Spring Cleaning Part II: A Few of my Favorite Things

I apologize for the delay: I caught the flu the day after Part I, and in the subsequent weeks endured (as a mother not a patient) two cases of pink eye, one ear infection and one overdose of Milk of Magnesia (resulting in a trip to the ER and several blow-out diapers). Most of this also occurred while my husband relaxed in Hawaii. Poor guy. Enough "poor me"; here it is, Part II. Thanks for the nudge, RW.

I may stink at keeping things clean, but I'm pretty good at the actual cleaning - once I get around to it. This post is dedicated to my favorite products and techniques. Mostly my laundry super-stain-fighting secrets! So, get me a cape and teach me to fly. I really do have super powers.

I like to think that my background in chemistry gives me an edge over the average housewife when it comes to getting stains out of clothing. But, it probably has more to do with my mad Google skills than with my chemistry knowledge (shhh, don't tell anyone that). Below are a list of my favorite products and the stain(s) that they remove.

Hydrogen Peroxide: My aunt, a nurse, turned me on to this one. Blood, fresh or dried, can be mostly removed by pouring H2o2 directly on the stain. It bubbles and fizzles pleasantly as it oxidizes away the stain, and the remaining color can usually be washed out by a normal wash cycle. (Chemical principle: oxidation)

Bar Keeper's Friend (oxalic acid): gets out rust. and probably blood (although I prefer H202 for that. The fizzing is really that cool. I suggest bleeding on your clothes on purpose just to experience the joy of it.) Make a wet paste on the stain and let sit for a few minutes. Rinse out, launder as normal. This also cleans stainless-steel wonderfully. (Chemical principle: oxidation)


Isopropyl (rubbing) Alcohol: Takes out ink. EVEN SHARPIE INK. I kid you not. In fact I got red sharpie out of Goose's shirt today. The trick to this one is to get to it quickly and to persist, refreshing with new alcohol frequently. (Chemical principles: solubility and if you are lucky you'll get a little home chromatography show as you separate the ink's components.)


Zote Soap. This is a new addition to my arsenal. A latin soap my sister introduced to me. It removes yellow deodorant stains from white shirts with a little soaking and a LOT of elbow grease. Nothing else I've tried has made a dent in deodorant stains. Plus it smells nice. (Chemical principle: emulsification, i.e. soap)

Lestoil. This is a grease cutter made by Clorox, but it is hard to find. I get it in the cleaning aisle in my grocery store. It's main ingredients are petroleum distillates and pine oil. It is really amazing on grease stains. For some reason I always wash and dry chapstick. Baked in grease is impossible to remove, say most laundry bibles. Not so! Rub this stinky stuff into the oil spots, wash normally, and air dry (repeat as necessary). When the stain comes out you will probably want to wash an additional two times to get the stinkiness of the lestoil out. Pine-Sol may also work for this, as it also contains pine oil (although I think the petroleum distillates do most of the work, in which case - perhaps Goo-Gone?) but I haven't tried it yet. When I do, I'll post an update. Note to self: as amazing as lestoil is, it's probably easier just to check your jean pockets before starting the wash. (Chemical principle: solubility)


When all else fails Oxi-Clean. A few scoops in a bucket full of scalding hot water (more than the box recommends), and soak forever (at least 24 hours). This works on a lot of stains that have even been through the dryer. Baby food bananas (amazingly difficult to get out), baby poop (also amazingly difficult to remove), tomato sauce, chocolate, dirt, and any unidentified stain goes straight into this. (Chemical principle: um, duh? oxidation)


I hardly use bleach. I don't think getting a stain out of a t-shirt is worth ruining the jeans I'm wearing, which is what inevitably happens. I did like the bleach pen for a while, but I ran out and haven't been bothered enough by it's absence to remember to look for it at the store. (Chemical principle: once again, our friend: oxidation)

Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. I'm just getting to know this product. It's a melanine foam stick that essentially scrapes stains off walls and just about everything else. Crayon on the wall? No problem. I really like this for cleaning cabinet fronts and my dining room walls which get very gross from sticky hands and flung food. I don't use it on the big bumps - like dried oatmeal - it tears the eraser, but all the other goo comes off a lot better with the eraser than with a regular rag. I would recommend buying the name brand product. The Target brand fell apart a lot faster than Mr. Clean. I also do not like the new double-sided sponge. It's a gimmick to put out a new, more expensive product. It was more difficult to use due to the hard interface and fell apart faster.

What's the "Magic"? Melamine is a really hard substance (think melamine countertop). It's still hard when made into a foam, the hard strands are just really tiny and have a lot of air incorporated into them, making the sponge itself soft and supple. When you rub the wall, you are literally scraping off the crayon. (A more detailed explanation is found at How Stuff Works - one of my favorite websites). Just, um, don't give it to your kids as a teether, ok? (Chemical principle: abrasion)

I love all these products for emergencies, but for every day cleaning, most things can be done with water, baking soda, and vinegar. Use water and baking soda for almost anything, vinegar for mirrors/windows, baking soda followed vinegar for clogged and/or stinky drains, etc. I even bathe my children in baking soda baths.

Keep it as simple, keep it cheap, and keep it green. Unless you washed your chapstick (again).

Economic Crisis

I have a MS in Chemistry. Some days I am proud of that. Most of those days are laundry days. Like the day I got red Sharpie out of Goosie's shirt by soaking it in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol . Or the day that I got acrylic paint out of her pants using pine-sol. But today....today I am ashamed of myself.

Recently, our bathtub has been succumbing to a thickening layer of nasty mildew. My current favorite bathroom cleaner wasn't touching it. Well, it would with scrubbing, but who has the time for scrubbing? So, when Jimmy John suggested Tilex, I ran out to our local Target and mindlessly grabbed the mildew and mold variety. When I sprayed it on our grimy tile, I thought, "This isn't what I remember Tilex smelling like, this smells like bleach." Active Ingredients of Mold and Mildew Tilex? 2.40% Sodium hypochlorite. Bleach. Diluted bleach for $3.11. ARGH! Well, at least I got a nice spray bottle out of it.

Almost as bad as the time I bought "laptop screen cleaning wipes", which were lint-free wipes soaked in rubbing alcohol. I think I paid $3 or $4 for about 10 wipes. Double ARGH!

I have found that bleach and rubbing alcohol are marketed again and again as different cool products. Be on the watch. For example: Clorox Anywhere Sanitizing Spray is duh-duh-duh-da! diluted bleach! So read the labels. (this is more advice for me, than you) Sodium Hypochlorite = bleach. Isopropyl Alcohol=Rubbing alcohol. Save yourself a little dough and dilute it yourself.

(FYI Regular bleach is 6% sodium hypoclorite, so a 3:1 dilution would be perfect for your bathroom needs. Sanitizing spray needs much less - 0.0095%, so a 500:1 dilution.)