Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Male Readers Beware:

This is a commercial for OxiClean. (or in my case, the knockoff counterpart)
You don't want to read it.
So don't tell you I didn't warn you.
So since the male readers are no longer reading.....
Ladies: OxiClean. It's your friend.
My sister had told me I had to try it, so I bought some and followed the directions on the container, attempting to remove some dirt stains from some of Nathan's clothes. It did an okay job - I'm not going to say great, though. So it remained unused, forlorn and abandoned on the shelf above our washing machine.
Until this week.
My doctor told me not to expect a period until after I weaned Nathan. Well, 5 weeks to the day after the last time I nursed him, "The Visitor" shows up. And this visit is like none I've ever had before.
Let's just say that my precious underwear collection would have been severely depleted after the last couple days without this magic powder.
The recipe (don't follow the container directions): One scoop of OxiClean to about 1/4 of a mop bucket of hotHOT water. (Our water heater is set to the "Not Quite But Almost Boiling" setting.) Throw in your garments. Let soak overnight, or all day, or just in general however long you leave them in there in case you are like me and forget that you were intending to do laundry for three days running. Even though I've been stepping over the sorted piles in the bathroom, somehow that didn't remind me. Probably because I was either going to the bathroom to take care of certain things (ulgh), after which I needed to console myself with chocolate/salt/anything unhealthy, or else I was going in to change Nathan's diaper, which resulted in a screamfest, due to his diaper rash, after which I need to console him with chocolate/salt/anything unhealthy.
I seem to get distracted. Anyways.
After soaking, wash and dry your things as usual. There may be some very faint spots (which you only notice on close scrutiny, because you're writing a blog about it), but not enough that your husband will notice, gag, and request that you throw them away.
Speaking of my husband: he's a saint.
I've known this was coming for about two months.... I have been breaking out worse than I ever had in my entire life, and I have been a complete b[ee with an ]itch. For two months. And Paul hasn't said anything.
Although, when he heard me say from the bathroom, "IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME!" he didn't ask what it was about. But I'm pretty sure he said a prayer to heaven. "Thank You, Lord. Just one more week."

6 comments:

carrie said...

interesting. glad you got stuff clean and glad that...you know...

Anonymous said...

works wonders on diapers too, same recipe as you used for the otehr....gives a "fresh from the clothes line" smell in the dead of winter when you have no intention of going to the clothesline....

Teach said...

Dude. I think that counts as cursing.

Doug or Janice Rhodes said...

Maybe this is why it works:(assuming one can trust the advertising and labeling):
Feel great about doing your part to save our environment!
Oxyclean is made from natural ingredients and contains no toxic chemicals, cleaning solvents, or harmful abrasives. It's environmentally friendly, completely biodegradable and has NO odor!

Anonymous said...

If memory serves, Oxiclean is mainly made of powdered hydrogen peroxide.

Don't do what I did, though, and try soaking your clothes in peroxide directly. It eats right through them! I thought the peroxide might be cheaper than the oxiclean, but it didn't work like I'd hoped.

Rachel said...

Yeah, I've used peroxide on spots before... It boils, then I immediately soak it up with a towel. It works pretty good like on sheets when you don't want or need to soak the whole huge thing. That's actually a trick I learned playing softball, when it's illegal to play with blood on your uniform (like from a skinned knee).