British Expatriate Network

The news is that my clothes are much cleaner. It is suprising how far a little effort goes. My whites are super white, and my colors (now with color safe bleach) are cleaner too.

Pat on the back for everyone.

.. but.. but... "you are NOT going to get anything clean doing that sort of thing..."

:wink:

It's really interesting, how many people know exactly how to do stuff, and how many say that is exactly not the way to do it. The consensus seems to be front loaders. I haven't used a front loader in about 30 years, but I didn't think it any better.

For clothes with organic stains, grass blood etc. a soak in Biz works wonders. I routinely set the machine at small wash and add Biz and my underclothes and any other whites or lights with stains and stop the machine. I let them soak for at least half an hour, sometimes all day if I forget. Then I reset for large, add detergent and the rest of the clothes. Works great, my underwear is spotless.

We learned about Biz from an antiques dealer. If they get an old, stained, lace table cloth, they soak it in Biz and then pour boiling water through it. Sometimes it doesn't work, but it works often enough that they keep buying useless looking antique cloths and making them look wholesome, and making them a good profit.

Well done.  Cigars all round!   :wink:

I was actually assuming that those who just purchased a $75 pair of jeans would rather them wearable and SLIGHTLY more dirty......but maybe that's just me! :roll:

KR

$75??? don't you have a k-mart where you live? :wink:

$75 jeans ? I can get beautifully tailored fine wool trousers for that. Jeans are for gardening and fence mending. razz

A good way to tie in the allergy thread too - if you have allergies, don't wash your clothes in cold water. The hotter the better to get rid of the allergens attached to the clothes, apparently )

Cold water has always (and will always be) the organic way of lifting the majority of stains off all types of clothing. Tried and tested for centuries and done properly, still works today. However, not everyone has the time or patience to do it that way - me included ;)

This reminds me of the old UK advert for Persil Automatic and the little wash-ball or was it Ariel Automatic?

"The stain says hot! The label says not!"

*smiles and puffs on her cigar*

I just couldn't resist, Karen. lol

A chick who likes a cigar?

/hot damn I think I'm in love
//next thing you'll tell me you wear a nice suit at the same time
///marlene dietrich stylee grrrr mrgreen

Very true, and that's why all bedding should be washed with hot and regularly -much more uncomfortable for dust/bed mites, and another strike against these daft comforters without removable covers ;)

You'd probably be sorely disappointed! :wink:

Maybe we should do a test - see which stains come out using just hot water and detergent and no cheating by putting anything on the stain or anything extra in the water, and then see which stains come out using cold water first ;)

Well I have the proof for you if that's what you want....

I got a stain down the front of one of my favourite light blue tops. The stain was chocolate cookie dough frozen yoghurt from Ben & Jerrys.

I had always washed the top in cold water. It is kinda delicate and I didn't want to destroy or shrink it. I applied the liquid wash and some Oxy stuff to it neat, and put it in. After the cold wash, stain was still there.

I then washed it on warm, and applied the same neat cleaning solutions to the stain. No results.

As a last resort (because with the stain it was unwearable anyway) I stuck it in with more neat liquid/powder on it, cranked the knob up to hot wash, and washed it. The stain was GONE.

Ta-da!

KR

God there's gonna be Shane Richie banging at the door shortly 8)