Q:  Is there one product that will get everything white, instead of using multiple products?

A:  While I wish we had one product that could do it all, a typical load of laundry isn't always "one size fits all" in determining the best way to wash each item in the load.  White cotton kitchen towels?  Wash them with Clorox® Regular-Bleach and not only are they cleaner and whiter, they are disinfected.  Sounds good so far, but that white camisole:  can you throw it in with the bleach load, too?  Not so fast! Check the care label because it probably has a small percentage of spandex in addition to the cotton. And, unfortunately, spandex cannot be bleached.  For that matter, neither can wool, silk, mohair, and leather.  Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster is a great product for whitening items that can't be bleached, plus it also improves cleaning and brightens colors compared to washing with detergent alone.  And it can also be used as a pre-treatment! 

But now you have two additives in addition to your detergent...and as long as textiles are made from a variety of fibers and people continue to get their clothes dirty, counting on one product to do it all simply won't provide the best results.  For people who like to keep it simple, starting with a really good detergent and having Clorox® Regular-Bleach and Clorox2® on hand is a good approach.

Do you like to keep it simple with only a few laundry products? Or do you like to have every laundry tool possible in your arsenal?

Q:  How do you get rid of a gravy stain?

A:  Gravy is tricky because it is combination stain—you have both a greasy and colored component that needs to be dealt with, and it’s best to work on the greasy part first.  Start by scraping away excess gravy with a dull knife to minimize the amount of stain you need to treat.  Next, apply liquid dishwashing detergent directly to the stain and let it soak in.  Wait 10 minutes, and then rinse with a little warm water.  Now you’ll want to pretreat it again, and what product to use depends on whether the item with the stain is white or has color.

For white bleachable items (note that you should avoid bleaching items made with wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex regardless of their color) pretreat with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel.  Use the soft scrubber tip to apply a little of the gel to the remaining stain, and then wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  After washing, air dry the item and check for success.  Residual oil can be hidden on a damp or wet item, so it’s important to keep it out of a hot dryer—this avoids heat setting any remaining stain that could otherwise be completely removed with a second treatment.

For colored items, after the liquid dishwashing detergent pretreatment step described above, pretreat again with Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster.  Apply a little to the stain, rub in, and wait 5- 10 minutes (but don’t let it dry on the fabric).  Next, wash the item in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and more Clorox2®.  Be sure to air dry the item and check for success—repeat the treatment if a little oil still remains.

Does anyone else have stubborn stains?

Q: My daughter sprayed glass cleaner on her dress. It's all natural, but the color is starting to change. What do I do?

A: Any time you get a cleaning product on a garment it's always a good idea to rinse it immediately; being careful not to spread what you are trying to rinse out onto the fabric. If the color of the dress is permanently altered where the glass cleaner contacted it, you can try soaking the dress in more window cleaner to unify the color – hopefully the new color is OK looking. Another option is to see if you can match the original dress color with a felt pen (well stocked craft supply stores usually have a good selection) and color in the spots to at least keep the dress serviceable. This works really well for white spots on colored items caused by contact with undiluted bleach, but it might also help in your situation.

Good luck!

Q:  How do I treat laundry after a ring worm infestation?

A:  That’s too bad about the ringworm!  To disinfect white or safely bleachable colored laundry, wash in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. For extra-large or heavily soiled laundry, use up to 1 ¼ cups.  Note that you should avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, spandex, and leather.

Unfortunately there is no product to disinfect any and all colored laundry.  For any product to make this claim it must have an EPA registration which is obtained by successfully completing required tests to demonstrate efficacy.  It’s good to know there are definitely some colored fabrics than can be safely bleached with Clorox® Regular-Bleach, and this primarily depends on which type of dye was used to color the fabric.  You can easily test bleachability as follows:

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

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

3.  No color change means the item can be safely bleached

I have had success safely bleaching many different colored items:  light colored linens and towels, cotton boxer shorts, and 100% polyester fleece, just to name a few.  Assuming your items pass, you can wash them in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach as directed above.  For items that don’t pass the bleachability test, you can try the following techniques to at least reduce the germ count.

• Wash in the hottest water recommended on the item’s care label


• Wash any items of particular concern separately from other items to avoid germ transfer, and consider washing them twice


• Use the hottest dryer setting recommended on the care label, and dry items separately from other loads; or at least with some white towels so the underwear tumbles properly in the dryer.


• Finally, consider following up with a washer clean-out cycle with ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach to be sure the clothes washer is disinfected and germs don’t transfer to other loads.  In fact, clothes washer manufacturers recommend doing this!

Does anyone else need disinfecting advice?

I’m sure you have seen or heard about our Bleachable Moments contest where mess survivors like you and me shared more than 21,670 Bleachable Moments stories. I loved seeing that I was not alone in messy moments like potty training toddlers, sick kids, clogged toilets and… well the list goes on! Check out our infographic below for some fun facts about the household messy moments we received from all of these great messy moment stories. Don’t let the everyday, or even extreme, “yuck + oops” experiences throw you – Visit www.BleachItAway.com to see some of the hilarious and cringe-worthy messes, and get clean up tips so that all you’re left with is the LOL, not the OMG EWW!

In my household, we tackle the most messes in the laundry room. Which part of your household usually leaves you breaking out the Clorox?

Q:  How do I remove a red dye stain from a book cover that left a spot on a priest’s linen surplus (vestment)?

