Sunday, November 14, 2010

I'm a Good Mom

You will have days when others make you feel like a bad mom. Look at the happy, smiling, laughing faces of your children and rest assured that you are not.

Yes, it's been a bad week!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Dreft Powder - A Great Stain Remover

My mother discovered something wonderful. Powdered Dreft is an amazing stain remover. I'm not kidding...the stuff is incredible. Raymond is in preschool and constantly comes home with his shirt covered in paint (and yes, they do wear smocks). Well one day Raymond came home with green paint all over his (fortunately?) all white t-shirt. I hand washed the shirt in regular detergent (we use ALL Free & Clear), then soaked it overnight in a very strong bleach and water mixture. I rinsed the shirt, but could tell before I rinsed it that the stains had only faded slightly. So after rinsing I spot bleached the stains and rinsed again. The stains faded a bit more, but not much. I continued spot bleaching and rinsing the stains four more times before deciding that the stains were there to stay. I accepted that the shirt was ruined, and was glad it was just a plain white t-shirt...after all, what could be easier to replace.

A few days later Raymond came home with the same green paint all over his mostly-but-not-all white shirt. "Great...another ruined shirt," I thought! This time I tried something my mom had done when we were visiting NY. I rinsed the stain in hot water with a pinch of hand soap just to get out whatever part of the stain was not set in already. Then I laid the wet shirt out on the counter and heavily sprinkled Dreft powder onto each of the stains. I then drizzled a pinch of water over the Dreft powder to turn it into a paste, and let the shirt sit overnight. In the morning I rinsed the shirt in the washing machine and found, to my surprise, the stains were completely gone!!!

Since this revelation, I've used Dreft on many stains and it has completely removed all but one. The one stain it didn't completely remove was a blood stain that sat in a white shirt overnight before I remembered it. The stain was so faded I really don't think I would have noticed it if I didn't remember exactly where it was.

So there you have it. Dreft powder is a great stain remover. I'm sure there are other incredible stain removers out there, but I like that this one is made for babies clothing.