Monday, June 30, 2008

Collective Heloise

This weekend, Torsten was eating cherries when I heard a yelp, and turned around to discover that he had squirted dark red cherry juice all over his jeans and his favorite shirt. He was traumatized about his shirt and on the verge of freaking out, but luckily I was already sitting in front of my computer when it happened, and so: Google to the rescue!

And this wasn't the first time that Google has saved me from ruining something I own and love. But my problem is that I often don't think of checking Google until after I've already done something I shouldn't have done. So I've decided that we should create our own little collection of hints, whether or not they were originally supplied by Google.

First, the cherry stains: If you get cherry juice on cotton clothing, stretch the stained area of fabric over a large bowl and fasten it in place with a rubber band. Then pour boiling water from a height of two or three feet (according to Google) or one foot (what I actually did) directly onto the stain. It will evaporate like magic! Seriously! It just... goes away!

And speaking of disappearing like magic, a few months ago (back when the whole flower saga was happening), I got lily pollen all over my favorite cashmere sweater. I seriously almost burst into tears, because I'd always heard that pollen was totally indelible, and I loved that sweater. But when I googled it? It turns out that all you have to do is put the stained garment in direct sunlight for a few hours. I was at work when this happened, and luckily I had another top in my desk, so I changed clothes and put the pollen-stained sweater on the windowsill of an office facing the sun. A few hours later when I went back to check, the pollen was gone. Seriously, every trace of it (and there was a LOT) had totally evaporated.

Okay, so those are the only two I can think of, but I feel like there SHOULD be more. There MUST be more. This is only one little baby Heloise column right now, but that's where YOU come in. What little hints like this do you have? They don't have to have come from Google, and they don't have to pertain specifically to stain removal. Just any useful little tricks that you use that you think are worth sharing with other people. Share them in the comments so we can all benefit from your knowledge!

In other news, tomorrow I'm having my surgery, so I won't be around. But I'll be back on Wednesday, when I'll be home from work just sitting around trying to recover, and I'm sure I'll have lots of bored time to spend posting. But I'm excited for you all to expand this Heloise column in my absence, so that when I get back, I'll have all sorts of new household tricks to learn. If THAT isn't motivation to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, I don't know what is.

51 comments:

  1. I'm sorry I don't have any tips for you, but I will be sending you good thoughts tomorrow during your surgery. I hope it goes well!

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  2. Dude, I have no tips. I'm a big believer if cold water/scrub the hell out of something with laundry detergent. Maybe that's why I ruin clothing so often.

    Good luck with your surgery! I will be thinking of you tomorrow.

    Also, did La or I tell you we're making plans to visit you? Heeeheee....

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  3. good luck with your surgery.

    my husband and i were driving somewhere the other day and he managed to wipe cherry juice all over his jeans (you know, in place of a napkin) but we were drinking club soda so i just put that on it immediately and got it out. that's the first time i ever tried that but it really does work!

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  4. I THINK this is fairly common knowledge, but if you get to a bloodstain IMMEDIATELY with hydrogen peroxide, it will disappear. If you wait a while, it won't.

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  5. I don't really have any tips, other than put some Shout Stick on anything you spill on and hope for the best. I wanted to comment on your last post though, about general anesthesia. I just had surgery, major jaw surgery, and I think that I was more freaked out about the idea of anesthesia than about the idea of them breaking my jaw on purpose. I am also a class A Control Freak. I had them explain to me everything they were doing--putting the IV in, what was in that clear bag, how I would feel when I woke up, etc, and that helped a lot. I remember looking at my arm, with the liquid going into the IV, and then counting backwards from 10, and then waking up in post-op. It wasn't really like normal sleep because I wasn't aware of falling asleep, but I didn't even have time to freak out about it before I was out. And then it was over! You'll be fine! And wow, this comment very long.

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  6. Good luck with your surgery!

    And really, hot water?!? I always thought you should NEVER wash a stain in hot water, only cold. Interesting.

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  7. That is hilarious - i never thought to consult Google for things like that.. maybe now I will! Good luck tomorrow, everything will be fine, don't worry :)

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  8. As I recently learned, if your cell phone gets dropped in water, take it all apart and leave it in a bowl of rice for a few days. Put it back together and VIOLA! working phone. (DO NOT blow it dry with a hair dryer, blow on it, or try to turn it back on the same day it gets wet).

