Archive for the ‘clean it’ Category

Those of you who have read Make it Do for any length of time know how much I love baking soda.  A quick look through my cleaning posts and you’ll know I’m a really big fan.  What’s not to love about a product that is an ingredient in my favorite chocolate chip cookies AND cleans my dirty pans to a shine?

So, I had to laugh when I received an email asking whether I would be interested in being part of the Arm and Hammer Switch and Save Challenge Campaign.  Yes!  As far as I am concerned, Arm and Hammer Baking Soda is right up there with sliced bread.

The Switch and Save Challenge has more to get excited about than just baking soda.  Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing links to great coupons, real-life cleaning tips, product reviews, and giveaways.  I am so excited to be part of this campaign!

Today I am reviewing the first product sent to me by the good folks at Arm and Hammer.

Arm & Hammer Plus OxiClean Power Gel Laundry Detergent

I’ll admit it, I’m kind of an odd duck since I actually like doing laundry.  Taking good care of my family’s clothes is a great way to save money.  I am always on the lookout for cost effective laundry tips and products that really work.

If your family is anything like mine, serious stains are not hard to come by.  I couldn’t wait to put the A&H Power Gel through the paces.

Here are the challenges my family came up with:

Ah sweetie, that’s a sleeve not a napkin!

MOM! Did you see that catch?  Oh ya!  and I see you caught some grass stains too.

Here’s a close up, since the long shot didn’t do the stains justice.

A morning in the garden: hard on weeds… and on laundry.

As you can see, the tests were a Starlight Mint Ice Cream Cone (yes, with chocolate smears) on a t-shirt sleeve, and grass stains and ground in dirt on pants.

To give the detergent a true test, I ran our dirty laundry through a load without pretreating.  This is not something I ever would dare under normal circumstances… but this was a test and I wanted to see what Arm & Hammer’s Power Gel Detergent could do.

The results were awesome.  All of the grass stains and dirt came out of the baseball pants, all of the Starlight Mint, even the smeared chocolate, came of the t-shirt, all of the dirt washed out of the pants.  The only stain the detergent didn’t get out without pretreating was the grass stains on the jeans… it lessened them but didn’t eliminate them.  My son, who watched my experiment with interest, especially since it involved his baseball pants, was amazed when they came out of the washer so clean.  He said, “Whoah, mom they didn’t lie!  It does work!”

That’s a very high mark from me… especially given that I would never normally wash any of those stains without pretreating!  It’s peace of mind to know you have a detergent that will catch most stains even when you don’t.  Good news since my kids are famous for tossing stained clothes to the bottom of the laundry basket with not so much as a word.

That brings me to the next question, price.  How does Arm & Hammer Plus OxiClean Power Gel compare with the other major brands?  I did a quick cost comparison at my local store and totaled the price per load.  The Arm & Hammer was less expensive per load than other major brands… and that’s even before using a coupon.  Throw a coupon into the mix and you’ve got seriously good value.  To download Arm & Hammer coupons, click here or on the link below.

The verdict is Arm & Hammer Plus OxiClean Power Gel Laundry Detergent is all it’s cracked up to be.  But I didn’t expect any less from the makers of my favorite baking soda.

I have pieced quilts throughout my home, including on almost every bed.

This means they get used, abused, laid on, eaten on (like chocolate eggs for instance), read on, even dirty shoes kicked off on (bad boys!) and occasionally muddy paws trod on (BAD DOG!).  So even though they are handmade, our quilts need to be washed occasionally.

Do you worry about washing your quilts?

The first time I washed a handmade quilt, I called my mom.  She was the perfect person to call because she’s smart, she’s a quilter, and she is the queen of clean. Here is her advice:

1.  The first step is to use good soap.  There are a few brands she really likes.

• Quilter’s Quilt Soap by Orvus

• Soak Wash Laundry Detergent– Soak is a little more spendy, but is her favorite brand.  She uses it for all her sweaters and other delicates too.

She warned me not to use Woolite for my quilts- which had been my first inclination.  She feels like it’s prone to fading fabrics.

A good quality soap can sometimes be found at quilt shops and definitely online.  JoAnn’s also carries quilt soap occasionally too.

2.  She doesn’t spot clean her quilts, since you want to be careful of the fabrics.  She did say that blood can be removed with saliva… as many a good quilter with a prick to her finger knows.

3.  Wash your quilts on the delicate cycle.

4.  For hand quilted quilts she lays them out to dry on a spot of dry grass in the shade… never in the sun (which can fade the quilt).

5.  For machine quilted quilts she usually has no qualms about throwing them in the dryer… particularly for the first wash… which can really soften up the stiffness of a machine quilted quilt.  If you don’t want the fabric to shrink and puff up at the stitching a lot, dry your quilts on low heat.

6. If you are washing a quilt with high contrast fabrics- like red and white- you can use Shout Color Catcher. Color catcher absorbs the dyes that might escape the darker fabric before it can attach to the lighter fabrics in the load.

Last, but not least, my mom’s advice is that quilts are meant to used.  They are works of art, yes.  But they are practical, useful works of art.  If you use your quilts, and they are a little worse for wear, that means they have been loved, and there is no better way for a quilt to live.