Q:  I just bought the Clorox Plus® Splash-Less Bleach and it is watery, is that normal?

A:  I am not sure what you mean by “watery”.  Clorox Plus® Splash-Less Bleach should be a clear, lime-yellow liquid that is slightly thicker than water.  The thickeners that make it easier to pour with less splashing do not make it pour similarly to, say, olive oil.  It is closer to pouring freshly mixed gelatin (i.e. JELL-O®) before it has had a chance to cool and set.  Depending on what you were expecting, it could seem watery, but in a side-by-side comparison with Clorox® Regular Bleach, it should be thicker. 

What do you prefer:  Clorox Plus® Splash-Less Bleach or Clorox® Regular-Bleach?

Q:  My son washed his new work uniform in warm water, which consists of black pants (80% poly / 20% cotton) and a white shirt (85% poly / 15% cotton) with a blue embroidery logo. Now the shirt has dye stains all over it from the pants and is less than white. Are there any options for getting the stains out and whitening? The embroidery is colorfast. The label does say "Do Not Bleach."

A:  It is good the shirt is a polyester/cotton blend, because this fabric is generally safe for bleaching.  To restore the shirt, I would try a bleach pre-soak:  dilute ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1 gallon of water.  Fully submerge the shirt for up to 5 minutes.  You may notice the color coming off immediately, or it may take the full amount of time.  Next, drain and thoroughly rinse the shirt, allowing the shirt to air dry.  Hopefully this will work, but if it does not, try RIT color remover, which you can find at most drug stores.  Just be sure to follow the package instructions carefully.

I would expect that the logo is embroidered with polyester thread, and should not be altered by either of these treatments.  That said, there is still the possibility that there could be a color change.  However, I think it is worth taking the chance to restore the shirt given that the alternative is to throw the shirt away - and I am sure your son has other plans for the money he is earning!  Of course, the silver lining is that he now has firsthand experience with the importance of sorting laundry into like-color groups for washing.

Have your kids had any laundry mishaps?

Q:  Which is better to use for urine soiled white sheets, Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster or Clorox® Regular Bleach?

A:  I am assuming you would like to disinfect the sheets, and that they are a cotton or poly-cotton blend.  Therefore, you need to use Clorox® Regular-Bleach, our EPA-registered disinfectant.  Select a hot water cycle, and wash them with detergent and ¾ cup bleach.  If you have an HE washer, fill the dispenser to the “max fill” line.  Clorox2® includes oxygen bleach that is safe for colored items, but consequently does not disinfect.

Readers – I’d love to hear about some other disinfecting needs!  Leave a comment below and I will gladly respond to any questions out there.

Q:  How do I get the Clorox® Bleach smell out of my blouse which is made of rayon?

A:  To remove a lingering bleach smell from a garment, try a pre-soak with liquid Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster.  Just fill the cap to line 1 and add it to 2 gallons of water.  Fully submerge the shirt for 5 minutes.  This should be enough to allow the hydrogen peroxide in Clorox2® to react with any residual chlorine on the shirt.  Then thoroughly rinse the shirt and allow it to air dry. 

Do you have a favorite Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster scent?  Mine is Lavender!

Q:   My husband and I recently purchased our first washer and dryer.  With them came some tips on stain removal; however the application instructions were vague.  My husband has some shirts that are stained in the armpit area, I believe due to the combination of his deodorant and perspiration.  The tip states to pre-treat with boiling water then equal parts baking soda, hydrogen peroxide & water; rinse and then detergent pre-soak.  How should I apply these items to the shirt (i.e. put the shirt in container with these items or simply pour them over the affected area on the shirt)? This is a new process for me and I am unsure how to apply this valuable tip. 

A:  How nice to have your own washer and dryer; now you will have more time without having to go to and from the launder mat!  It is also great you read the washer’s instruction guide.  I agree that the underarm stain removal tip sounds a little confusing.  These stains are hugely problematic, partly because they are highly variable.  On some t-shirts, it is a crusty buildup of deodorant; others can just have a light transfer of anti-perspirant, and unfortunately with garments like silk tops, it is permanent discoloration.  Light smears usually come off with regular washing.  For the crusty build up, it is better to not let it happen in the first place, so start fresh with your new washer by stocking up on white undershirts for your husband.  Then proceed as follows:

1. Pre-treat the armpits of each white t-shirt with Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel:  use the broad scrubber tip to apply the gel and gently rub it into the stain.  Since you want to prevent build-up, do this every time you wash the shirts, whether or not you see a stain.