    Put dryer sheets in your sock and underwear drawers to keep everything smelling fresh ... store old suitcases with a dryer sheet in it to keep them from getting musty ... to get dried wax out of carpet, put a paper towel down and then use a warm iron over it. I got a million of these.

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  9. I have given up on trying to remember what trick to use for what. Now I just use Shout Wipes. I may be lazy, but those little things work!

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  10. I hope your surgery goes well. I'll be thinking about you and look forward to hearing about how well it went on Wednesday :)

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  11. I use boiling water and oxyclean on all of my kid's stained clothes. The only thing it hasn't worked on is rust. (I can not even tell you how Lucy got rust on her shirt, but she did....)

    I think I actullay got that tip from LoriD last summer and it has worked like a charm!

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  12. And also, I will be thinking about you tomorrow and waiting for your Wednesday update.

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  13. Hoping your surgery goes well tomorrow. I'll be sending good vibes your way!

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  14. All I know is that shout and the tide stick are my two good friends.

    Sending you good wishes for tomorrow!

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  15. i got blood on my white comforter (knicked my legs shaving and didn't notice!) and turns out- peroxide takes it out.

    baking soda and peroxide mixed together take out coffee stains on coffee mugs. mix so its a paste.

    Coke will clean a car engine.

    Stain Stick will take out any greasy spot/pit stain from white shirts. Just apply and leave over night and wash the next day. Comes right out.

    That's all I got for ya :)

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  16. 1 - good luck on the surgery!! I'll be sending happy vibes your way. :)

    2 - you should definitely share all the tips you get. And here's mine -

    To get out those gross deoderant marks on your shirts, just rub the shirt material together to get it out. Works all the time!!

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  17. I hope your surgery goes well. When they ask if you'd like morphine the answer is always "yes".

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  18. I don't have any tips but a) good luck with your surgery and b) I can't believe you didn't tell us what the 41 pound mystery package turned out to be?!

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  19. But wait! What was in the 41 lb box? Inquiring minds...

    Baby powder on oil stains. That's mine. If you splatter some kind of oil on your clothes (salad dressing, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, etc - anything made with oil) dab up the excess and then pour on baby powder. Rub it into the stain and let it sit for a few hours. The powder will soak up the oil and then you just flake it off. Throw the garment in the wash and the stain should be gone. Ta da! (Check the stain before throwing the garment into the dryer to make sure it's really gone. If it's still there, try the powder again - if you put it in the dryer and the powder hasn't worked its magic, the stain will set and you're screwed.)

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  20. Good luck on your surgery tomorrow.

    No helpful hints springing to mind at the moment, but if I think of any, I'll share. (hm, this might explain why my laundry looks the way it does...)

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  21. 1) If clothes have a mothball scent, the ONLY WAY to get it out is to hang them outside in the fresh air. It seems like it wouldn't work where Febreze, hot water, Tide, and six times through the washing machine had failed, but it does.

    2) Baking soda is the only thing that gets out the smell of barf. Again, it seems like it wouldn't be enough, but it is in fact the only thing that works.


    I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

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  22. 3carnations- Blood stains should never come near hot water. Most other stains do better with hot---or at least, the bottle of stain treatment says something like, "Wash with hottest water fabric will accept."

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  23. The sun gets out all sorts of stains. Mommas who cloth diaper their kids can attest to that.

    Sadly, I'm lame and usually just hope that the washing machine gets the stain out.

    Good luck tomorrow, I'll be sending you positive vibes!

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  24. Rub garlicky or oniony hands on stainless steel (like your sink) then wash. The smell is gone (unless of course you've been eating the garlic too, in which case your hands may smell lovely, but your breath and sweat will still reek). Perhaps it's common knowledge, but certainly worth sharing if it's not.

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  25. Good luck on your surgery!

    For the commenter with rust on a shirt - the make a rust remover that is in the laundry aisle. It is a brown bottle and you just squeeze the liquid on the stain and it is gone in seconds! We had an old washer that sometimes would put rust on clothes, and that product was my best friend.

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  26. ooh ooh, pour salt directly on red wine stains (like, TONS of salt. a whole Salt Mound) and let sit before washing. totally works, and i don't know why.

