I washed a new white top with spandex in it with light colors and now it is grey. How do I get it back to white?

Your issue is dye transfer after just one cycle. Unfortunately, the fact that your top contains spandex means you won't be able to use a bleach and water soaking solution to remove the dye transfer since spandex (along with wool, silk, mohair, and leather) should never be bleached. However, you can give RIT Color Remover a try. You can usually find this product at drug and even hardware stores – it's a reducing bleach that is safe for spandex and often is very helpful at removing dye transfer. Follow the manufacturer's instructions, and it should work.

For ongoing good cleaning so the shirt doesn't get dingy, try soaking your white items with spandex for 8 hours or overnight with Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster added to 2 gallons hot water. Following the soak time, drain the soaking solution and then wash the items in the hottest water recommended on the care label. If you can, wash them separately or in a load with just white cotton/spandex items. I get lots of questions about these items after people have had them for a while – they get pretty dingy over time, especially if they are washed in cold water with a low quality detergent. Using Clorox2^® on a regular basis (and the presoak whenever possible) will really help keep these items white, especially if you can wash the items in hot water.

I spilled some salsa in some khaki shorts. I tried Oil Soap and that helped a bit, but did not completely treat the stain. How do I get the rest out?

I’m guessing you have a salsa stain on khaki shorts, which are either tan or olive green in color. I don’t think using Oil Soap to pretreat the stain will have made the residual stain permanent. The bigger issue is whether or not the shorts were tumble dried in a hot dryer following your first attempt to pretreat the stain. If the shorts air dried after you washed them, then you have a pretty good chance you will be able to get the stain all the way out. If, however, the shorts did go through a hot dryer, then the stain is probably heat-set and likely permanent. If the shorts haven’t been tumble dried, you can try the following:

For salsa stains on most colored fabrics, first rinse the stained area with a little cool water. Next, pretreat the stain—which product you use depends on the color and fabric content of the item. Your shorts sound like they have color, so you would want to pretreat with a little liquid Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Apply a little directly to the stain, gently rub it in, and wait 3-5 minutes before washing in the hottest water recommended on the garment care label using detergent and more Clorox2^®. Air dry the shorts and then check for success—if any stain remains, repeat the treatment.

For salsa stains on bleachable white items (always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex), after rinsing the stain with cool water, you can pretreat with Clorox^® Bleach Pen Gel. Apply a little of the gel directly to the stain and gently rub it in using the soft scrubber tip. Immediately wash the item in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and Clorox^® Regular-Bleach. Let the item air dry and then check to see if the stain is all the way out—repeat if necessary.

You don’t have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area or Baltimore to be excited about the big game this Sunday—you don’t even have to like football!  The back story of the two coaches—brothers!!—is enough to draw even the most disinterested fan into the hype.  Everyone wants to know what it was like to grow up in this famous football family, and if somehow, one brother has an advantage over the other.  One thing’s clear—this pigskin-loving family sounds a lot like the Clorox family—encouraging each member to do their best and meet life’s challenges head on.  What—yes, Clorox has siblings, too:  the powder and liquid formulations for Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster!  Dry Clorox2® is the older brother because it was developed first.  Liquid Clorox2® is younger, and is actually the middle child now that Clorox2® also comes in a Pack (sort of like having a kid sister).

So which one’s the best?  Baltimore or San Francisco?  Liquid or powder Clorox2®?  Take a page out of the coaches’ family playbook, and don’t pick a favorite!  Recognize that each son (and younger sister!) is talented and has a unique set of skills to produce winning results.  Liquid Clorox2® can be easily used as a pretreater to target tough stains directly.  The powder formulation includes enzymes, and is great for presoaking away ground-in dirt. The pack can be easily added to the basket of your clothes washer, improving the performance of a liquid detergent without mixing forms in the detergent dispenser.  Regardless of which product you stand behind and cheer for, each of them will give you better cleaning, whitening, and stain removal than washing with detergent alone.  Depending on how much bbq sauce is left on your tablecloth after the big party, that’s something to cheer for!

And of course if you must pick a favorite, it’s San Francisco all the way!  Who are you rooting for on Sunday?

Can I put Clorox2^® in my LG washing machine bleach dispenser?

The bleach dispenser on your clothes washer should only be used for regular household bleach (i.e. Clorox^® Regular-Bleach). That's because the clothes washer will delay flushing the compartment into the washer until later in the cycle. For best results, Clorox2^® should be added along with the detergent, and the dispenser compartment should be large enough to hold both products. Also, you should use the same form of detergent as you do Clorox2^®, powder + powder or liquid + liquid. For example, you don't want to add a powdered additive with a liquid detergent in the same compartment.

