I don’t give a lot of practical household advice because I am not the queen of clean! But we were sharing a few tips during an iMOM content brainstorm and I realized I have a couple good ones that came to me out of desperation. With 5 kids I had to develop a laundry strategy out of self defense!
This first trick developed because my kids wore white uniform shirts to school that were daily be-speckled with food. I simply cannot stand dirty white shirts, spotted with who knows what. They made my kids look dirty before they even walked out the door in the morning! Throwing a cup of bleach into the white load did not work for me. The leftover bleach would somehow drip onto the next load in the washer which was never white and spot the colored clothes. And the cup of bleach once diluted in water was not strong enough for each and every spot. Lastly, the kids uniforms had a colored emblem on them that over time would turn pink from that one cup of bleach.
My Stain Solution for Whites
My laundry solution is to keep a fine tipped squeeze bottle filled with bleach on the washer. As I load the washer with whites anything that needs a dot of bleach gets it directly. Then it goes right into the washer and voila! The load is white, bright and spotless and there are no leftover drops in the machine that leak onto the next load of laundry.
My Wrinkle Solution
My second laundry tip comes from an over load of wrinkled laundry. With the 5 kid run around I am constantly throwing clothes in the dryer but I am rarely home or available when the dryer cycle completes. So clothes cool in a very wrinkled position. And ironing?! That takes even longer. My friend, Michelle, taught me this one. Take a fine spray bottle of water. As you hang clothes up give them a spritz and just smooth the shirt (or pants) with your hands and let it hang dry. So easy! This doesn’t smooth out all fabrics but it works well enough on most knits and heavy cottons to cut down the ironing load.
What are yours short cuts to clean?
I could always use a new trick!
