Tackle Spring Cleaning Starting With the Basics #OxiClean #MC

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for OxiClean. I received three product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Spring cleaning can be a daunting task, but it is a necessary one.  For busy households like mine, I think it's best to start early and spread the cleaning out over a few weeks.  There are some things most people don't think to include on their spring cleaning list, like laundry and dishes.  This year, why not try spring cleaning starting from the inside out?  Start with the basics by refreshing your family's clothing, linens, dishes, and toys.  Then move onto the furniture, closets, and carpets, and ultimately onto the windows, walls, and ceilings.  Did I leave anything out?

To help us get started with our spring cleaning, we received 3 new OxiClean products to try.  To refresh all the warm weather clothes we packed away at the end of last summer, we washed them all in new Fresh Scent OxiClean Laundry Detergent.  If you've used OxiClean to wash your clothes in the past, then you'll be thrilled to know that you can get the same cleaning and stain-fighting power in a liquid detergent.  Although we thought the Fresh Scent formula was the perfect thing to freshen our clothes for spring, for those who prefer unscented detergents, the OxiClean Laundry Detergent is also available in a Perfume & Dye Free formula.

Part of getting our clothes ready for spring is to make our whites whiter.  We don't notice how dingy our whites have gotten over the winter until the sun shines on them.  That's where the new OxiClean White Revive Laundry Stain Remover Powder comes in.  We tried it on everything we had that was white, including linens, t-shirts, underwear, and socks.  Although, this cleaner does not get things bleached white, it does make everything whiter without the use of bleach.  Some of our children's socks were very dingy on the soles, but the White Revive Laundry Stain Remover made a huge difference.

On the same note, I notice residue and spots on our dishes considerably more when our home is filled with sunlight.  I was fairly happy with the dishwasher detergent I was using, except when our old dishwasher doesn't dry our dishes completely, it would leave behind residue on our dinnerware, flatware, and drinkware.  Because I've tried many types of dishwasher detergent over the years, I was pretty skeptical when I tried the new OxiClean 4X Extreme Power Crystals.  Not only did it get our dishes clean (even though our children don't believe in rinsing off their dishes before they put them in the sink), it also left zero residue!  To top it all off, there were no spots on our glasses at all.

What's next on the list?  I need to go through our closets and drawers to donate all the clothes that no longer fit or that we no longer wear.  Does OxiClean make a product that makes that job easier for me too?

To learn more about these 3 new OxiClean products, visit www.oxiclean.com.

Getting Warm-Weather Clothes Ready for Back-to-School Using OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for OxiClean. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Here in Massachusetts, the summer weather extends into the first month of the new school year.  For the past couple of weeks, we have been busy sorting through our three children's warm-weather wardrobes.  All the clothes all fall into one of three categories . . . outgrown or too worn, ready-for-school, or stained.  The opportunity to try OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover arrived at the perfect time.  We really want to salvage as many of those stained warm-weather clothes as we can for our children to wear to school during the months of September and October (and possibly next Spring).

Since it is impossible to tell how old some of the stains were and what kind of stains they actually were, my husband and I decided to make new some new stains to test out the OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover properly.  We did this by taking our unsuspecting children to their favorite ice cream place on a hot summer day.  We had them order ice cream cones (no cups that day).  We tried to talk them all into something chocolaty, but only one of them went for it.  Then we attempted to convince them to sit outside to eat on the deck, but they protested because their ice cream would melt too quickly.

After not too long, all 3 of their little faces were plastered in ice cream, but not one drop on their clothes.  My husband and I stared at them in disbelief because our children have proven time and time again to be messy eaters, especially our 6 year old son.  When all was said and done, our 9 year old son with the chocolate ice cream came through!  He had several drips of chocolate ice cream on his t-shirt.

To really test out the stain removing power, we let the shirt stained with chocolate ice cream sit for four days without pre-treating or rinsing it.  We followed the instructions on the package and did not put the OxiClean directly on the stain or the clothes.  We washed the shirt twice this way and were able to remove one of the major stains about 80% and the other approximately 95%.