The collar of my shirts get very dirty, how can I treat this?

I’m guessing you have a shirt with “ring around the collar”, a combination of sweat and body soil that rubs off the neck and onto the inside collar of a shirt, leaving a dark stain that can be difficult to remove when it has been allowed to build up over time. On a white dress shirt, pre-treating is key, and we have a great product that makes this easy and convenient—Clorox^® Bleach Pen Gel. It’s got the same active as Clorox^® Regular-Bleach but at a much lower level so it’s safe to apply directly to bleachable white fabrics, providing concentrated cleaning power for tough stains. Just apply a little gel directly to the stain, gently rub it in with the soft scrubber tip, and then wash the shirt immediately in hot water using detergent + ¾ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach (or ½ cup if you are using New Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach). You didn’t mention the color of the shirt with a dirty collar—if it has color, then you’ll want to use liquid Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster to pretreat the stain before washing. Just pour a little Clorox2^® directly on the collar and gently rub it in. Wait 3-5 minutes, then wash the shirt in the hottest water recommended on the garment care label using detergent and more Clorox2^®. You can prevent collar stains from building up by doing this each time you wash the shirt, and it’s also good to only wear a shirt once before washing it.  Please let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks again for writing.

I got pen ink on my shirt. What can I do to treat it? Should I try Clorox bleach on it? Or is there some other method I can try?

I have a two-step process for dealing with ink stains that I hope will help you, but first you need to determine the colorfastness of the shirt. Many colored dress shirts can be safely bleached; do a quick bleachability test to be sure. Mix 2 tsp. Clorox^® Regular-Bleach in ¼ cup water, apply a drop to a hidden area (hem, inside cuff) and blot dry. No color change means the shirt can be safely bleached, and you would treat the stain as follows:

Apply alcohol-based hand sanitizer to the stain and let it soak in for a few minutes.

1. Wash in the hottest water allowed (check the care label) with detergent and ¾ cup Clorox Regular-Bleach. Allow the shirt to air dry and check for success.

If the shirt doesn’t pass the bleachability test, then you can use Clorox2^® Stain Fighter & Color Booster:

1. Apply alcohol-based hand sanitizer to the stain and let it soak in for a few minutes.


2. Apply Clorox2^® Stain Fighter & Color Booster directly to the stain, wait five minutes, then wash in the hottest water allowed with detergent + Clorox2^® Stain Fighter & Color Booster. Allow the shirt to air dry and check for success.

The biggest problem with a stain like this is that the ink is super concentrated and may require multiple treatments to get the stain out. Just be sure to continue to air dry the shirt in between treatments until you achieve success.

How do you remove baby food stains from baby clothes?

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^® 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.

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

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.

What is the best way to remove stains from a colored football jersey?

It is almost football season and this is a very common problem thanks to two-a-days and preseason games! Treatment really depends on the fiber composition. Dyed cottons are much more prone to bleeding/dye transfer and should always be washed separately according to the garment’s care label (usually in cool water). This makes it much more difficult to get really clean, however. So, scanning items for stains/spots and pretreating before washing is a must for any colored item. For colored synthetics (polyester/nylon), you usually have more flexibility as the dyes are more "permanent" and can take more aggressive treatment and washing. Use the warmest wash recommended on the care label (the hotter the water the better the cleaning/stain removal), the recommended amount of detergent and consider adding the appropriate bleach. A lot of these items can be bleached. To find out which items can safely be bleached, I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tsp Clorox^® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden colored area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel). No color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. Any color change could also show you the amount of change in color that likely will occur if you proceed with the liquid bleach usage. If you can't bleach the items, wash in the hottest water recommended on the care labels using detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster, or even a short 1/2 hour presoak in the oxygen bleach before the wash. Check for success before drying. It might require multiple treatments to get the desired result.

What is the best way to remove baby oil from clothing?

For stains that are concentrated oils, you can pre-treat with a small amount of liquid dishwashing detergent (like Dawn). Apply it directly to the stain, rub it in and then wait 5 minutes. This helps solubilize the oil. Then, if the stained item is white and does not contain spandex, wash in the hottest water recommended on the item’s care label with detergent + ¾ cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach. Or, if the item is colored, wash with detergent + Clorox2^® Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Washing in hot water is very important as this also aids in breaking up the oil for better removal. Air-dry the items so you can check for success, and repeat if any oil remains.