Q: I experienced a nightmare last night! I washed a load of laundry, light colors and whites, and a black glove accidentally got thrown into the wash. Well, now I have light gray to almost black dye on just about every piece of clothing. Will Clorox® remove these stains and not harm the fabrics or the colors of the fabrics?

A: Dye transfers can be a nightmare, but you should be able to restore the bleachable items with a bleach soaking solution. Start by figuring out which items are safely bleachable. First, check the care labels and be sure to avoid bleaching wool, silk mohair, spandex and leather. For the colored items, check for colorfastness to bleach with this simple bleachability test: dilute two teaspoons of Clorox® Regular-Bleach in ¾ cup water. Apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of each item like a hem, cuff, collar or inside seam. Wait one minute and then blot dry. If there is no color change, that means the item can be safely bleached. For the items that passed the bleach test, try soaking them in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach diluted in one gallon cool water for up to five minutes. Rinse the garments thoroughly, air dry and check for success! It is important to keep items out of the dryer so the heat does not set the dye. If a small amount of the color persists, then repeat the bleach soak again. If the bleach soak leaves the gray and black color unchanged, then you may need to try RIT® color remover.

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Dr. Laundry gives a lesson in laundry geared towards college students.

Q: I had a dog die from the parvovirus and I was told to bleach everywhere my puppy had been. How many times should I bleach before the virus is gone?

A: I am so sorry to hear that your puppy died – how very sad. To kill canine parvovirus on hard non-porous surfaces, prepare a disinfecting solution of ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach and one gallon of water. Pre-wash the areas and then mop or wipe with the disinfecting solution. Let stand for ten minutes, then rinse thoroughly and air dry. One treatment should kill the virus as long as you use the proper dilution and allow ten minutes of contact time. For this situation, I would also use a newly purchased bottle of bleach to be sure the bleach active is at label strength. Definitely do not use a bottle of bleach that has been sitting around for too long, since over time the bleach active naturally breaks down into salt and water. This decomposition process is what makes Clorox® Regular-Bleach environmentally friendly.

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Dr. Laundry offers spring cleaning tips using Clorox bleach.

Q: I have to soak my hands in molten wax three times a week as part of a treatment for arthritic hands. Sometimes the wax spills over onto the throw blanket I put under the pot while the wax is cooling. How can I remove these dried wax splotches? I believe the throw is flannel.

A: Wax can be easily removed from many fabrics by slightly heating the wax spot so it will transfer from the fabric and onto a brown paper bag. First you will want to scrape away as much of the wax as possible with a dull knife. Cut open a brown paper bag, but make sure the bag does not already have a wax coating. Next, place the bag over the wax spot and gently press the area with a dry iron on the lowest setting. You should start to see dark brown splotches appear on the bag as it absorbs the warmed wax. Reposition a fresh part of the bag over the wax spot and gently press again with the iron. You will need to repeat this until no more wax absorbs onto the bag.
If any wax remains on the fabric, pre-treat the stained area by apply Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster directly to the stain. Wait three to five minutes, and then wash the item with detergent and Clorox2® in the hottest water recommended on the care label. Make sure you air dry the item because it is very important to keep wax stains out of the dryer. Once fully dried check for success and repeat if necessary.

Q: I have algae growing on an exterior surface of my home and was wondering if I can remove it using a combination of Tide® Laundry Detergent and bleach.

A: Unfortunately, we have never studied the combination of Tide® Laundry Detergent and Clorox® Regular-Bleach as an effective and safe way to remove algae from exterior surfaces. I would recommend that you contact the manufacturers of Tide® Laundry Detergent to determine whether it is safe for outside use as runoff could negatively interact with plants and animals. In regards to Clorox® Regular-Bleach, it is an EPA-registered disinfectant and is an approved and safe product to help eliminate moss, mold and mildew from outdoor siding, tile, brick, stucco and patio stone. Below is information on how to use Clorox® Regular-Bleach to remove patio moss, mildew stains and exterior mold:

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Dr. Laundry debunks some common myths about bleach.

Q. I miss read the directions and think I added too much Oxi-Magic® to my clothes. Is there any way to correct the discoloration that occurred?

A. I wish I knew more about exactly how you used the product, and what type of discoloration you ended up with. If you added too much Oxi-Magic®, but did allow it to dissolve before adding the clothes, you probably have overall fading. If you added it to the machine with the clothes before it started to fill with water, then you probably have multiple small faded spots that formed when the product initially dissolved while directly contacting the fabric. Oxi-Magic® is pretty concentrated until it can disperse into the wash water. With overall fading, there is not much you can do other than learn to live with the new color. With bleached spots, you can try coloring them in with a permanent marker—this works really well on black items, but is a little more challenging with colors because it isn’t always possible to get an exact color match.

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Dr. Laundry explains how to get out the toughest holiday stains.

Q. I recently purchased a yellow dress that I would like to wear for my wedding. The dress is currently a lime-yellow green, mostly yellow, but ideally I would like it to be white, off-white or just lighter yellow. The tag says it's 100% polyester (like a satin look and feel) and dry clean only. Do you think I could soak it in a bleach bath?

A. I wish I could offer you a solution for how to alter the color of your dress, but I am limited by the fiber content. Since the dress is 100% polyester, it will be very difficult to remove the color, and a bleach soak will likely have no effect. Dyes for polyester are generally insoluble, so once they are incorporated into the fiber they are very difficult to remove or de-color. As a result, polyester is extremely colorfast and a home remedy is unlikely to alter the color.

Another potential problem is the “dry clean only” label—not knowing what the dress/fabric looks like, I am guessing that something in the construction of the dress requires dry cleaning to prevent water spotting. I would check with your dry-cleaner for a referral to a place that dyes shoe and see if they also offer a treatment to remove color from polyester. I would also ask them to show you examples or provide you with references of other customers who had this done before you proceed, especially if the treatment is expensive.