I just want to confess that I just dogeared a page in my cookbook. This is huge people! I am very anti dogearing. And I just did it. But I have reason! I promise I didn't do it on a whim. I have gotten tired of having to look up the page on how to make yogurt every time I do it, and that's once a week. I even paused to think about it before I did it. Please don't cane me.

I apparently have some fans of my Tip Tuesday and had a complaint, okay not really a complaint, for a roommate from college. Little does she know that I did it on purpose so she would call me. Of course, I didn't know she's been lurking for a while.

Tip Tuesday
Laundry

It's the much anticipated laundry addition. Not really anticipated, since you didn't know I was going to write this. I knew and have been anticipating it. I may need to make this 2 posts, we'll see.

Pretreatment:
Very important if you are anal about stains. I don't like them but have accepted that my kids, not to mention my own clothes will get stuff on them and sometimes they will stain. I have let a lot of that go...I think.

First and foremost, treat your stains every evening or sooner depending on how important the item is to you. Sweetie Heart inevitably comes home from school with a spot or ten on her clothes. I have told her to put clothes with spots on them in the bathroom so I can treat them every night. A basket or would be great idea for that. When she gets bigger I'll teacher how to do it for herself. I hang the clothes over the shower rod to dry and them throw them in the laundry the next day.

For pretreatment I usually just use diluted dish detergent in one of those foaming dispensers. I picked up one on sale, I think Huggies brand, and keep reusing it. It works great. I wet the stain with warm water, work in the soap and rinse. That actually takes most of my stains out. Sometimes I do it a couple of times.

If you get ink on you clothes spray aerosol hairspray on it and rinse in warm water. It also works on marker. I've even used it on sharpie, it doesn't usually get all of it out, but it usually lessens it a bit.

When you get oil on your clothes while cooking put a drop of dish detergent on it immediately! It will dissolve the oil. If you wait it might take a while to get out. You will have a spot on your clothes, but when you rinse your clothes out after you take them off it will come right out. I just figured this out a couple of months ago.

Peroxide will take out fresh blood. The sooner you get it on the better it works. Once the blood dries you have a different beast.

My sister in law picked up some "Fan's Laundry Soap from Singapore" for him when she was in Chicago's China Town. He sent me one of the bars and it is amazing!! I love this stuff. I was mowing the neighbor's lawn one afternoon in cream pants (why you ask yourself, too lazy to go upstairs and change) and got grass stains on the cuff of my pants (shocker!) That evening when I took them off I wet them and rubbed some of this soap in, worked up a lather and rinsed. It came out! I could hardly believe it. It nice because it's a bar and it smells great! If you have a china town near by, rush over and pick some up. And while you're at it pick one up and send it to me to express you appreciation for the tip! You can also get it online. Google Fan's Laundry Soap and you'll see where you can get it. I haven't purchased any yet, so I won't recommend anyone.

Some things I don't even pretreat. I chance it with normal washing. If it doesn't come out, oh well. I can't keep all out clothes in pristine condition and some stuff I just don't want to waste the energy on.

My personal philosophy is that clothes are going to get stuff on them. If you don't want that to happen to a particular item, don't buy it, or save it for special. Don't let your kids wear it to school or all day, just to church. Look at where you are going and what you will be doing, does it increase the likelihood of stainage? That said you can't be in control all the time. Sweetie Heart once spilled iodine all over one of my favorite white dresses that she had on for church. How she got the iodine I don't know, but I was crushed. I took it off her immediately and started washing it out with dish soap. And wouldn't you know it came out! I couldn't believe it! The sooner you get to the stain the easier it will be to come out.

Washing:
Save yourself some money and use about half what the manufacture says to use. If there are suds after the final rinse cycle there is still soap in the clothes and you have used too much. This is very obvious for me because I have a front loader with a glass front. You can also lift the lid during the final rinse and see how many soap bubble you see, there shouldn't be any.

I've used the disks with success. It's a bit spendy up front, but work really well. My aunt gave me some Tsunami Wave and really liked them. Another alternative, if you have the money is to use a LaundryPure and is manufactured by EcoQuest. Webby's aunt sells these so if you're interested let me know. It ionized the water before it goes into the machine, so it mounts behind the machine. I don't have one of these yet, but I will. She says it works great and saves tons of money! But they are a big investment up front, but you can try it for free and send it back if you're not satisfied.

I don't use bleach. I don't like the smell and it doesn't seem to really help when I have used it. I do use oxiclean sometimes and I use the natural bleach alternative. It's basically peroxide, but it works well on my whites and doesn't smell like anything.

That's all for now. I post more about drying and folding next week so tune in again!