When we moved here, I knew doing laundry was going to be a bit more exhaustive than in the US. Hang drying clothes is the norm here, which is quite nice since I feel like it is less of a burden on the environment. My husband was super wonderful and bought me a washer/dryer combo (it is one unit, not stacked or side-by-side like we have in the US). I don't have access to my tried and true laundry soap brands that I love. Finding unscented laundry soap and fabric softener has been especially troublesome. But, I persevere. I won't let these challenges get me down.
The real challenge has not been these things, but the stains! I swear there is something about the mud here that just doesn't want to let go from clothing. I have a wild guess it is a high iron content in the soil, based on the color and stubbornness of the stains. But this is just a hunch that is not supported by any facts.
My son is a master at making stains. Taking a dive into a frog pond, getting waist deep into a mud pit, and burying himself in the sand are all par for course on any given day. Having lots of fun at school and the park results in a whole lot of stains.
For months I have been battling these stains. And I have been loosing the battle. It has been so discouraging to wash and wash and not have those pesky stains come out.
After asking the park moms for their methods, I invested in Utamaro bar soap. However, a good scrub with the soap still wasn't enough on some of the shirts that had the stains on them for a whiile.
After I was not able to remove the stains from several of my son's shirts, I gave up and tie dyed a couple of them! It turned into a fun afternoon project for my son and I as he helped tie the rubber bands and stir the shirts as they soaked in the dye.
When my son came home with a brand new school hat doused with mud, I slathered it with the Utamaro soap and went to town on it with a toothbrush. After everything looked like it had been removed, I put the hat in the wash. To my shock, the hat came out like new. It was the first stain removal success I had had in a long time. I was elated! Finally, success!
So, I asked my husband to pick up a bigger "laundry" brush at Daiso (the ¥100/$1 store). Today when my son came home in a shirt from his extra set of school clothes, I knew the shirt he went to school in would be trashed. Grabbing it out of the bag, my suspicions were confirmed. I laid the shirt on the floor of the shower room and dowsed it water. I then rubbed the Utamaro all over it, followed by a serious scrubbing with the brush. I rinsed and repeated twice, until I couldn't see any more stains. I then threw the shirt into the washing machine. When I pulled it out, I was shocked. It was stain free!
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| Sorry. No before shots. But it was a mess! |
Although labor intensive, I may have finally found a method to keep my son's clothes stain-free. And as silly as this sounds, it really made me happy.
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