should still be suitable; I would just test a hidden part of the cushion first to be sure the fabric won't be damaged by a bleach solution.  To do that, apply add 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach to ¼ cup water and apply a drop of the solution to a hidden part of the cushion.  Make sure the drop soaks into the fabric.  Wait 1 minute and then blot dry.  No color change means the cushions can be safely bleached.

Has anyone else discovered mold on their outdoor furniture?  The warmer spring weather is finally letting us use our backyards and patios!