Q:  My husband has oily hair and has left the pillowcases yellowed. How do I make them white again and do I soak them (how much and how long) before washing? I'm afraid this has built up over time.

A:  This is quite a problem, not just because of the oil build up, but also from the likelihood that these pillowcases have been going into a hot dryer following each wash cycle.  Heat from the dryer can “set” stains, making them very difficult to get out.  However, with a series of soaks you should be able to whiten the pillowcases substantially.  I would pre-soak several times with a couple of different products so you can solubilize the oil, as well as break up and remove residual body soil.  It’s best to work on the oily residue first:

• In a plastic dishpan, dissolve 1 scoop of powdered Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster in 2 gallons of very hot water—getting it up to around 160°F (using water from a tea kettle with hot tap water works well). Completely submerge the pillowcases (weigh them down if necessary—glass pie dishes work well) for 8 hours or overnight.  Rinse the pillowcases and dish pan before the next step.


• Pre-soak with a Clorox® Regular-Bleach soaking solution.  Add ¼ cup bleach to 1 gallon of water and fully submerge the pillowcases for 5 minutes.  Drain the soaking solution and then wash the pillowcases in hot water using detergent + ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.


• Air dry the pillowcases and check to see if any yellowing remains.  If it looks like you are making progress, then repeat the steps if necessary.

Q:  Can I use Clorox to remove or prevent stains on my laundry?  They are sort of rust colored and may be from our well hard water. 

A:  That’s too bad about the rust stains in your laundry, and that you have hard water.  Unfortunately rust stains can NOT be removed with Clorox® Regular-Bleach (or any chlorine bleach for that matter).  You need to use a rust remover product instead, and these can be found at hardware stores. Just be sure to read and follow the package directions, including testing items for colorfastness to the rust remover, and wearing gloves.

I would also consider installing a water filtration/softener system for your clothes washer—the brown stains you are getting indicate that your well water includes metals (probably iron and manganese) in addition to higher concentrations of calcium and magnesium.  Until they are removed, using bleach will exacerbate the problem.  Improving water quality will get you better laundry results in the long run and is worth it! 

Does anyone else suffer from hard water stains?

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.

• 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®.

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:  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 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:  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?