How to get your children's clothes clean

I'm not sure how kids do it, but if there is a mess to be made, then it somehow ends up on their clothes. Now that my oldest wears uniforms, this means white polo shirts some days that are filthy. I thought I would offer a few tips.

1. Use an enzyme based pretreater. 

I've tried a lot of pretreatment cleaners out there. In my experience, the best one out there is the Resolve cleaner. It even seems to get out set-in stains. I keep the stain sticks or the sprays in each of my girl's bedrooms. I pretreat before throwing in the hamper and let them sit till I can wash on the weekend. I buy it on Amazon.

2. Use Oxiclean in the wash...at least 2-3 scoops.

If you do use it, make sure to fill up the washer with detergent and water first before putting in the clothes. Also, a second rinse often helps because sometimes Oxi cakes on your clothes.

3. Try good old fashioned blue Dawn on oil based stains

I've used dish detergent many times for oil based stains. Some people like chalk on oil stains, but it hasn't worked as well for me.

4. Use a fabric color catcher in the wash

I use the Shout brand. I think these are crucial if you don't always sort by color. Since I usually wash their clothes on hot, these fabric sheets often catch the bleeding colors.

5. Try soaking in Oxiclean for a week

Before I discovered Resolve, I resorted to week long soaks in a bucket. This saved a few items.

6. Chlorine bleach when needed

If I have a mostly white item that is going to be otherwise unwearable, I'll resort to bleach as a last resort. I recently got some blue ink off of a mostly white My Little Pony shirt for my youngest. It didn't really ruin the other ponies. 

Hope you found these tips helpful!