What can I use to remove the awful smell out of dishrag?

If the dishrag is damp/wet on and off over a couple of days before you wash it, then odor causing bacteria is building up on the rag. If you only wash it with detergent, that's not enough to sanitize the rags and the smell (a mildewy, foul smell) will linger or reappear as soon as the "clean" rag gets wet. Washing in hot water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox^® Regular-Bleach (or 1/2 cup New Concentrated Clorox^® Regular-Bleach), will sanitize the rag and eliminate the odor. Be sure to wash with bleach every time you wash the rag!

My puppy came down with parvo. Can I use Clorox® on pine wood floors?

Regarding your wood floor, as long as it has a finish (in good condition) on it that effectively makes it a hard non-porous surface, a singular bleach treatment should be OK.  Even so, you should still test a small, less visible section first so you will know what to expect from the treatment.  Our EPA-registered protocol to kill canine parvovirus on hard non-porous surfaces is as follows: prepare a disinfecting solution of ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach and 1 gallon water.  Pre-wash the areas, then mop or wipe with the disinfecting solution.   Let stand for 10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly and air dry.  Consider working in small sections to be sure you can manage rinsing quickly and efficiently, and be sure the room is well ventilated.  You should also wear eye protection and gloves because you will be working with the bleach solution for a prolonged period of time.

Q:  I use bleach to sanitize, as well as whiten, my whites.  How can I sanitize bedding, towels, and underwear that are bright or dark colors?

A:  Unfortunately, there are currently no products that disinfect all colored laundry.  Our Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster contains hydrogen peroxide as its active ingredient, which is a much weaker bleach than sodium hypochlorite, the active ingredient in Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  So Clorox2® is color-safe for pretty much all your washable colored items, but doesn’t meet EPA disinfecting requirements.  You may, however, be able to safely launder your colored items with Clorox® Regular-Bleach (as long as the fabric is bleachable—always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex).  You can check colored items you aren’t sure about with a simple bleachability test:

• Dilute 2 teaspoons bleach in ¼ cup water.


• Apply a drop of this solution to a hidden part of the sheets, like the hem that gets tucked in at the foot of the bed.  For multicolored items be sure to check each color.


• Wait 1 minute then blot dry.  No color change means the item can be safely bleached.

It’s hard to predict what colors will pass the test--it really comes down to what dye is used and how it is applied. For any colored items that don’t pass the bleachability test with Clorox® Regular-Bleach, you can at least reduce germ counts by washing them in hot water, and using the hottest dryer heat setting.  Dryer heat doesn’t completely kill germs, but it does reduce their counts.  Other tips to consider include:

• Wash items you are concerned about separately to help prevent germs from spreading to other items—this can occur in the washer and when transferring/handling from the washer to the dryer.


• Wash/dry items of concern twice to further reduce the bacteria count.


• Make the next load a white/bleach load to sanitize the clothes washer.

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:  I need some help with clothes flooded in Hurricane Irene, in particular items that cannot go in hot water (delicate fabrics).  How do I handle them?  There is not a lot of mud, but water came reached them and wicked into the fabric.

A:  Watching the images on TV of the storm damage from Irene is really sobering, and I have been thinking about the people who have the daunting task of cleaning up.  Hopefully the flood waters you encountered were not contaminated, and your household water supply is safe for human consumption and skin contact.  Note that if your incoming water is not yet safe for drinking, you should not use it for any laundry unless you are hand-washing and using bleach.  Bleach needs to be added to both the wash and rinse water.  Thankfully it sounds like you have passed this hurdle.  Unfortunately, there is currently not a product for disinfecting any and all colored laundry items or fabrics made from wool, silk, mohair, spandex and leather.   Clorox2® has a different bleach active, hydrogen peroxide, which is a much weaker bleach and therefore safe for colors.  However, it doesn’t meet EPA disinfecting requirements.

To guarantee disinfection, you will need to wash as many items as possible with detergent + ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in the hottest water recommended on the care label, so figuring out which of your items can be safely bleached is an important first step.  There actually are many colored fabrics than can be safely bleached, and it depends on which type of dye was used to color the fabric.  Also, “delicate” fabrics can often be bleached as long as they are not made from the fibers listed above.  Cotton and nylon underwear, for example, are delicate and perfectly bleachable from a fiber standpoint.  For colored items that you are unsure about, you can easily test bleachability 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 and then blot dry


• No color change means the item can be safely bleached.  A color change shows what to expect following approximately five cycles with bleach.

I have had success safely bleaching light colored linens and towels, and 100% polyester fleece, to name a few.  Also, you only need to bleach your flood damaged items once.  Some of them could probably handle one wash cycle with bleach, but would fade after 5 cycles (blue jeans often can handle occasional bleach washing).  Because of the severity of the situation (and the possibility that your clothing could have been exposed to contaminated water), it would be worth it to try to bleach as many items as you can.  However, there are items that you simply can’t bleach, and for those you can try the following techniques to reduce the germ count as much as possible:

• Wash in hot water even if it is not what’s recommended on the care label.  This is especially important if your hot water heater is set at a lower temperature.


• 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.


• Air dry items made from wool outdoors in the sun.