    GOOD LUCK. everything will go great!

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  27. 1) If you spill wax on something place a paper towel over it and iron. The wax will swap to the paper towel.

    2) To get stains out of whites mix 1 cup bleach with 1 cup liquid dishwasher detergent in scalding hot water and soak the fabric in the mixture for 5-10 minutes, then throw in the laundry. The stain will be completely gone and your whites will look like new. Just remember to soak the entire piece unless you just want one spot treated and extra whiter than the rest of it! :)

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  28. I can't think of any tips that haven't been said already. Good luck tomorrow with the surgery! :)

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  29. Good luck with your surgery.

    I use Stain Stick for everything, and I love it.

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  30. I just use Vanish Oxymagic on everything... :) stainwise.

    Good luck with the surgery! I'll cross my fingers for you

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  31. Can I just say thanks for asking that question and letting me get all these tips?

    Also, your surgery will be great, no worries honey bunny. :D See you on Wednesday!

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  32. Good luck with the surgery. I'll be thinking good thoughts.

    No tips except thanks for the peroxide commenter who said it only works on fresh blood. That makes sense. Soooo, what do you do for older bloodstains?

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  33. What? These tips sound like magic to me!

    I got nothing... I SHOULD, because I spill a lot, but I guess I just rely on my Tide pen!

    Good thoughts to you tomorrow!!

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  34. If you are having an outside party and there are mosquito's, provide everyone with a dryer sheet and have them wipe it all over their exposed body parts and clothes and everyone will bite free and it won't stink from that off smell AND you won't get that nasty stuff on your hands and inevitably in your mouth and/or eyes.

    Will be thinking of you tomorrow. Good luck!

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  35. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow!

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  36. This one isnt for clothes, but a doctor told me if you get stung/bitten by something, spraying it with the insect repellant that would have stopped the insect to begin with, will help ease any pain/discomfort/itching.

    Good luck for tomorrow!

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  37. Well here's a tip you have absolutely no use for at this point: when washing diapers, add 1/2-1 cup of white vinegar to the load - it helps deodorize the diapers.

    Also, I hope your surgery goes really well and you can relax during your recovery.....and enjoy being babied a little.

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  38. Wow that stuff is genius. I would have never known, seriously. Good luck tomorrow!

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  39. The sun has stain removal powers?? I had no idea. Is there anything the Internet doesn't know??

    I can't think of any tips at the moment, but good luck with the surgery!

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  40. Well, I've always been more of an ask.com kinda girl... ;)
    Good luck tomorrow!! I'll definitely keep you in mind

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  41. Best of luck on your surgery, my dear. Hope Torsten spoils you plenty!

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  42. thinking of you today, hoping everything goes smoothly with your surgery.

    and thanks for sharing those tips. my tide to go pen doesn't work on everything! especially silk ties - DO NOT use them on silk ties ;)

    and did you get the wii?

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  43. Hope your surgery goes well today! We'll be thinking about you...

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  44. hope your surgery goes well today!

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  45. Thinking of you today ... hope surgery goes smoothly!

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  46. Thoughts are with you right now!

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  47. Good luck with your surgery! Hope everything goes well.

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  48. I heard that baking soda takes out armpit stains. I haven't tried it yet.

    And I have all goes well with your surgery and you get the good kind of pain pills! :)

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  49. I know you won't get this until tomorrow, but I just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you and hoping your surgery went well today and that you have a swift and easy recovery.

    Also, my tip is this: if you spill red wine on your clothes, first pour a little white wine (or dab it on) on the stain - this gets the color out - and then pour some tonic water on it to get the wine out.

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  50. Thinking of you today and hoping all goes well with your surgery!

    As for tips, I really don't have any. If it can't be fixed with OxyClean or the Tide Stick, then it has to be thrown away or put in the work-outside-in-the-yard clothes stack.

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  51. I don't know if this is a duplicate, I didn't have time to check, so apologies if it is.

    To get rid of a flea infestation, buy some 40 Mule Borax Detergent and sprinkle it in all your carpeted areas and make sure it goes down into the pile of the carpet. 24 hours vaccuum it up. No more fleas and no chemicals other than laundry detergent.

    Hope your surgery went well.

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