June 2021 - Sapulpa Laundry

Cleaning Summertime Mildewed Towels

Its summertime and that means wet towels from the swimming pool, lake, or the beach. At some point most of us have used a towel, for whatever reason, and tossed it into the dirty laundry and forgotten it was wet. A few days later and the smell will remind you! That smell is caused by mildew that sets in, and isn’t very easy to get rid of. Washing your towels a few times on a normal setting may get rid of that stink, but if that isn’t enough to combat the mildew smell, I’ve found a way to get your towels back in shape and get that unpleasant smell out quickly. Here is how:

Place your smelly towels in the washing machine and fill with the hottest water possible. Add in 2 cups of white vinegar and let them soak for at least 30 mins. Do not add any other products (detergent, softener etc.). This will allow the vinegar to penetrate the material without interference.
Run a full cycle after your towels have soaked in the vinegar water. Leaving the towels in the washer repeat step 1, only this time use baking soda instead of vinegar. Run a full cycle once again.
Dry the towels on hottest setting possible until they are fully dry

Your towels will smell like brand new!

Stuffed Animal Care

Did you know it’s perfectly safe to throw most stuffed animals in the washing machine? On gentle cycle using warm or cold water, a washing machine will get your stuffed animals clean without ruining them.

Most care labels instruct to hand wash, but after raising two kids and needing to deep clean their beloved friends, I tried machine washing. Set the washing machine to the delicate cycle, apply some Spray N’ Wash, Mean Green, or your choice of stain remover if needed, scrub a little, and wash. Afterwards hang them up to dry. I learned the hard way. Throwing them in the dryer can melt the faux fur.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN DECIDING IF YOUR STUFFED ANIMALS CAN BE WASHED IN THE WASHING MACHINE:

The care label – if it can be hand washed, it can likely withstand the delicate cycle in the washing machine. Your washing machine may even have a hand wash cycle.
Material – Take notice of the care label and use your sense of touch as well as sight to thoroughly examine all parts of the stuffed animal to be washed. Polyester and acetate (a form of cotton) are fine to wash. The stuffed animals I washed have plastic pellets and were fine, but you wouldn’t want to machine wash something with foam balls such as Beanie Babies. Be cautious of delicate clothing items and things that are glued on, they may not survive!
Age – The older it is, the more fragile it will be.

Removing Chocolate Stains

Have you ever eaten a chocolate sundae and looked down to see the chocolate has dripped on your shirt? It can almost ruin that yummy experience you just had. Never fear, there’s ways to get rid of that chocolate stain!

Scrape or blot away any excess chocolate from stain. Be gentle when doing this, because you don’t want to grind the chocolate into the fibers.
Flush the back of the stained fabric with cold running water or soda water. Ideally, hold the fabric under the tap or saturate the stain with cold water or soda water. This will help loosen the chocolate and flush them out of the clothing fibers.
Rub a laundry detergent or liquid dish-washing detergent into the stain. Do this thoroughly (but not too rough) and make sure the detergent saturates the fabric. Persil liquid has a Stain Eraser Ball that you can use for pre-treating stains.

Soak the garment in cold water for 15 minutes, and gently rub at the stain every 3-5 minutes or so. Keep on doing this and rinsing, until the stain is gone. You may need to re-apply more detergent for a tough stain.
If the stain persists, apply a commercial stain remover.
Launder as usual in the washing machine, and the stain should be gone! If not, repeat Steps 2 to 5. Be sure to check the stain is completely gone before you tumble-dry or iron the garment.