Removing Fruit Juice Stains

I don't know about you, but my kids seem to be able to get food on their clothes no matter how big a bib you have on them or how many times you tell them to close their mouths when they chew.  I could probably feed them naked into a sterile bubble, and the food would somehow find the clean clothes in their drawer and smear itself all over them.

Of course, it's not always the kids.  My hubby recently got cherry juice on a white shirt (in his defense, my nephew was helping him pit cherries, and he claims that it was actually the nephew who got it on his shirt).  

I was told to pour boiling water over the stain, that it would come right out, and that cold water would set the stain in.  I tried this (once the stain was dry and the shirt removed, of course), and the stain did not come out, though it was diluted.

So I tried following up with a wash in hot water with Charlie's Soap.  It still didn't come completely out.  (Contrary to what I was told, I think the boiling water actually set the stain.)

My 5-year-old daughter once got raspberries all down the front of her brand-new white shirt.  (Seriously, who takes their little kid to a church pot luck in a brand-new white shirt?  And then lets her eat raspberries?  Yeah, not too bright here.)  Once we got home, I got the shirt wet with cold water and rubbed a bar of real soap on it (as in, not store-bought "soap," which is really detergent.  For your own real soap, find a tutorial here).  Then I threw it in a cold wash with Charlie's Soap.  It came out beautifully white and still is (though terribly wrinkled at the moment)!

The moral of this story is:  Don't pit cherries or eat raspberries in a white shirt.  But if you do, rub the stain down with REAL soap, and wash in COLD water (preferably with Charlie's Soap).

  

Quick Tip #2 -- Laundry

Keeping up with laundry for 7 people is something I've been struggling with for years.  Especially when 5 of those people are tiny people who seem to go through a lot of laundry in any given day.

I had three large laundry bins in my laundry room, which were constantly overflowing.  I felt like I was doing tons of laundry all the time, yet my son would still ask me, "Do I have any clean boxers?  There are none in my drawer."  It was constantly hanging over my head.

Then I discovered this tip over at "I'm an Organizing Junkie."  Like she said it did to her, it changed my life.

I no longer have bins in my laundry room for colors, whites, etc.  I no longer have mountains of laundry ruling my life.  Guess what?  I've been 100% caught up on laundry in my house for TWO WEEKS!!  That means that everything is washed, folded, and put away.  This system is MIRACULOUS!!!

Every person in the family has their own laundry basket in their room.  Each person is assigned to a day of the week.  And each person's clothes get washed on their day--no sorting of colors, etc (unless it's a fancy white dress or something like that).  For example, on Mondays I wash Little Love #1's and Little Love #2's clothes.  They're both small, and their clothes are small, so I put them all together into one load.  When they're dry, I pull them out of the dryer and fold them immediately into their own laundry basket.  Since #1 is a girl and #2 is a boy, it's a no-brainer as I fold--no thinking required.  They each get their basket back and put everything away.  Then I wash Mr. Man's work clothes, and am done for the day!  Tuesdays I do my clothes and Mr. Man's clothes.  Wednesday I do miscellaneous ones--like throw blankets or whatever--or none at all.  Wednesdays are crazy around here.  Thursdays I do #5's clothes and towels.  Fridays are #3's and #4's clothes and, again, any miscellaneous loads that may need to be done.  Every other day I also do a load of cloth diapers.  Saturdays are also for anything miscellaneous or anything I missed during the week if my schedule got thrown off.

I'm not strict with this schedule.  If I look around and see a load that really needs to be done, I may go ahead and do it on another day.  My laundry room is right off of our classroom, so it's really easy to switch loads while the kids are doing schoolwork.

And all of the clothes get picked up off the kids' bedroom floors on a regular basis.  They're actually doing really well at keeping them in their baskets, actually.  So no more of this:

What a great system!!  Now, my laundry room is actually getting organized.  I may actually post a picture of it some day.  =)

Do you have any great laundry tips that have revolutionized your life?