2. Wash immediately in hot water with detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.


3. Tumble dry with the rest of your white load.

Ideally, the white undershirts will protect your husband’s other colored shirts from getting any underarm stains that cannot be easily bleached away.  But for a colored shirt, you can try pre-treating the armpits each time you wash the shirt (again, to prevent build up) as follows:

1. Apply liquid Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster directly to the armpit area and rub in; wait 3-5 minutes (do not let it dry on the fabric).


2. Wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label with detergent and additional Clorox2® based on your load size.


3. If there were obvious underarm stains that you pre-treated, then be sure to air dry the shirt and check for success; repeat if necessary.

If you would like to attempt using the washer’s user guide recommendation, try this method:

1. Working in a dishpan, pour boiling water slowly through each armpit stain.  This is to “melt” the build-up, which is a combination of deodorant, sweat, body soil, bacteria, etc.  Before you start, it will be helpful to position the shirt in the dishpan so you will not have to touch it once you start since it will be boiling hot!


2. Do not rinse the shirt – just pour off as much of the hot water as you can.  This keeps the build-up in a more “melted” state.  And if you do need to handle the shirt, either use kitchen tongs or wear gloves.


3. Apply the mixture of 1:1:1 parts baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and water directly to the stain.  Sometimes this is referred to as a paste, but it is actually quite watery, so be sure to blend the mixture enough to saturate the stains.


4. Rinse the shirt, and then follow up with a hot water wash with a good enzyme-containing detergent.  (For white t-shirts, be sure to add ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach!)

For ongoing prevention of underarm stains, personally I think this last method is way too much work, and I would start fresh with new t-shirts and stick with the previous treatments. 

Have any of you experienced similar stubborn stains?

Q:  My children occasionally come home from daycare with discoloration on their clothing.  To disinfect the toys, changing table, etc the daycare uses a gallon jug to 1/4 cup of Clorox® Regular Bleach.  I have questioned the daycare on how they are mixing the solution as it clearly causes a problem.  They tell me the ratio to use is 1/4 cup of Clorox® Regular Bleach to 1 gallon of water, however, they are mixing it in a gallon jug, so technically it is 1/4 cup of Clorox® Regular Bleach to 1 gallon minus 1/4 of water. 

Could this be causing the discoloration problem or do you think something else must be going on to cause this problem?

A:  It is good your daycare is using bleach for disinfecting, and now you can pass along some information to help them use it correctly!  The ¼ cup per gallon dilution they use is more standard as a bleach pre-soak for bleachable fabrics that are heavily soiled or for fabrics that need to be disinfected.  It is actually not strong enough to disinfect hard surfaces.  Instead, to disinfect furniture and hard, non-porous toys, the correct dilution is ¾ Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  You are also correct to note that they should be measuring a full gallon of water that the ¾ cup is then added to, a 1:21 dilution.  Items need to have contact with this disinfecting solution for 5 minutes, and then should be rinsed thoroughly and allowed to air dry.

Done correctly, there should not be any fabric damage on your children’s clothing, which makes me wonder why this is happening.  Perhaps they are not rinsing thoroughly after applying the disinfecting solution; and what is left behind is damaging non-bleachfast fabrics.  Ideally they would use a 1 gallon pail or bucket to mix the solution in.  These work well because they have a nice wide opening for the sponge and you can put the bucket right next to the items you’re disinfecting (changing table, etc) to reduce the chance of stray drips.  Also, in an ideal world, they would apply the disinfecting solution after the kids have gone home for the day.  This allows everything to air dry more conveniently.  However, in our less-than-perfect world, kids throw up while at daycare and the staff cannot wait until the end of the day when it is convenient.  Hopefully, if they need to disinfect an area during the day, they keep the kids out while they disinfect.  The look of the bleach spots may also give clues to how they are happening.  Small dots would be from a drop or two splashing on to the clothes.  A large color-loss area on the rear could be if your child sat in a chair that was not rinsed. 

Readers, have you asked how your daycare disinfects, or experienced similar spots?

Q:  I had a mishap with some of my whites and tried to use Clorox® Regular Bleach to get the red out. Unfortunately, in the process, the bottle fell and a small hole punctured the Clorox container.  I scrambled to clean up, and had an old bottle of Tide® plus Bleach Alternative Liquid Laundry Detergent.  I used the Tide® bottle to save the rest of the bleach, put it in my cupboard and left it there.  A few minutes later there was liquid all over the bottom of the cupboard and the Tide® bottle was extremely hot.  I had to dump it down the drain.  My question is:  what caused this chemical reaction?