A:  For starters, if the vestement is silk, then you cannot use Clorox® Regular-Bleach to wash it.  If the fiber is linen then you can wash it with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach, but you should not use Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel to spot treat the red stain (the pen is not recommended for use on linen fabric).  It's tricky with linen because it is a fiber, but many people commonly refer to woven cotton items as "linens" too.  So I want to make sure we are talking about the same thing.  If the vestement is made from cotton then you could spot treat the stain with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel by rubbing a little directly into the stain and then washing the entire item in the warmest water recommended by the manufacturer using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  Allow the vestement to air dry to prevent heat setting any remaining red color that wasn't removed; although I doubt the care instructions recommend tumble drying to avoid shrinkage.  If the bleach treatment doesn't work, then you could also try RIT® Color Remover, which can be found at drug and hardware stores.  Just be sure to follow the package instructions

Q:  Many of my white button-down shirts within time tend to turn slightly off-white, yellowish.  I've tried washing with bleach but it doesn't help.  What should I do?

A:  This is a question I get a lot, and it deserves a long answer.  I wish I knew a little more about your wash habits.  Since your whites 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.  Plus, the better the detergent, the better the improvement in performance when you add bleach.


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—That’s 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 important to note that there are also a few situations when 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.


• The fabric finish yellows—Sometimes a finish applied to the fabric/garment will react with bleach and turn yellow.  Hopefully these garments are 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 shirts have yellowed over time, there’s a good chance you can whiten up the shirts again (as long as the yellowing wasn’t caused by metals).  Here are some techniques you could try:

1. Soak the items in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  Fully submerge for 5 minutes, then wash 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. 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 items 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 shirts that contain a small amount of spandex, which should never be washed with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Keeping whites their best can require a bit of work, but definitely pays off!  It’s always good to prevent yellowing in the first place, but hopefully these tips do the trick.

Q:  Can you use Clorox 2® with a detergent like Woolite® extra dark care?

A:  Clorox 2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster can be added to any detergent to help with stain removal and brighten colors.  There's a lot of great information at http://www.clorox.com/products/clorox2/how-to/.  For dark items that people don't necessarily want to be "brighter" you can also use Clorox 2® since the low level of oxygen bleach in the formula is safe for most washable fabrics.  It's always a good idea to check care labels for instructions from the garment manufacturer on whether or not to use a color safe or non-chlorine bleach (like Clorox 2®).  If you aren't sure, you can also test for colorfastness as follows:

• If using powdered Clorox 2®, dissolve 1 teaspoon of Clorox 2® in 1 cup of hot water. Soak a hidden area of the garment in the solution for 1 minute. Rinse and let air dry. The garment is safe for washing if color does not fade or bleed.


• If using Liquid Clorox 2®, apply 1 drop to hidden area. Rinse after 5 minutes and air dry. The garment is safe for washing if color does not fade or bleed.

My favorite technique for keeping dark colors (especially blacks) close to their original color is to keep them out of the dryer—this requires some planning ahead since air drying takes more time, but it really pays off. 

Anyone else need tips on keeping items dark or bright?  I noticed neon is a big trend this year for spring fashion!

Q:  I laid my clothes over the back of a wooden chair and the wood stain came off onto my clothes. One of the articles of clothing is a white t-shirt and the other is a striped cotton button-down dress. How do I get the wood stain out of my clothes?

A:  My first question is:  was the chair freshly stained?  Considering the stain that would make sense, but that would also be a problem since the dye in a wood stain is pretty concentrated and not likely to come out.  But if a little bit of the finish on an older chair rubbed off, then you could try pre-treating the stain on the white cotton shirt with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel.  Rub a little of the gel into the stain, and then wash immediately in warm water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  Air dry and check for success.  Hopefully the stain will be gone but if it is lighter, repeat the treatment.  You could also try this if the chair was freshly stained, but I'm not sure if it would be as effective since the stain would have been able to absorb into the cellulose (cotton is similar to wood, after all) rather than just sit on top of the fabric.  It's still worth a try!

For the striped button-down dress, if the stain is on the white part of the dress, you could try using the bleach pen as described above as long as the stripes are colorfast to bleach.  That's because you would likely need the follow-up wash with detergent and bleach to get this type of stain all the way out.  To test for colorfastness, apply a drop of a solution of 2 teaspoons bleach added to 1/4 cup water to a hidden part of the dress.  Wait 1 minute and then blot dry--no color change means you can safely wash the dress with bleach.  If the stain is on the colored part of the dress, don't use the bleach pen--it is intended only for white items--but instead try pretreating with liquid Clorox 2®.  Without seeing the items or knowing whether or not they picked up fresh stain, it's difficult to advise the best way to proceed, but hopefully this is enough information for you to get started.  Also, seeing what works for the white cotton t-shirt will be useful information to guide you in how you proceed with the striped dress. 

Has anyone else had this happen to them and had success in removing the stain?

Q:  I have a question regarding the cleaning and sanitizing of diaper pads in a child care facility.  I have always been taught to clean with soap and water and then use bleach to sanitize.  Can Clorox® Clean-Up® be used for the washing procedure?

A:  You’re correct!  We recommend cleaning a hard surface before sanitizing with a solution of 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  With Clorox® Clean-Up® those two steps can be combined, except when the surface to be cleaned is heavily soiled.  In that case, the surface should still be pre-cleaned before the sanitizing step.

Also, here's the sanitizing protocol just in case you need it:

• Use the Clorox® Clean-Up® spray applicator for sanitizing


• Spray the product 4-6 inches from the surface until thoroughly wet


• Let stand 30 seconds


• Rinse or wipe clean and allow to air dry

I hope this helps!  Do any parents need additional sanitizing advice?