Stain Removal and How to Fold Laundry seem to be the biggest items people are looking for here at Mama’s Laundry Talk.  A large percentage of the readers here have an immediate issue in which they are looking for a solution.

So I’ve spent quite a bit of time this week making Mama’s a little easier to navigate.  You’ll notice in the menu bar that I’ve added those two popular categories: Stain Removal and How to Fold Laundry.

Here you’ll find links with detailed information about removing various stains and Mama’s preferred way to fold clothes.  There were a few gems in there that I forgot writing!

So click on up there and see if there are a few new-to-you posts also.

Do you have a type of stain that’s not listed?  Or have an article of clothing you’d like to fold differently?

Leave your suggestions in the comments below.

The holidays are upon us already!  Are you hosting any festive events this holiday season?  If you are, please let me gently remind you to not wait until the last minute to get your linens ready.  You know how things always seem to take longer than you think they’re going to?

Linens definitely fall into that category.

To get your linens in holiday shape, use these simple steps.

Plan which linens you will use

To have your linens ready in plenty of time, you’ll have to plan which pieces you’ll need.

For example, if you are hosting two parties this year, take a piece of paper and do some brainstorming. Plan each party’s linens down to the finest detail.  Here are some items to consider:

Locate and Examine All of Your Linens

Search every nook and cranny to find the linens you are going to use for your events.  If you have a small home with little storage space, you probably have linens tucked in various places.

After you’ve found all of your needed items, sit down with them under a good light.

Your next task is to examine them.  Are there stains that just ‘magically’ appeared since their last use?  Are they frayed on the edges?  Are there any minute holes or tears that need to be repaired?  Are there any that need to be replaced?  Do you have enough linens to cover the amount of people at your event?

If you’ve identified issues with your items, make a plan to fix whatever problem you have encountered.  If items need to be replaced, order them.  If seams need to be re-stitched, break out the sewing box.  If you don’t have enough, call your mom to borrow hers.

Prep Your Linens for Your Party

If you haven’t used your items since last year’s holiday season, you’ll need to launder them again.  Have you ever dined on dusty linens?  It’s not exactly appetizing, so make sure yours are clean before putting them on the table.

After washing, make sure they are ironed well if needed.  Some tablecloths and napkins are made from more wrinkle-free materials, so they won’t need this step.

If there is any doubt as to whether your tablecloth needs to be ironed, please just take the extra 10 minutes and do it. An ironed table cloth can make the whole room have a completely different look.

I’ve written a detailed how-to post on Caring for Your Tablecloth, so take a peek if you need some help with washing and ironing table linens.

What to Do After the Party

After your festivities are over, you’re left with a heap of tablecloths, cloth napkins and other holiday linens.  What do you do with them?

The most important step is to take care of them quickly. Don’t let them sit for days and days on your laundry room floor. If stains are present, you want to deal with them as quickly as possible so you have a chance at removing them.  The longer a stain sits, the harder it is to remove.

The next step is to launder your table linens and then store them carefully.

If you treat your table linens gently, they will last for years and years.

It’s not too early to plan your table linens.  In fact, it’s a pretty easy thing to check off of your holiday to-do list.  So grab your paper and pencil and start planning!

Looking for other posts on How to Take Care of Linens?

How to Care for Tablecloths – A step-by-step guide in washing, ironing and storing tablecloths so they’ll last for years.

Caring for Tablecloths and Cloth Napkins – How to treat and remove difficult stains on table linens.

Stain Removal Guide for the Holidays – A stain removal guide for most holiday spills.
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photo credit: esperales
photo credit: kevin dooley

I genuinely love this time of year from November through the end of December.  It’s always a busy time with cleaning, cooking, baking and shopping but I try to make it more simple each and every year.  I’ve found as we’ve added more children to our family, my desire for a simple, easy holiday season swells.

To help you make your holiday season a little more simple, I’ve put together a small guide for holiday stain removal . After your holiday feasting is over and it’s time to tackle that mountain of laundry, use this guide to eliminate your toughest stains.

