Fish Oil Follies: Removing a Tough Laundry Stain & Odors (Stain Removal)

I'm rather a huge fan of fish oil pills - I take two every single morning without fail. But, when those little gelatin capsules decide to do some damage, it can be a smelly mess that lingers. Read this email I received from Jennifer K a few days ago:

"Hello christina, my name is Jennifer and I have a question for you, I was doing laundry one day and of all days did not check his shirt pockets, so I did the wash and I found out I left a fish oil capsule in his pocket he didn’t take, now his shirts smell like the ocean, fishy, how can I get rid of this smell? I tried washing it in baking soda, but did not help he smell is still there… please help…"

Okay, Jen, here we go. Oil stains on clothing can in fact be some of the very toughest stains to remove. From your email, it sounds like you've actually managed to remove the stain but have the stinky fishy scent left as an everlasting reminder. (For any of you who have oil stains to contend with - corn starch can be very helpful when rubbed gently into the oil stain to pre-treat before tossing into the laundry. Or, cover the oil stain with a good amount of cornstarch and let it sit and soak up the oil before pre-treating with laundry detergent and washing as usual.)

Here are a couple of options to remove stinky fish smells from clothing:

1. Add two full cups of white vinegar to your load of wash. Vinegar is a heavy duty natural odor neutralizer and I think it might help to remove that nasty scent. If even that doesn't work -- try soaking in a small container of water with a few cups of white vinegar to neutralize the scent and then wash in the hottest possible water that is safe for the fabric.
2. Sit out in the sun - the clothing that is! (Although, you can certainly join the clothes if you want to.) There's a wonderfully natural and effective way to remove stinky odors - let the sun at them. Let the clothes sit out on a clothesline and the sun and fresh air may deodorize the clothes au naturel.

Jennifer, let us know how it goes, okay? The vinegar method should work -- and it should get the clothes looking pretty darn clean to boot.

Other Articles of Interest:
How to Remove Lipstick Stains

Dozens of Ways to Use Baking Soda Around the Home

Laundry Tips & Hints

Removing Cat Urine Odors from Carpets - Organic Cleaning Tips

Looky, looky! I just received this fantastic testimonial on using plain old water and vinegar to get out cat urine smells. And I own two cats, both of whom have had occasional 'oopsies'...so I know very well that particular TANG of cat urine. Ick.


Here's the original post on using water & vinegar to clean carpets: http://www.happyslob.com/carpetsolution.html
Here's the email:

Hi Christina,

I actually used the Steam Cleaning Tip of Hot Water and Vinegar and unbelievably it cleaned out a cat urine smell. (my cat was ill and had an accident).

I had tried the commercial solution and it smelled like flowery cat pee LOL. I used the vinegar and water solution in my machine for 3 days straight and even though the vinegar smelled a little ripe, the end result when it dried was no odor, and the carpet was much brighter overall.

Thanks for the tip!

Lynnette

A Reader's Amazing Laundry Stain Removal Tip - Use Shampoo

Helpful Reader Alert!
I got this email from Nancy W quite some time ago, and I kept meaning to post it but (ahem) I'm not known for my fabulous memory! She shares a great and frugal cleaning tip to tackle your nastiest laundry stain removal problems. Here's the email:

Removing Laundry Stains with Shampoo
"I think the best thing I ever learned about laundry was to use shampoo for removing spots. I have a squeeze bottle and fill it with plain old cheap shampoo. When I have a spot, I squeeze shampoo on it and rub it between my fingers and toss it in the washer. It works and if you dilute the shampoo with 1/3 water per bottle, it really saves money."

Thanks again Nancy, LOVE this tip! If YOU have a great tip you want everyone to know about, then email it to me at christina AT happyslob DOT com

Washing Dishes - Getting out Tough Coffee and Tea Stains

I've recently found that even good dishwasher detergents don't always completely clean coffee and tea stains out of mugs and cups. If you also have a rather unappealing collection of stained mugs you'd like to get truly clean, here are a few tips to try:

1. Lemon and salt - Cut a fresh lemon in half and dunk in some regular table salt. Use this as a little natural scouring pad to get stains out. (This is also really useful on laundry stains, believe it or not!) Keep a few fresh lemons on hand anyway, for a variety of cleaning purposes.
2. Baking Soda - Dip a damp rag into a bit of baking soda and use this as your natural scouring powder for edging away those tough tea and coffee stains. It may take a little effort, but this can really do wonders for stained mugs.

Easy Baking Soda Tip to Remove Laundry Stains

It doesn't get much easier to remove stubborn laundry stains than this. Simply pour a bit of baking soda (soda of bicarbonate to those of you Happy Slobs from around the world) into a small bowl. I have lots of handy little pinch bowls for just this purpose. Add just enough tap water to create a thick paste.

Here's the cool bit -- use an old toothbrush or small scrub brush to work the baking soda paste into laundry stains. Let sit for a while, and then launder as usual - a great, natural laundry stain remover!

P.S. If the garment is white - then try using fresh lemon juice with the baking soda to create a super fizzy, super tough stain fighter! I have a feeling the lemon juice might create a bleaching effect, so don't try this on colorful fabrics.