Q:  Can I use outdoor bleach for laundry?

A:  This is an interesting question!  In general, for your ongoing laundry bleaching needs, I would stick with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  I am guessing you have a bottle of Clorox® Outdoor Bleach Cleaner that you would like to use up. In that case, it would probably be fine to use it for laundry as long as you have a top loading deep-fill clothes washer.  If you have an HE washer, you have a greater chance of having high sudsing (the outdoor bleach includes surfactants) depending on the soil level of what you are washing , which could actually cushion the clothes as they tumble through the wash water and reduce cleaning.  If this is the case, then you might want to use up the Outdoor Bleach to clean your toilets. 

Note that even with a standard washer, I would still monitor the cycle for oversudsing. Also remember that the same instructions for using regular bleach apply--avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, spandex, and non-bleachfast colors.  Never apply the product full strength to anything, but instead be sure to always dilute it.  Adding it to the clothes washer along with the detergent as the machine is filling, but before the clothes are added, is a great way to safely launder with bleach.

Have any readers used outdoor bleach for their laundry?  I’d love to hear about it!

Q:  My baby started eating food and his clothes have some food stains, how do I remove them?

A:  Congratulations on your new baby!  Baby food stains really benefit from pre-treating, but first be sure to scrape away excess stain (think pureed vegetable globs like sweet potatoes), and then rinse the stain with a little cool water.  Be careful not to rub the stain further into the fabric. I am sure you have both white and colored items to clean, so here are some good techniques for both:

If the item is white:

• Rub stain gently with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel immediately before laundering.


• Wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

If the item is colored (or made from a fiber on the do not bleach list):

• Apply Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster directly to the stain, and rub in.


• Wait 3-5 minutes, but don’t let it dry on the fabric.


• Wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and Clorox2®.

After washing, air dry the items and check for success.  This is a general technique that I always advise. Stubborn stains that are partially removed can often be treated again, and you increase your chance of eventual success if you don’t heat-set any residual stain in a hot dryer.

Does anyone else have some new baby stains for which they need help removing?

Q:  I would like to wash my fine washables with Clorox® Ultimate Care® Bleach. Do I use it full strength or do I mix it with something so it is not as strong?

A:  How you use Ultimate Care® Bleach depends on your needs for the items you are washing.  You can add it along with your favorite detergent to gently whiten the entire load you are washing.  You can also use it full strength to pre-treat a stain as long as the item is white and you wash it immediately after pre-treating.  Additionally, since it has the same sodium hypochlorite active as Clorox® Regular-Bleach (but at a lower level) you should not use it for washing wool, silk, mohair, leather and spandex.  Pay special attention to the garment care labels, and check for small percentages of these fibers. For example, even small amounts of spandex in cotton tops should not be bleached. 

Readers, do you prefer to wash your delicates in a washer or by hand?

Q:  I workout often, and it seems some shirts have a permanent odor of sweat or mold. Will Clorox 2® help on my colored laundry?

A:  The bleach active in Clorox2®, hydrogen peroxide, is a gentle bleach, making it safe for almost all washable colored items.  However, it doesn’t meet EPA disinfecting requirements, and so it won’t kill the germs on your workout clothes like Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  You may actually be able to use Clorox® Regular-Bleach to safely wash some of your workout clothes provided they are colorfast to bleach and don’t contain any spandex.  You’ll need to check the items with a quick bleachability test as follows:

• Mix a test solution by diluting 2 tsp Clorox® Regular-Bleach in ¼ cup water


• Apply a drop to a hidden part of the item such as an inside hem, cuff, or seam.  Wait one minute and then blot dry


• No color change means the item can be safely bleached

For items that don’t pass the bleachability test, you can try the following techniques to at least reduce the germ count.

• Always wash in the hottest water recommended on the item’s care label.


• Pre-soak with Clorox2® before washing.  Dissolve 1 scoop of the powder in 2 gallons hot water; fully submerge the items for up to 8 hours or overnight.  Drain the soaking solution before washing.


• Wash any items of particular concern separately from other items to avoid germ transfer


• Use the hottest dryer setting recommended on the care label, and dry items separately - or at least with some white towels so the items tumble properly in the dryer.

Periodically run a washer clean-out cycle with an empty washer and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach to be sure the clothes washer is disinfected and germs don’t transfer to other loads. 

Do any readers have suggestions on eliminating gym clothes odor?

Q:  Something in the wash load faded onto white clothes and partially white clothes.  How can I get rid of the unwanted color?  Do I need to do something different if the fabric says "use non chlorine bleach"?

A:  What you describe sounds like dye transfer and you should be able to restore any bleachable items with a bleach soaking solution.  Start by figuring out if any of the partially white items are safely bleachable (even if they are labeled "only non-chlorine bleach").  First, check the care label and eliminate any items that include wool, silk, mohair, spandex, and leather--these should never be bleached.  For the remaining items, 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 the white items, and any partially colored items that passed the bleachability test, try soaking them 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 items, and check for success (it’s important to keep the items 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, then you may need to try Rit® Color Remover, which can usually be found at drug and hardware stores. 