Follow up with a washer clean-out cycle (running one cycle with the washer empty) with ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach to be sure the clothes washer is disinfected and germs don’t transfer to other loads.  Hopefully you can restore as many of your flood damaged non-bleachable items as possible. 

I also have some additional disaster preparedness bleach tips that might be helpful:

• If water supplies are compromised and you are unable to boil water for one minute (3 minutes at high elevation) you can create potable water by using regular liquid bleach. Add 1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) of bleach to one gallon of water. Let sit for 30 minutes. Properly treated water should have a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat dosage and let sit another 15 minutes. Use ¼ teaspoon of bleach (16 drops) for cloudy water.


• Disinfect surfaces, like counter tops, by first washing away all visible dirt. Apply a disinfecting solution of ¾ bleach per gallon of water. Let the solution stand for 5 minutes. Rinse thoroughly and let air dry.


• Make a family preparedness plan for communication in the event of an emergency. Put together an emergency preparedness kit that includes food, water (at least 1 gallon per person per day) a first aid kit, flashlight, radio, personal documents and sanitation supplies such like regular liquid bleach.


• In the wake of disaster, there is much to do as you assess the health and safety of your household as well as next steps to rebuild your life.  The first thing you’ll want to do is check communication channels to ensure that local officials have declared it safe to return home. When home, cleaning up after a natural disaster can be a daunting task so it’s important keep your health top of mind using these steps:
  
  
  
  • Before entering the home, look outside for loose power lines, damaged gas lines, foundation cracks or other damage
  
  
  • During cleanup, wear protective clothing, including rubber gloves and rubber boots
  
  
  • Look for flooding or large pools of standing water surrounding your home. These waters can be contaminated with high levels of bacteria that can make you sick, so disinfecting with a solution of bleach and water may help prevent the spread of infections and illness
  
  
  
  

Q:  How do I get the smell of bait out of my boyfriends’ clothes?

A:  Wow—I could really get into this question given that I go fishing every summer.  I would need some more information, though.  What type of fishing does he do—salt or fresh water?  What type of bait does he like—PowerBait, salmon eggs, worms, etc…  Also, what type of clothing does he wear for fishing?  Personally, I swear by a Gold 502 Super Duper lure for high alpine lakes in the Eastern Sierra.  I wash my fishing related clothing in hot water with detergent and  powdered Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster, but I only have to deal with stains and odors related to cleaning fish—lures don’t leave behind an odor.

Readers – how do you remove that fishy smell from your clothing?

Q:  How do I get rid of perspiration stains?

A:  These stains are hugely problematic, partly because they are highly variable.  On underwear style t-shirts, it might be a crusty buildup of deodorant/antiperspirant.  Or it can just be a light smear of antiperspirant/deodorant that transferred to a shirt while it was being put on.  On others, like silk tops, it’s discoloration that is impossible to restore.  Light smears usually come off with regular washing.  For the crusty build up, it’s better to not let it happen in the first place, so if you have white t-shirts are in really bad shape I would start fresh by stocking up on new ones.  Then to prevent build-up on an on-going basis, try the following:

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 whether or not you actually see any stain every time you wash a shirt.


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


3. Unless you have an obvious stain you were trying to remove, you can tumble dry the shirts with the rest of your white load.  Otherwise let them air dry.

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

1. Apply liquid Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster directly to the armpit area and rub it in; wait 3-5 minutes (don't 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.

For stained shirts that you have and you want to restore, you can try a recommendation often provided in clothes washer user’s guides.  Here’s a little more detail on how to do it:

1. Working into a dishpan, pour boiling water slowly through each armpit stain.  This is to “melt” any build-up, which is a combination of deodorant, sweat, body soil, bacteria, etc.  It will help if you position the shirt in the dishpan before you start so that you can get to each stain without touching the shirt since once you begin--it will be boiling hot!

2. Don’t 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 a 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 mix up enough so you can 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 other methods.  If you do try to restore your shirts, please let me know how it goes!

Readers – have you had trouble with perspiration stains?  What is your solution to this problem?

Q: Bleach sometimes affects my asthma when I clean with it; how much liquid bleach do you recommend when mopping floors?

A: You probably know this, but it’s always good to clarify:  Clorox® Regular-Bleach should always be diluted when used—we never recommend using it full strength for cleaning any hard surface or fabric! 

For mopping floors (ceramic tile, vinyl, linoleum—not marble or other porous surfaces that aren’t safe for bleach), mix up a solution of ¾ cup bleach added to 1 gallon of water.  For disinfecting, wipe or wash the floor, then apply the bleach solution and let stand for 5 minutes.  Rinse well and air dry.  Also, be sure the area is well ventilated while you are working.

How many readers like using bleach when mopping floors?

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'm still not sure if any of your products are safe for granite kitchen countertops. While our granite was sealed upon installation (as all granite is!), it has not been done in four years - and our granite expert tells us it's still fine. We do not want to ruin the granite, but want to find a safe product to not just clean, but disinfect each day.

A: Actually we have several products that are safe for sealed granite countertops. Our new Formula 409® Natural Stone Cleaner is specially designed for this purpose.
For disinfecting, our registered EPA product is Clorox® Disinfecting Kitchen Cleaner. While the Formula 409® Natural Stone Cleaner has many of the same ingredients, it is not registered to be able to claim disinfecting.