Grease Stains:

It seems self-explanatory, but these stains are from oils or fats used in cooking.
Use this method for gravy, sweet potato casserole, splatters from cooking oil or butter, greasy pan drippings from your turkey or ham, or shortening.

Use the Blue Dawn method to eliminate these grease stains.

Make sure you hang your garment to dry and do not put it in the dryer.  The heat from the dryer will likely cause the stain to set and you’ll be stuck with it forever.

If the stain isn’t removed the first time, try the Blue Dawn again and go through the same process.  I’ve had success when trying to remove a stain the second time.

Protein-Based Stains:

Protein-based stains that can ruin your party clothes during the holidays are eggs and dairy products. Any type of cream based sauce or egg dish that spills on your favorite shirt needs an enzyme treatment to remove the stain.

Also, mud tracked in on your favorite throw rug or blood spilled on a shirt are protein-based stains as well.

To treat these stains effectively, you’ll need to do The Soak.  It’s a little time intensive, but it is extremely effective at fading and even eliminating protein-based stains.

Tannin Stains:

Red Wine and Tea can be tricky to remove, as they are tannin stains. If you act quickly you can virtually eliminate them.

As soon as you notice the spill, run the garment under cold, running water.  If you can’t remove the garment at the time, you can blot the stain with a wet white cloth.  As soon as you’re able, launder the garment as you usually would in warm water.

Make sure you hang the garment to dry and do not dry in the dryer.  The heat will set in the stain.  Also, some stains do not really show themselves until the item is completely dry.

If the stain is still there after hang-drying, then you’ll need to do a chlorine bleach soak if the item is color-fast.  I’ve outlined specific directions in removing tea stains, which can easily be applied to wine stains as well since they are the same type of stain.

Stains on Tablecloths and Cloth Napkins

Stains on a tablecloth or cloth napkins are a little bit of a different story when it comes to stain removal, only because the tablecloth fabric is more delicate than a cotton shirt or pair of pants.  You need to treat linens carefully in order to keep them nice looking.

See this post on Caring For Tablecloths and Cloth Napkins for specific stain removal help for your holiday linens.

From my inbox:

Mama, what is the best way to pre-treat a stain?  Is there any one best way?  Or do you just spray on the stain remover and let it be?

-Annie

So it might seem like a no-brainer to pre-treat a stain before washing, but there really is a best way to do pre-treat stains.  The end result of any attempt at stain removal is to have a stain-free garment.  Making sure you start the stain removal process on the right foot ensures you end up with an article of clothing that looks new again.

So here is a step-by-step guide to follow.  Because Mama loves a step-by-step guide to most anything.

What type of stain is it?

First, determine what type of stain you’re dealing with:  protein, food grease, ink, grass/dirt.

If the stain is:

• protein-based (blood, spit-up, baby poop) – rinse under cold running water as quickly as possible.  Keep it in cold water until you can launder it.  If you choose to use a spray stain remover, follow the directions later in this post.
• food grease (bacon grease, french fries, cooking oil) – you’ll need to use the Blue Dawn method.  Skip the spray stain remover step below completely.  Spray stain removers aren’t really formulated for this type of stain.
• ink (from an ink pen or marker) – go straight to the pre-treat steps listed below in this post.
• grass/dirt – you’ll probably have to end up doing The Soak, but you can certainly try to pre-treat with a spray stain remover first and hope for great results!

Using Spray Stain-Remover

Assuming you have completed all of these crucial steps in stain removal, you’re now ready to spray on your favorite product.

Spray directly on the stain, saturating the entire area.

Using your finger, rub the stain remover in really well.  Slightly lift up the fabric with your finger, ensuring you completely surround the stain with your spray product.

Next, you have the option of gently (and I mean really gently) rubbing the stain remover in with a toothbrush.  If you have a really tough stain (tomato sauce, mustard, chili), you might need the extra agitation. But make sure you understand: be cautious when you use a toothbrush as this can sometimes be too vigorous for the fabric and lift the color.  I speak from experience.