A:  Dealing with a bleach spill is a challenge.  It sounds like the old bottle of Tide® plus Bleach Alternative Liquid Laundry Detergent used to contain the bleach was not quite empty, causing an exothermic reaction when the two products combined, as evidenced by the bottle becoming hot to the touch.  I do not know the precise reaction, and without knowing the exact formula of that detergent brand or how much of each product was present, I do not want to guess.  However, it is not surprising that the not-quite-empty detergent bottle failed to contain the transferred bleach, and is a great example of why we recommend that undiluted bleach should never be combined with other household cleaning products.  At the very least, the undiluted bleach can deactivate some of the other product’s ingredients.  At the worst, if the household cleaning product is acidic (has a lower pH), toxic gas can form that can be fatal. Fortunately, liquid laundry detergents are typically buffered to a neutral pH.  Of course when properly diluted as directed, bleach works very effectively with detergent to clean, whiten, and disinfect laundry. 

Back to the spill:  what else could be done?  It helps to have a few dishpans on hand – they are great for pre-soaking.  Start by setting the leaking bottle in a sink or dishpan while you deal with any bleach that has spilled.  Next try to contain the spilled bleach by using towels to surround the liquid.  Let the towels absorb the bleach, and then use a plastic dishpan to transfer the towels from the spill site into a sink where you can carefully rinse them.   Next, transfer the rinsed towels to your washer and run them through a cycle with detergent.  For the leaking bottle, if you don’t have an alternative and clean container, you can safely dispose of the bleach and take advantage of the situation by disinfecting and deodorizing all the toilets in your house!  First, flush the toilet and then add 1 cup bleach to the toilet bowl.  Brush the entire bowl and let stand 10 minutes before flushing again.  If you still have some bleach left, you can also sanitize your sinks:  fill each sink with a ratio of 1 gallon of water to ¾ cup bleach.  Let stand for 5 minutes and then drain the solution and rinse the sink thoroughly.  Lastly, you can also sanitize your clothes washer by running an empty cycle with ¾ cup bleach (or fill the dispenser to the max fill line).

One final reminder:  once the bleach spill has been contained, absorbed and disposed of (in accordance with your local, state, and federal regulations), it is important to follow up by washing the spill area and letting it dry thoroughly.  This helps prevent residual bleach from damaging other clothing or laundry items.

Have you ever had a bleach spill or strange bleach reaction with another product?

Q. I love the Clorox® Washing Machine Cleaner, but can’t find it.  Do you know where it’s sold?

A. I looked online and according to target.com, it is available at many of their stores.  You could also try well-stocked hardware and grocery stores.  Look in the laundry and home cleaning aisles—it should be near Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

When you are cheering for your kids during their soccer matches, gymnastics meets, volleyball games – or whatever sport they love – you are hoping they have a blast and can maybe bring home that special trophy!  However, with all that celebration, and sometimes disappointment, I doubt you are thinking about the possibility of them coming home with a skin infection caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus).  Many people are unaware about the easy spread of MRSA through skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated sports equipment.  Neither do people realize that over half of the infectious disease outbreaks in competitive sports in the U.S. are from skin infections.  Unfortunately, MSRA resists commonly used antibiotics, making infections very difficult to treat.  It is important to get the word out about stopping MRSA so that parents and coaches will take simple measures to help reduce its spread.  I am glad I can use this forum to talk about laundry habits that can help!

Here are a few tips to help prevent the spread of MRSA to your MVP:

• Wash athletic clothing with sodium hypochlorite bleach when possible.  In addition to white cotton and polycotton items, many polyester and/or nylon colored sports jerseys and shorts can be safely bleached.  To check for colorfastness to bleach, do a quick Bleachability Test:  dilute 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach in ¼ cup water; apply a drop to a hidden hem, cuff, or inside seam; wait one minute then blot with a towel.  No color change means the item can be safely bleached.


• Wash athletic clothing in hot water, or the warmest water temperature recommended on the garment’s care label.  Washing in hot water provides better cleaning, and for items that cannot be bleached, it is the best way to help reduce bacteria counts.


• Offer to “adopt” any clothing items shared by the team and wash them in between games.  For example, in my kid’s soccer league, all the players on the team share one goalie jersey for each game.  They simply slip the jersey over their own shirt when it is their turn to play goalie.  If your coach already washes the goalie jersey in between each game, your team is in good hands!  If not, offer to take up the task to help practice clean laundry habits with the team.


• Stock up on extra towels.  Add them to the sports bag and teach your kids to use them to sit on – think locker room bench!   Also, have your child use a clean, dry towel after showering.  You will have a few extra towels to wash, but if they are white they can just be the start of your next bleach load.


• No procrastinating!  Wash athletic clothing after each use.  This makes it easier to get any stains out, prevents odors from sweaty laundry, and limits the opportunity for contact with other laundry items.

Because MRSA infections can be serious, taking steps to prevent their spread is so important.  You can learn more about MRSA at www.stopmrsanow.org.