Kevin's Magic Mixture, Lets share our "secret recipes" for extreme laundry issues.

[vintagekitchen]

My brother is a dairy farmer. Dairy farming being the messy business it is, his clothes tend to be well, beyond filthy by the end of the day.

His wife grew up in a rural area, but had never dealt with a dairy farm at all until she met him, and had no idea the struggles a farmer's wife goes through to keep things clean. Credit where credit is due, she helps him with every task on the farm, in addition to raising their 2 children and being pregnant with their third. Laundry however, is still giving her issues.

By the end of the day, after caring for all the cattle, pigs, chickens, etc, and invariably having to work on some peice of equipment or another, their clothes, especially his clothes, are covered with mud, manure, oil, grease, and god knows what else. She has been doing her best, using hot water and pre treating stains, but getting the clothes both stain free and odor free has been driving her crazy. So I came up with what she calls my Magic Mixture.

2 parts liquid Tide, 1 part liquid Dreft, mix and return to bottle. Fill cap to just below the threads, toss 3 scoops generic oxy clean in the washer, set for hot wash, extra long wash cycle (15 minutes). Everything comes out clean, and odor free.

Anyone else have a special recipe for heavy duty cleaning?

 

[yogitunes]

there can be a number of things in the arsenal for cleaning....and it all depends on what is being washed, and the soil that is to be removed.....

greasy work clothes......Tide Liq works well, preference is Tide w/Bleach powder.....one full cap or either one......to that any one or combination of items....1/2 cup is the rule.....Borax, Ammonia(Lemon), Powdered Bleach......hottest water fabric will stand.....perfect results everytime....
for super greasy stains....pretreated with PurpleCleaner in the drive way, let set for a while, and then wash....

for something like mud, grass, lipstick, chocolate....usually pretreat with a liquid detergent or even something like 409, a pre-wash in cool water with Sears detergent and then a full wash in the warmest water possible for the fabric, using double the detergent and color safe bleach.....

no matter what comes out on the market......always stick with the basics....a good detergent, ammonia, bleach, borax, washing soda, baking soda, and color safe bleach......may seem like a lot.....but nothing fancy, and ready for any stain...

when my kids were smaller.....I used to give them small cups of liquid detergent, and a paint brush......and play a game of find the stain, and paint it away!.....they learned to sort into loads of same fabrics, and kept them occupied...when actually it was a big help to me.....once the baskets were full, that load got washed....

 

[norgeway]

Back when...

Donald worked on the assembly line ,he came home with some of the nastiest greasiest clothes ever,I used hot water and the longest cycle on the 20 pound Norge I had then,I used three scoops of Sears orange box detergent, and one cup of greased lightning, everything always came clean, but the real reason was the Norge, I would still be using it, but Donald fussed about it wearing out his good towells, and he got off the assembly line when he got promoted to inventory control, but I still say nothing would out clean it.

 

[stan]

Special recipe?

Or secret recipe..
Think everyone here has one, but nothing that's ground breaking. Just a commercial product, or mixture that works for them.
I don't have any secrets, but I do use something that's been kind of forgotten about, and has fallen out of favor for various reasons...
Old fashioned Lye Soap. (Lye soap means its made with lard)
I'm sure if you ask some of the old timers in your neck of the woods, you'll get the story's, and may even run across someone who still uses, has, or makes it!
Its not always practical for the sole and only surfactant for laundry, but makes a excellent pre wash, or stain stick, for certain kinds of stains, and can be VERY effective on grease, and grime, not just on fabric, but around the house as well!
If made correctly, and used correctly, it's hard to find something it won't clean, and do a superior job!

I call it " the original non toxic all purpose cleaner"

 

[polkanut]

I have a bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap that I use for pre-treating stains.  I also have an old Wisk stain stick, and a Spray & Wash stick that are also used.  I like the sticks because I can use them up to 7 days before laundering the item(s).  I also use either BIZ powder or BIZ Blast Packs for any stains that may have gone undetected beforehand.