So this next part seals the stain removal deal: make sure to treat the stain on the reverse side of the fabric.  Use your finger to rub the stain remover into the fabric to ensure it’s covered well on both the front side and the reverse side.

What You Should Never Do When Pre-Treating a Stain

Never ever rub the fabric together when pre-treating a stain.  It is one of the worst techniques to use in all of laundry in my opinion.  If you spray the stain with stain remover and then rub the fabric back on itself to saturate the stain with product, you can spread the stain and even make it bigger.  This is not the result you’re going after.

Just out of curiosity, what is your favorite product to pre-treat stains?  Do you have one that you consider to be the best?

We’ve all had it happen: you’re wearing your brand new beautiful shirt and you somehow get blood on it.

Whether you accidentally cut yourself in the kitchen or your child brushes his freshly scraped knee on you, the results are the same: a ruined outfit.

But it doesn’t have to be a total loss.  You can revive the shirt that has blood on it and here’s how.

Note: this method of removing blood stains works on most fabrics including cottons, blends, polyesters and acetates.

A Little Stain Removal Education

Thankfully, blood is a protein-based stain and these seem to be on the easier end of stain removal.

Since blood is protein-based, its worst enemy is heat.  Don’t soak in hot water, don’t dry in the dryer and don’t iron the stain until it is removed to your satisfaction.  If you do use heat in any form (wet or dry) you will never be able to remove the stain in all likelihood.

Other home remedy stain removers such as alcohol or peroxide may work on removing blood from fabric but I highly doubt it.  Those types of removers are solvents and work best on non-water soluble stains such as ink, wax, crayon, betadine, or makeup. 

How to Remove Fresh Blood From Fabric

The quicker you are able to deal with the blood stain, the better.  Fresh blood is fairly easy to remove in fact.  And by ‘fresh’ blood I mean a garment or fabric that has had blood on it for less than about 10-15 minutes or so.

The first thing you should do is rinse the garment under cold running water.  Slightly agitate the fabric with your finger, ensuring that cold water reaches the interior of the fabric.

And rinse liberally.  Use lots and lots of cold water.  You can typically see the blood stain start to lighten in color.  If you’ve caught the stain early enough, you might even see it disappear under the running water.

If you are unable to launder the garment immediately, leave it to soak in a pan full of only cold water.  There is no need to use any other detergents or laundry additives when soaking.  Cold water will prevent the stain from setting in until you are able to launder it.  You can leave the stain in water for 10-12 hours, but not much longer. 

Wash the garment on the setting you usually would using cool or warm water.  Also use a scoop of Oxi Clean or other enzyme cleaner in the wash cycle.  Enzyme cleaners are exceptional at removing protein-based stains.

Let the item hang dry.  Do not dry it in the dryer.  When an item is wet, it will fool you into looking as if the stain has completely disappeared. 

The only real way to know if the stain is completely removed is when the clothing item is dry.  If you dry it in the dryer it will set the remaining stain in, so always hang dry.

How to Remove Dried Blood from Fabric

Dried blood can be a little harder to remove, but it is definitely possible. 

Even dried blood benefits from cold running water, so drench the stain with water as you would do with fresh blood.  Agitate the fabric gently with your finger to help lift up the fibers of the fabric. 

Note:  Do not pick at the stain.  If there is a significant portion of dried blood trapped in the fabric, it will be removed either under the running water or in the next step.  If you pick at the fabric, you might break the fibers which would put a hole in your garment.  This isn’t the result you’re after.

After you’ve saturated the stain in cold running water, you’ll need to do The Soak.

The Soak involves soaking your clothing item in Oxi Clean (or another enzyme-based cleaner) for a length of time.  It’s not hard, but it is a little time consuming.  I’ve written detailed instructions with pictures for The Soak so click on over if you need to use this method.

After doing The Soak, launder your garment as you usually would in cool or warm water.  And definitely hang it to dry.  You might have to wash it in the machine several times before the stain is removed to your satisfaction.  But don’t give up too early – most blood stains can be removed even if they are old and dried.

