I’m an artist – my favorite type of art to create being mixed media and involving a bunch of different kinds of paints, adhesives, dyes, clays, and inks. I have kids and am known as the “crafty” one in the family, doing arts and crafts projects with relatives aged 4 to 24. I have a German Shepherd with stomach issues and a cat (until recently, three cats, two of which had serious bladder and digestive issues). My basement is being renovated and my future son-in-law has dug up my backyard so he can put in a new patio for me. I love to cook and experiment with new recipes but I’m completely unable to eat most meals without wearing some of the food on my shirt. What does all of this add up to? Tough stains on almost every piece of clothing and linens that we own!
See this? That’s going to be a patio but currently, it’s just a pit of dirt. Or, when it rains, a giant mud puddle.
Oh, did I mention that it’s also JUST outside my back door and RIGHT in the path of the dog when I let her out to do her business? No amount of door mats and wiping off the 85 lb. lap dog’s paws can keep all of that dirt outside.
This is a picture of one of my favorite quilts. See that stain? That is months’ worth of ground in mud and dirt (and whatever else the dog is dragging in on her paws….shudder!) that I haven’t been able to remove. Recently, I was sent 2 tubs of Resolve® –Resolve® Oxi-Action In-Wash Powder and Resolve® Oxi-Action Crystal White In-Wash Powder and I decided to put it to the test on my quilt.
To start with, I mixed 1/4 scoop of Resolve Oxi-Action In-Wash Powder with 3/4 scoop of warm water to form a paste. I applied the paste to the stains and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Now, here comes the cool part – the Resolve scoop comes with these little nobbles on the bottom so you can use it as a scrubber. I used it to gently rub the paste into the stains. Now, normally I would either do this pre-treatment technique OR I’d soak it but since these were quite old, stubborn stains, I decided to try both. You can use a bucket for this but since it was a large queen sized quilt, I used my bathtub. (Some washing machines have a pre-soak function on them too). I filled it with enough warm water to cover the quilt, added a scoop of Resolve Oxi-Action In-Wash Powder, and let it soak for about half an hour. Finally, I added a scoop of Resolve to my washing machine with my regular detergent, put the quilt in ,and washed it as per usual.
Here are the results. There is no trace of the stains anywhere on the quilt! Now that’s impressive!
What kind of tough stains do you have to deal with at your house? Have you ever had to just throw something out because you couldn’t remove the stain? Well, before you ever do that again, you need to check out the new Resolve site: Resolve® Tip Exchange. There you’ll find all kinds of tips for dealing with a wide variety of stains and you can even submit your own tips. Here’s one I shared:
The Worst Pet Stains I’ve Ever Dealt With: My dog has a lot of stomach issues AND if she has the chance, she loves to rummage through the trash or dig around outside and eat whatever she can find, which of course, doesn’t help the stomach problems. Once, I had to go out of town for the day and had left the dog at home alone. When I arrived home, I opened the door and was assaulted by the most horrible smell I’ve ever experienced. I flipped on the light and then wished I hadn’t. From one end of my house to the other, well, let’s just say she had been sick REPEATEDLY from both ends. It wasn’t just on the floor, but also on the couches and a pile of laundry I had neglected to take down to the laundry room. Now, what exactly do you do when you encounter such nasty stains? You could cry (I wanted to, believe me), you could just throw everything out (it was tempting), or you could follow these steps:
1) You need to use something like a dull knife (a plastic disposable one or a wooden popsicle stick works well if you have any on hand) and very gently, you scrape away the solid bits. You want to use a light touch because you don’t want to force the mess further into the fibers of the fabric.
2) Next, I used some paper towels to absorb up some of the excess liquid.
3) After that, I used some tepid water to rinse away whatever I could.
4) Once you’ve done all of that, you can begin the actual stain treatment. Now that I’ve seen how well Resolve works, this is when I would reach for it and make a paste of it to use as a pre-treatment, followed by adding a scoop of it to the washing machine when I’m ready to launder the stained item.
What are your best stain removal tips? Be sure to share them on the new Resolve® Tip Exchange.and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of 12 weekly prizes of $250 and the grand prize of $5000!
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