Please tell me how I can get out red chapstick stains from an entire load of laundry.

[gandpsmommy]

It already went through the dryer on high heat, so they're set in the fabric quite nicely. Please tell me there is something that will get it out. :eek::(

[melissel]

This is what I use when I have a bunch of stained items to treat (I copied and pasted from a post of mine on another board). For me, it's worked on everything but rust stains, yellow sand stains, set-in coffee, and set-in chocolate:

It's actually from the Tightwad Gazette, so it's not quite a secret, but most people haven't heard it It works on most "natural" stains--mud, food, poop, spit up, body oil (my DH is one greasy guy) etc. It has NOT worked, for me at least, on mildew, rust, or set-in coffee. And it doesn't work for every single stain, of course, but I've saved many kids' items this way.

1 C of Cascade powder dishwasher detergent (the plain, regular kind)
1 C of Clorox 2 liquid color-safe bleach
5 gallons of the hottest possible water you can get from your water heater--when I posted this on the F&F forum, someone once said she used this treatment, and to boost it she'd add a portion of boiling water from the stove.

Mix this all together, then mix in the clothes and let them soak overnight, or longer. I stir them periodically too, because they tend to float up to the top, and I push them back down and in so no stains get stuck up top. I also make sure I use a container I can close--I tried this once in a open container and the heat dissipated too quickly.

You can also do half batches, or quarter batches, or whatever, as long as you can keep it hot enough. I've done half batches, but I imagine anything smaller might cool pretty quickly, and the heat is what does part of the work.

You must use the actual brand-name products--off brands don't work, I've tried. I've soaked cranberry and bright pink items together with white stuff many times and never had a transfer problem (I think the color-safe bleach helps prevent it), but I did soak some place mats that had black in them, the whole batch went gray. I wasn't able to re-whiten a few of the items either, so use caution when you're mixing colors. It's only been a problem once for me, but still, you never know just when it WILL turn out to be a problem!

[gandpsmommy]

Thanks for the help. I did some searching on the internet and came up with Goo-gone and liquid dish soap as the two most recommended solutions for chapstick. So, I used all of the Goo-gone I had left and then started with the dish soap. I think it might have worked, but the clothes are still in the washer, so I'm still waiting to find out. If it doesn't work, I'll have to try your method. Thanks again.

[Laurel T.]

I will have to try this with the whole load that was washed with a black crayon. I had given up, but now I have renewed hope. Things like this drive me crazy.

Laurel T.