A Few Last Notes on Removing Blood Stains

- If at all possible, dry your clothing item in the sunshine.  As I’ve said a million times, the sun has wonderful stain-removing properties especially with protein-based stains like blood.  Make sure the stained area is in direct sunlight for optimum results.

- If you have a washing machine that has a ‘Steam Treat’ cycle, set it on this cycle for blood stain removal.  It works like a charm to completely remove the stain.

- Chlorine bleach can be used on blood stains.  Use very cautiously since a) bleach can definitely lift the color from a fabric and b) bleach weakens fabric fibers when used full-strength.  Follow the directions carefully on the bleach container.  Also, if you have hard water (well water), the bleach can possibly make the blood stain worse.

- If you have bed sheets that are stained with blood, they can be cumbersome to treat using the previous stain removal advice.  To make it easier, remove the sheets from the bed and put in the washer.  If you have a top-loader, run a rinse cycle.  Then launder if possible.  If not, run the top-loader full of cold water and let them soak until you are able to wash them.  If you have a front-loader, run a rinse cycle.  Some front-loaders allow for a ‘Soak Cycle’.  Use whatever cycle your machine offers that will let the sheets soak in cold water for the longest time possible.  Then launder on cool or warm.  Hang sheets to dry on the line if possible.

Do you have specific questions about removing blood stains from clothing or fabric?

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A Little PSA:

My new friend from You ARE Loved lost her daughter to Toxic Shock Syndrome one year ago this week.  TSS is a completely preventable death, so please educate yourself on the symptoms.  And make sure your daughters understand its flu-like symptoms.  TSS is not a disease of the 1980’s – it is a disease of today.

Blood on your bed sheets?  Not a big deal.  Toxic Shock Syndrome?  It’s life-threatening.

Visit You ARE Loved and make sure you and the girls and women you love are educated.

Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Oxi Clean or other products promoted in this post.  I have found it to be the best product at protein-based stain removal.  I also have no affiliation with You ARE Loved.  However, my heart goes out to this mama in the loss of her daughter.  She has an extremely important message for all women of child-bearing age.

Crayons are sneaky little things.  They randomly end up in the dryer and can easily ruin a whole load of clothes.  Or your little one ends up with more crayon marks on her shirt than her paper.

Crayon marks are one of those stains that can be very difficult to remove.  Hopefully, your crayon colored clothes haven’t gone through the dryer yet.  The heat can set the crayon stains permanently.

How to Remove Crayon Marks from Clothes

For crayon removal, you’ll need:  a sharp knife, a bar of good quality soap, Oxi Clean and premium detergent (Tide, Arm & Hammer, Gain, etc – nothing generic).

If there is a lot of waxy crayon build-up on the stain, remove as much as you can with a very sharp knife.  Gently lift up as many of the waxy parts as you can with the pointed end of the knife.

Wet a bar of soap and rub the soap directly onto the stain on the front of the fabric and the back.  You want to completely drench the stain in bar soap.  You can use Fels Naptha, Zote, Dial or any good quality bar soap.

Wash the garment in the hottest water the fabric can tolerate.

Make sure you hang the item to dry and don’t dry it in the dryer until you are pleased with your results.

If the crayon stain is still there, proceed with The Soak and that should take care of any remaining stains left on the fabric.

The Whole Load

But what if the whole load is stained?  What if there was a crayon in the dryer and now you’ve got a huge crayon mess on your hands?

All is not lost.  Try this:

Put the whole load back into the washing machine.

If you have a top-loader, fill the drum with hot water and dissolve an entire scoop of Oxi Clean.  Let the clothes soak for several hours.  Then wash the load with premium detergent on the longest wash cycle possible, so the clothes are highly agitated.  Between the water temperature, the Oxi Clean/detergent and the agitation of the washer you’ll hopefully end up with a load of crayon-free clothes.

If you don’t have a top-loader, your options are to spend a few hours at the laundry mat using one of their top-loaders or finding a friend with a top-loader who will let you come over for awhile.

Side Note:  I don’t recommend using a front-loader in this instance since you can’t soak loads for long periods of time.  Front-loaders are fabulous for many reasons, but not being able to soak a load of clothes is a huge drawback, in my opinion.

