How to Get Grease/Wax Stains Out of Your Clothes. . .and Your Washer

This was a post that happened to me by total mistake, but since it worked, I felt I needed to pass it on.

Yesterday during my lunch break, I bought this beautiful shiny emerald green piece of fabric at the thrift store. (You will notice it is in the trash. . .more on that later.)

All afternoon at work, I sat daydreaming about what to make with it. Would I make another dress? Would I make a skirt? Would I change it up and make something else? Finally, I got home, and, like I do with all my thrift store fabric, I threw it in the wash. I had a few other dirty things including my two Twice dresses pictured from former posts below, and figured I might as well get them clean too:

Well, anyways before throwing the green cloth in, I noticed it was a little sticky. I figured that was because it had been sitting on a shelf for awhile collecting dust? I had no idea. I mean, a lot of thrift store items have weird stuff on them. That's why I always throw my purchases in the wash! 

THIS IS THE PART WHERE DISASTER STRUCK...

To my absolute horror, when I opened the top of the washer, every garment in the wash was thinly coated in this waxy, sticky teal colored substance and also covered in little balls of the stuff that would smear when you touched them. To my further horror, after pulling out all my sticky clothes, I found that the bottom of the washer itself was coated in waxy teal skid marks! It's bad enough when your clothes are ruined, but your washer as well??? (I didn't take any pictures, because I didn't realize I would be blogging about this until after. Trust me, though, it was horrifying.)

I was so close to throwing all my clothes away, but. . .I love my new dresses!!! I just got them! True, one of them was free, but. . .still!

Luckily I was on the phone with my Type 1 mom (still don't know about Types? Go here) and she told me about an idea she'd found years ago in a magazine. What you do is to clean your clothes with not just detergent, but also liquid dish soap. Fortunately, I had a bottle of Dawn. This isn't the most nature-friendly method, but it ended up being very effective.

This is what I did:

First, I had to clean the actual washer, so I removed all the clothes and carefully shook them outside to get rid of all the excess balls of goo. Then I poured some bleach and Dawn into the washer along with three white hand towels and ran it through a hot water washing cycle. It took two times of doing this to get the washer clean! Then, I separated the clothes that were 100% polyester and washed them in warm water with bleach and Dawn. Then, I washed my casual clothes in cold water with my homemade detergent and Dawn. Finally, I washed my two Twice dresses in cold water with detergent and Dawn. All clean! Even the black dress that is made of wool and is supposed to be dry clean only!

I will say that some of my things still have a slight tacky feeling, but that will go away over time. I also hung everything to dry so that the waxy feeling wouldn't set in.

Crisis averted! Thanks, Mom!

The End.

Make Your Own Dish Washer Soap

Why this is a good idea:

1. Cost Effective - In fact, if you have all the stuff from Making Your Own Laundry Detergent, then you only have to buy table salt, white vinegar, and lemon juice! (About $1.00 each, but you should have them already, because they are staples.)

2. Health Conscious - Think of all the dish soap you've consumed over the years. Companies fill soaps and detergents with supposed filler "inert ingredients" that doctors and scientists are constantly finding cause cancer and crap like that. With this recipe, the only ingredients you are accidentally ingesting are salts, vinegar, and lemon juice. 

3. Really Works! - It does. Basically, you make two mixtures: a powder one and a liquid one. 

Let's get started.

The Powder - Use equal parts Borax, Baking Soda, and Table Salt. You also need a small container to mix them in. I use a little fruit snack cup I got from Chick-fila one time.

(Some people on other websites combine all the ingredients and store them like that, but I have read a bunch of accounts that these ingredients harden together when left to their own devices. 

Mixing them each time isn't hard, so I do it. Do as the Spirit leads.)

**UPDATE** Since posting this, I have been using this detergent for a few months now, and have combined all three ingredients into one storage box. I haven't had them congeal yet, and I'm not sure why people have ever had this problem. Anyways, combining them is way easier than making this mixture every time.

The Liquid - Some bloggers claim that the powder mixture is enough to clean their dishes, but most sites have commentators freaking out because of this film all over their dishes. To alleviate the film issue, you need only two more ingredients: white vinegar and citric acid. Pour them in equal amounts into the rinse well of your machine. (One lady on one website used lemonade packets for the citric acid, but many readers complained that the lemonade turned everything yellow. 

Just use lemon juice, people!!!)

You can store these two liquids in one bottle and keep that bottle under the sink.

Your two mixtures go into your machine as follows:

The end. Your dishes come out like this:

I don't rinse my dishes particularly well or anything and have had just as much success, if not more, as I used to with Cascade. 

So there, "The Man"!!!

Costs of Things and Where to Buy Them:

1. Borax - $4.00 - Dollar General

2. Baking Soda - $0.50 - Aldi or Dollar General

3. Table Salt - $1.00ish - Aldi

4. White Vinegar - $1.00ish - Aldi

5. Lemon Juice - $1.00ish - Aldi

6. Small Container - Free - Chick-fila

Total: $7.50ish for months of detergent. 

Not swallowing harmful chemicals: Priceless.