Help me become a laundry-hero-dad!
Hi all! Well well well; I've fallen into the rabbit hole it seems.
I've been reading this subreddit for the past few hours and I'm kinda hooked to try the spa day treatment. However, I'm very hesitant; as I have 0 experience with anything laundry related. Right now I basically just chuck some of the product that my wife bought in the machine and hope I chose the right temperature so as not to shrink all my clothes 😄... I have no idea about the ingredients whatsoever and I think this is the cause of our problems.
However, it would be awesome if I would be the one able to solve the issues that we have with our (mainly my own) laundry. I have many T-shirts that develop hard dark patches in the armpit area, which seems to be a buildup of oily substances and salts according to what I read here. I've never been able to get rid of them in any way and I resulted to throwing T-shirts away just because of this.
Therefore, I'd like to try the spa day treatment to solve this (I'm gonna test this with one T-shirt first). I have many questions still remaining as I am such an amateur; so I'm hoping you can help me out with this!
First off: I'm Belgian, so the products in the large guide (the Tide or 365 stuff which seems to be great) can't be purchased here. I've found this list made by a Dutch user which has many items that I can purchase here in Belgium as well. (So thank you for that!!)
I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the info, so could you help me buy the right 'ingredients' for the spa day 😄?
I already ordered Citrid Acid online; so that's taken care of.
Spa Day questions
- I was planning on buying "AH Waspoeder Wit" from the above list to get L+D+O all in one go; is this correct or do I need anything else for the spa day treatment? I don't need "Vanish Oxi Action Poeder" on top of that or do I? (Other option is Ariel Original Powder or Ecover Waspoeder Universal instead of the AH one? Is this equally good? This one is missing the 'OBA', is this important?)
- Do I also use this same product for the washing machine afterwards?
- Can I use this for coloured T-shirts as well or will this destroy my colours (as it is labeled for 'whites')?
I see that all the products specifically for 'colours' don't contain oxygen bleach. How would I go about spa day-treating my coloured T-shirts then?? It will be missing the 'O'?
- What about white T-shirts with coloured prints on them? How should I handle these?
- Should I rub on the hardened armpits in the spa day treatment with anything special to really get it in there or just leave it as is? (Can I pre-treat it with anything?)
- I'm gonna buy Ammonia from the store as well (which is 12% ammonia here apparently). I'm kind of scared to use this. Am I really not gonna kill someone by using this in the machine afterwards? Nothing in my product list contains chlorine (which is hazardous to combine) right? How should I dose this?
- What product should I use for our 'daily' washes to get better results (so I don't need too many spa days)? Are the ones above fine? Anything with Lipase fine?
Other related laundry questions
- Should I wash as hot as possible for the approriate stuff that's in the machine? (or do enzymes not like 60°C for example?)
- Is using a liquid washing scent in the softener tray okay?
- Should I use citrid acid in all my washes in the softener tray?
- Should I use more citrid acid with very hard water in my area?
- Can I combine the washing scent and citrid acid in the softener tray somehow (liquid + crystals might be a problem)?
- Can I use the same product for sports gear (with synthetic shirts etc)?
Damn... I still have so many questions probably; but I hope you can help me get on the right path! Thanks so much!