After the washer cycle is complete, ensure the stains are removed to your liking before drying them in the dryer.

Even though it’s time consuming, you could go over each piece of crayon-stained clothing with a bar of soap in the method described above.  If it’s a load of nice quality clothes, it would be worth your time to do so.

Yes, this is a picture of chewing gum on the curtain in the girls’ room.  A certain 4-year-old gave a piece of chewing gum to a certain 2-year-old during naptime on Sunday afternoon.  Obviously there was  no nap taking place.

The result? A gum covered toddler and several spots of gum on the curtain.

Gum + a toddler  = unhappy Mama

I quickly learned how to successfully remove gum from fabric:

Note: When removing gum, the goal is to keep it in one piece.  It’s harder to remove if you tear it off of the fabric bit by bit.

Place the fabric on a hard surface, such as a table.  Using a sharp knife or razor blade scraper, gently pull up the edge of the gum.  Work slowly and methodically to pry it from the fabric.

The Ice Pack Method

Some chewing gum is extremely sticky, which makes it exceptionally hard to remove in one piece.  In this case, you’ll need to make the gum as cold as possible.  Using two ice cold packs, place one on both sides of the fabric.  So in my case, I put an ice pack on the back of the fabric and on the front of the fabric.

Wait 10 or 15 minutes for the ice pack to harden the gum. Then, taking your sharp gum-scraping implement, attempt to pry the entire piece of gum from the fabric.

When using the ice pack trick, try to use the flattest ice pack possible.  This is extremely effective if you place heavy packs against the gum and completely surround it with cold.

If you don’t have ice packs available, use flat pieces of ice to harden the gum. Both ice and ice packs are equally effective, ice packs just seem to be easier clean up.

Other Gum Removal Options

Make a note that these are last resort options. The following suggestions might successfully remove the gum on the fabric, but they could potentially leave a grease stain as a result.  Just consider yourself warned.

• Goo Gone
  This is a great product at removing gum from a surface, especially that super sticky type of gum.  Saturate the area of gum on the fabric and let it sit a few minutes.  Make sure both sides of the fabric are saturated with the solution.  Using the same technique above, try to pry the gum from the fabric.Once you have successfully removed the gum, wash the item as you normally would.  Hang the item to dry. Make sure there is not a grease spot on the fabric before you put it in the dryer.  As you know by now, heat sets stains in permanently.

• Use cooking oil
  It’s hard for me to even suggest using cooking oil – this should be your last ditch effort!  It will leave a grease stain, without a doubt.  Rub a liberal amount of cooking oil (vegetable, canola, olive – whatever the cheapest oil is in your pantry) on top of the gum and also on the back side of the fabric.  Allow it to sit 10 minutes or so and again, try to pry up the whole piece of gum.

If you use either of the above methods and you have a resulting grease stain, try using the Blue Dawn Method for removing the stain.  Again, make sure that you hang dry the garment to ensure the stain has been removed to your liking.  It might take several trips through the wash to get rid of the greasy spot – but it can be done!

Like most stain removal, getting chewing gum out of fabric takes patience and time.  Both of which are hard for most of us to come by.  Aside from these mentioned, do you have any gum removal tricks?  Do have a great chewing gum story? Share in the comments below!

I’m sure you’ve never forgotten a wet bib that fell between the car seats, only to find it a week later…and covered in mildew.  And I’m positive that you have never left wet towels in your kitchen hamper for days on end only to come back and find them moldy.  Right?

These kinds of things happen only at the Hill House, I’m sure.

Mold and mildew can be extremely hard to remove. If you use these tips, you have a fighting chance at removing it from your stained garment.  But honestly?  There aren’t any products that I am aware of that are made specifically for mold and mildew on fabrics.

So if you’ve incidentally left a garment a little too long in a wet, dark, damp place, here is how you can try to remove the mildew stain.  Keep in mind I am not advocating this for garments or towels that smell like mildew – but those items on which you can visibly see mold or mildew.

