Homemade solutions to clean armpit and collar stains on dress shirts?

[TopHatFox]

direct application of DIY ERE detergent + laundry machine? What's the secret?

[Chris]

If the collar yellowing is caused by oils in the skin, try something like shampoo or dish detergent, since they're designed to cut grease and oil. Apply directly, scrub, then launder.

[BRUTE]

laundry machine is terrible. it's a brute (haha) force method applied to a very local problem. manual washing is by far better for cleaning spots, and, brute believes, for doing laundry in general.

on another note, laundry detergent is so cheap, brute thinks it's a waste of time to manufacture it himself. brute prefers liquid detergents.

what Zalo can try is just soaking the dress shirts for a very long time in very hot water. not boiling of course, but the hottest the (probably cotton) shirt fabric will allow. it should be too hot for comfort. before putting the shirts in, Zalo should add the liquid detergent and mix it around to ensure it's mixed up with all the hot water. then, put the shirts in, knead the water/detergent in for a few seconds, and let it sit for 20-30 minutes.

the water should have cooled down to a comfortable temperature by then. Zalo can check for any stains and apply extra detergent and friction. brute usually just pinches two sides of a stain, folds the fabric over, and rubs the two sides against each other so the stain is being rubbed between them. this with plenty of the soapy water added every few seconds gets most of the stains out of brute's dress shirts.

[stoneage]

Soap and water, brush.
let it sit for 30min in warm water
Soap again and brush.

If the stain survives the treatment, it can be that the fabric got yellow/brown, due to the wonderful mixture bodily acids with the fabric. It usually happens when the shirt stayed dirty in the loundry basket for too long.
To my experience, It's then too late. You can recycle your shirt into clothes for cleaning.

[vexed87]

I have had luck with a scrubbing oily collars with this stuff before washing:



Soap is a detergent which breaks up oils and makes washing them away work better. Direct application of detergent should be sufficient, but powder is messier and harder to apply than bar soaps.

That said, I've never had yellow stains to test it on, it's proabably accumulated body oils, by then (as mentioned above) it's too late as washing at high temps probably 'baked' it in.

[Sclass]

I just found out my SO has been spraying this on my shirts before laundering then. Dog spray!

http://www.natures-miracle.com/products ... mover.aspx

I don't know about stains but it seems to be good at removing curry odor from the armpit area of my shirts.

it gives new meaning to her comment "you nasty dog!"

[jj89]

Put some 15g of citric acid and a liter of water in a bowl, let your shirt sit in there four 4+ hours and put it in a washing machine (don't dry it before).

btw - first post. I have been a long time lurker but never posted before. I think my account was deleted by Jacob's last forum cleansing

[IlliniDave]

Those laundry pre-treatment stain removal products (like Shout) work well for me on collar grunge. I use it about once every five washings on the white, 100% cotton shirts I wear to work. I don't get underarm stains, but I think wearing a t-shirt underneath the dress shirt should help, at least a little. I'm sort of fussy when it comes to shirts and only wear them once between washings. I also wear short sleeves 90% of the time (yes, a dress-for-success faux pas, but in a hot/humid climate it is very practical).