OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover

Laundry is one of my least favourite of the household chores yet it falls to me because conditions make it easier to do during daytime hours. Back when it was just me and SB, it was easy, heck - downright manageable to do the laundry - in our condition.

What condition is that, you ask?

We don't own a washer or dryer, we use the laundry room in our building. There are no laundromats within a reasonable distance. I guess the facilities aren't completely bad, I've endured worse. But the lack of cycle choices is really frustrating.

I've noticed that since becoming a family, our laundry has increased exponentially. And stains have multiplied by at least twelve and have become more stubborn. This has lead to lots of pre-treating which I usually am too lazy forget to do. Can someone explain why a 25 pound child generates approximately eight loads of laundry a week?

oh right, it's her love of all stain producing substances

There are three water choices when doing the wash down in the building basement: ice cold, a bit too warm, and scald. There are two spin variations of delicates (very little agitation) and regular. There is no choice for soak so I must stand there with all the washers open and force a soak cycle. This has proved difficult to do with a toddler, and trying to time it is impossible.

Regardless - the clothing just doesn't get as clean as it should and when I do remember to use a stain pre-treatment product, it sometimes just doesn't work. Like on my throw pillows, my favourite throw pillows.

I bought two beautiful slip covers - off-white with a pale fawn coloured tree design on the front because the living room need something to offset the "designed by play school" look that it took on when Bumper came along. These two throw pillows became an anchor for me in the adult world and somewhat important to my sanity.

But like anything in a toddler's world, they became fair game and one morning while I sat on the sofa enjoying my coffee, Bumper decided to dive bomb me - which meant my precious pillows became sprinkled with coffee stains. I pretreated but had poor results.

I have a hard time living with annoying stains [obsessive much?]. Needless to say I volunteered when the Parent Bloggers Network asked for testers of a new OxiClean product. I do believe I screamed said in my email to volunteer: "OMG pick me! I am stained and use an apartment laundry room with next to no soak cycle." Or something equally as desperate sounding.

I received a small tub of Oxi Clean Versatile Stain Remover. The product claims to remove stains, be color-safe, counteract fade-causing chemicals in tap water, and is 100% chlorine-free.

To me one of the most important thing when trying a new laundry product is how our skin will react (we have some sensitivities). So I used it on the dish clothes, bath, and tea towels first. Our kitchen towels get dirty with an emphasis on dirt so they usually would require an individual pre-treat if I wanted to get them looking clean.

Skipping the pre-treat, I added three scoops (large load recommendation) plus my detergent to the water, let it dissolve and crossed my fingers. The load came out looking great, new stains gone, and most importantly we had no skin reactions*. Really old and set marks faded but I didn't expect miracles on something washed dozens of times since becoming stained. I was pleased.

Next I added it to our dark load (lukewarm + delicate = not as clean as it should be) and once again I was pleased - no leftover stains and no skin reactions*.
* skin reactions were gauged after the laundry was dry and used/worn

But I hadn't thrown it any real curve balls. It was doing what it promised: fade-resistance for colours, and light stain remover but I hadn't really tested any stubborn stains. For this, I did two tests: toddler clothing and my precious, precious throw pillows.

Toddler clothing: This load came out great - new stains were whipped (a tall order without pretreat) and no fading. Trust me, her outfits not only get washed often, sometimes when no washers are available or the room has closed, her clothes have to sit with stains. Some of those stains can be really tough to remove. Food stains were gone.

Precious throw pillows: Coffee stains came out and I swear there may have been tears shed (but I won't admit it here). My pillows look great save for a very tiny incredibly hard to see area that was the oldest stain and you really needed where to look to see it. I wish I had done a before and after photo for you - but I didn't.

So OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover (a) removed stains, (b) replaced an annoying and often forgotten pre-treat, and (c) was gentle for our sensitive skin. My only complaint? I need MORE than a 1.5 pound sample. I practically used it all in that one trip to the laundry room, I only saved enough for my precious pillows. Now I must find me a six pound bucket of the stuff so I can finish last weeks laundry.

Check out what others thought of OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover over here at the Parent Bloggers Network.

I laugh at you, you potential stain waiting to happen.
You will never scare me again with OxiClean on my side!