Use a Toothbrush to Scrape off Mold

If the item has visible mold on it, you’ll need to scrape off as much of the mold as you can with an old toothbrush.  If the item is a piece of clothing, gently use a toothbrush to scrape it off.  You don’t want to disrupt the fibers of the garment permanently.  You need to remove as much of the mold as possible so the washing machine can clean deeply into the fibers during the wash cycle. This is just doing an intense pre-wash, in the hopes of removing the stain completely.

Wash the Item By Itself on a Warm, Normal Setting Using Oxi Clean

Mildew and mold spores can spread all kinds of yuck for us to breathe in.  As soon as you notice the mold or mildew, wash the item by itself in the washer.  If you have a front loader, put some old towels or rags that you use for cleaning in the washer also.  You want to trick the front loader into using a lot of water, in an effort to remove the mold and mildew.  Make sure you use a ‘warm’ water setting and definitely wash on ‘normal’ (not delicate).  It seems like one would want to use a ‘hot’ water temperature, but trust me: you don’t.  Heat tends to set stains and you don’t want to set in a mildew stain.

Let the item air dry

Allow the item to air dry completely.  Do not dry it in the dryer.  Can you still see the mildew or mold at all?  If not, success!  If you can still see it, go on to the next step.

Try The Soak

While I’m not aware of any products formulated for the removal of mildew on fabric, Oxi Clean does a pretty good job.  But you’ll need to soak your item for a fairly extended period of time. I inadvertently left a dish cloth in the back corner under my sink and I had to soak it four days before the mildew came out of the fabric.  It slightly lifted the color from the fabric since I soaked it so long, but the mildew stain was finally removed.  After you do The Soak, wash as you normally would and hang to dry.  Don’t dry it until you’re sure the stain is removed to your satisfaction.

Try Bathroom Mildew Remover

This sounds a little unconventional, however spray a bathroom mildew remover on the stained areas if The Soak doesn’t work.  

Now here are some huge caution flags:  this is going to bleach your garment. Without a doubt, it will cause at the very least some lifting of the color if not all of the color.  It potentially could eat a hole in your garment also since mildew removers are largely made up of bleach.  The choice to use this type of product is really a last act of desperation.  Hopefully, you’re garment is white and it won’t matter.  You can put a small amount on a Q-tip and test the inside seam to see if it will cause the item to fade.  If it doesn’t in just a few minutes, you can either spray the mildew remover straight on to the item or dab it on using a Q-tip on cotton ball.

I personally have used mildew remover with great success in the past.  After you’ve left the product on about 5 minutes or so, wash on a regular cycle using a ‘warm’ water temperature.  Again, hang the item to dry until you are sure the stain is removed.

Dry the item in direct sunlight

The Sun is a fabulous, free source of bleach!  Once you’ve completed The Soak or used the bathroom mildew remover, wash in the washing machine.  If you have access to drying a garment outside, let it get full sun for a couple of hours.  Hopefully, it will be the last step you need to take to remove the stain completely.

There are some stains that just can’t be removed, despite how much effort you put into them.  Mildew and mold definitely top the list of hard-to-remove stains!  If you have specific questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

I absolutely adore my apron.  It was handmade for me by my Great Aunt Mary (who is as fabulous as you’d think she would be).  It has seen a lot of wear and tear over the years I’ve owned it.  And it has also created a lot of memories for my children and me.

(The apron on the left is mine.  The apron on the right is my daughter’s, handmade by her Mawmaw.)

When I have on my apron, my kiddos know that something fabulous is about to fill their bellies: melt-in-your-mouth homemade pancakes or our favorite chicken casserole or barbecue meatballs or homemade pumpkin bread or….the list goes on!  By wearing my apron, my family knows some serious cooking is about to take place, and then some serious eatin’.

But are aprons really necessary?

I believe they are.

I would guess that I wear my apron at least 4 or 5 days out of the week.  We have a pretty minimal clothing budget, so I must take good care of even my house clothes.  Even though I stay home with my children during the day, I don’t want to look messy and stained.  I can’t tell you the times that an apron has saved my clothes!  Things like bacon grease and homemade tomato sauce are really hard stains to remove.  By wearing an apron, I don’t have to worry about stain removal.