Has anyone had success removing dye transfer?

Q:  We used Clorox 2® to get pizza sauce out of our daughter’s school uniform.  While it took out the stain, it left a blue stain. How do I get it out?

A: It sounds like liquid Clorox2® was applied directly to the stain (which is good for improved stain removal), but stayed on the fabric too long before being washed.  We typically recommend 3-5 minutes (depends on the type of stain and its severity) for pre-treating before washing an item.  This allows enough time for the surfactants and hydrogen peroxide to work in concentrated form, but not so much time that the colorant and brighteners permanently dye the area where the stain was treated. Additionally, the product should never be allowed to dry on the fabric, since the stain left behind (a combination of blue colorant and brighteners) is nearly impossible to remove.  There’s a chance you might be able to remove the blue colorant by soaking the uniform (if it’s white) in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water, for up to 5 minutes before thoroughly rinsing.  Any residual blue color left after this process, is concentrated brightener that reflects light off the fabric in the blue spectrum.  How successful you will be depends on how long the liquid Clorox2® was originally on the fabric.

If the uniform is colored, you still might be able to safely bleach it.  To check, add 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach to ¼ cup water and apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of the garment; wait 1 minute then blot dry. No color change means the item can be safely bleached.  If it passes, then you can try soaking the uniform as described above.

Q:  How do I get a stubborn sticker off my shirt?

A: This question reminds me of the time I wore a nice rain jacket to a skating birthday party and the host slapped a sticker on it.  When I pulled the sticker off, the finish on the jacket went with it!  I would try soaking the shirt with liquid Clorox 2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster : add a capful to 2 gallons of water, and fully submerge the shirt for up to an hour if it is colored, or overnight if it is white.  This should dissolve the adhesive that is holding the sticker.  If it is only partially removed, then you may need to try Goo Gone® or De-Solve-it®, which you can find at hardware stores.  Just be sure to test the shirt for colorfastness.

Readers, do your kids like playing with stickers?

Q:  How do you remove nail polish on children's clothes?

A:  I’m sorry I don’t have better news, but unfortunately nail polish is permanent when it gets on fabric.  For hard surfaces like fingernails, a weak acetone solution (i.e. nail polish remover) can dissolve nail polish, but textile fibers don’t respond the same way.  There are so many crevices that trap and absorb the polish – within the fibers, as well as in the spaces between the fibers where they are spun into yarns and woven/knit into fabric. 

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I let some nail polish dry on an old cotton t-shirt.  I applied nail polish remover directly to the stain and blotted it with a cotton ball. Hardly any nail polish was removed.  A stronger acetone solution (something from a hardware store) might be more effective, but then you’d have the problem of a solvent soaked shirt that needs to be disposed of safely to prevent spontaneous combustion.  Hopefully the children’s clothes can find another use, like art class or gardening or some other activity.

Q: Will the Clorox ® Disinfecting Wipes kill urushoil, the oil that causes poison ivy rashes?

A:  This is a great question, because “kill” as it pertains to disinfectants, is a term whose use is regulated by the EPA. First, I need to clarify that because urushoil is an oily resin, it isn’t “killed”.  Also, please note that Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes should only be used to clean hard surfaces, and are not intended for personal hygiene of any kind.  Hopefully you are considering using the wipes to clean hard surfaces that may have come into contact with urushiol (like the frame of a mountain bike). In these cases, the wipes would definitely be appropriate for cleaning oily soils like urushoil. 

If you are looking for personal care suggestions, I found the Mayo Clinic website very helpful to explain how to care for rashes caused by urushoil contact, as well as prevention of an outbreak following exposure.  You can check it out here:  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/poison-ivy/DS00774/DSECTION=prevention.  Particularly interesting is that a soap and water washing within 5-10 minutes of exposure can reduce the chances of an outbreak, but after an hour the oil will likely have penetrated the skin and washing won’t necessarily stop a reaction. 

Does anyone have a recommendation to help with poison ivy rashes?

Q:  How do I remove a bleach stain from a vinyl floor?

A:  It is always helpful to know a little more about the stain.  For example:  is it lighter than the overall color of the vinyl floor, or is it some sort of discoloration?  Do you know how it happened, and the age of the flooring?  All of this is important because vinyl flooring is made with a “wear layer” according to my local flooring company.  I stopped in to talk to them since I really don’t have much experience restoring damaged vinyl floors.

 I do know that vinyl flooring can be safely disinfected with a solution of ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water that is applied for 5 minutes, rinsed, and allowed to air dry.  However, we never recommend applying full strength bleach to any surface – it should always be diluted first. 

My local flooring company said that undiluted bleach would have to be left on a vinyl floor for quite an extended period of time before causing any discoloration due to protection from its wear layer.  Just as with fabric, I expected that bleach damage to the floor would be irreversible.  The flooring company confirmed this, and unfortunately did not have any tips for restoring the damage.  Their recommendation was to remove the stained area and patch it with additional flooring material that was hopefully saved when the vinyl was installed. 

Has anyone had similar issues?