There may even be a better reason to wear an apron than stain removal (gasp! Did MamaLaundry say that??):

Wearing an apron tells your mind: prepare to work.

Whether you are wearing an apron in the kitchen to keep splatters off of your shirt or you are wearing your apron during your regular house cleaning, it almost seems like part of a uniform.  Since I worked as a nurse for 9+ years, a uniform definitely gets my mind into gear that I am getting ready to work!  And an apron is no exception.  It helps my mind know that we are going to get moving and helps me stay focused on the tasks at hand.

So what about you? Do you think aprons are necessary?  Do you wear one daily?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on them!

I’m pleased to link this post to WFMW over at We are THAT Family.  Because aprons?  They definitely work for me.

I receive numerous inquiries regarding underarm stains and how to remove them – yellowing in the armpit area and those crunchy areas from residual deodorant.  While deodorant is definitely a good thing, it can very easily ruin a shirt or blouse.

So I was excited to review a product made specifically to reduce and eliminate unsightly underarm stains: PitStop Yellow Armpit Stain Remover.

This review is based on my own usage and experience with this product.

I used the product on an old light orange colored tshirt that had considerable discoloration due to underarm stains. I found the ‘toughest’ shirt in our house to test the product on. I treated one side with the product and left the other side as-is.

Quantity and Size:  For this review, I received 2 small sample-sized bottles.  However according to its website, Pit Stop offers product bottles in a 12-oz. size.

Ease of Use:  This product was extremely easy to use.  The user simply sprays the product on the underarm stain and rubs in vigorously with his finger or a small brush.  It’s not messy or time-consuming.  The process is as easy as applying any other spray stain remover.  It literally took me less than 10 seconds to apply the remover and rub in – super easy!  I did however have trouble with the sprayer on top of my sample bottle.  It didn’t want to spray easily even after I primed it with product.

After allowing PitStop to penetrate the stain for 20-30 minutes, I washed it as I usually would.

Scent:  PitStop has an odd smell, similar to vinegar.  It’s not necessarily disagreeable, but certainly not the scent that you would associate with a laundry detergent.  After the product penetrated the clothes, I could hardly smell it at all.  And I definitely couldn’t smell it after the shirt was laundered.  The scent was definitely not a deal breaker, just worth mentioning.

Price: A 12-ounce bottle is priced at $12.50.  The maker of PitStop reports that one 12-ounce bottle will treat between 25-30 shirts.  This is based on spraying approximately 10 sprays of PitStop to each arm area.  If underarm stains are a chronic problem and frequently ruins shirts, this product is a deal at $12.50.

Availability:  At the present time, it seems that PitStop is only available from PitStop’s website.  They do give away several free samples each week for their Facebook fans.

Results:  I was very pleased with this product!  While the underarm stains were not completely gone, they were considerably diminished.  On the untreated side, deodorant residue was still readily apparent and of course the old underarm stains were still visible.  However the side treated with PitStop showed a significant reduction in underarm stains and the deodorant residue was only minimal. I would definitely consider this a success based on the shirt’s prior appearance.

Would I Use This Product Again:  I definitely would!  Prior to PitStop, I was not aware of a product to use specifically on underarm stains.  Based on my laundry experience, I feel like it is a good value for the money it costs.  It exceeded my expectations in removing old perspiration stains.

A Few Quick PitStop FAQ’s:

• PitStop is soluble in water, so normal washing of the garment will remove all traces of the product.
• PitStop does not contain bleach, so it can be used on colored and white clothing.  PitStop can react with some dyes causing discoloration, so be cautious during the initial use.
• PitStop responds well to vigorous rubbing, so use a clean brush for best results.
• PitStop removes underarm stains, but does not prevent stains or deodorant build-up.

Disclaimer: I received (2) 1-ounce product samples from the manufacturers of PitStop and was compensated for my time financially in reviewing the product.  The opinions expressed are based on my experience and are 100% mine.