Stain #1 (Before & After)

Stain #2 (Before & After)

After seeing the results, I realized that we really should wash stained items right away, as suggested in the instructions.  In the past, there were so many stains that we did wash right away with our regular detergent and the results were similar to that of Stain #1, which was washed with the OxiClean after the stain set for four days.  Any new stains in our house will be washed with OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover right away from now on.  As for our children's clothes with old stains, we will try soaking them in a concentrated solution of OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover before we wash them again.

What makes this OxiClean so "Versatile"?  Well, it is said to be safe for cleaning more than just laundry stains on your whites and brights.  It is safe to use around your home on things like your carpeting, upholstery, and hard surfaces such as your kitchen counters or bathroom tile.  We definitely can't say that about our regular laundry detergent.  The next time one of our cats decides to get sick on one of the rugs, we'll be ready!

A 3lb tub of OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover retails for approximately $7.99.  It is also available in a "Free" version, which is free of dyes and fragrances for sensitive skin, and in a "Baby Stain Soaker" for households with infants and toddlers, which is also free of dyes and perfumes and can be used as a stain soaker or a laundry booster.  To learn more about these products, visit OxiClean.com.

Review: OxiClean Max Force Gel Stick & Power Paks

Recently, I had the chance to review the OxiClean Spray-A-Way Instant Stain Remover and was extremely pleased with the results. For this reason, I could not turn down the chance to try two new OxiClean products . . . the Max Force Gel Stick Pre-Treater and the Max Force Power Paks. Finding a piece of laundry to test out the stain removing power of these products was not difficult in my house.

Look what I found when I was folding a basket of clean laundry the other day! These were the pants our 6yr old son was wearing last week when he threw up his breakfast and had to stay home from school. Yes, you read correctly. These pants were in with the clean laundry. My husband had already put them through the wash once. There were two large stains . . . one on the upper thigh area and one on the right leg near the hem.

As you can see from the comparison photos, the OxiClean products did an excellent job getting these stains out. All I had to do was rub the Max Force Gel Stick Pre-Treater directly onto the stains and let it sit for about ten minutes. Then we threw the pants in with our pending dark load of dirty laundry along with one OxiClean Max Force Power Pak. It could not have been easier.

The instructions said to wash the clothes in the hottest temperature the clothing's washing instructions allow. We actually wash everything in cold generally because it keeps the clothes looking nicer, it prevents shrinking and fading, and it also saves on energy. My point is that the stains came out 100% with using these OxiClean products even though we washed these pants in cold water.

Look for these two new OxiClean Max Force stain removing products to appear at your local retailer of household and laundry products soon.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of OxiClean and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Review: Oxi Clean Spray-A-Way Instant Stain Remover

Two nights ago, our daughter had a little accident right around bedtime. She somehow tripped and managed to hit her mouth on the train table. As a result, she had quite a boo boo on her gums. It was not until the next morning that I noticed the bloody saliva that had dripped from her mouth onto the front of her pajamas the night before.

By the time I had noticed the stains, they had already been set in. So I put the pajama top aside for when I had time to treat it with something. It ended up being a full two days before I had time to come back to these stains. This was the perfect opportunity for me to see how well the Oxi Clean Spray-A-Way Instant Stain Remover worked against blood.

I followed the directions on the bottle and sprayed the stain remover right onto the stains. I did not need to scrub, but I did need to blot the stained areas. I used a clean white paper towel, but I'm sure a cloth would have done just as well.

After completing the spraying, waiting, and blotting ritual four times, the stains were almost completely gone. I also achieved similar results using the Oxi Clean Spray-A-Way Instant Stain Remover on pen ink that I found on one of my daughter's doll outfits.

Although I am extremely pleased with the results, it did take my using almost the whole bottle of spray to make these two stains almost completely disappear. At $4.99 per bottle, I do think it is worth the money, especially if you are using the product to salvage something that is important to one of your children.

In addition to purchasing this product locally, you can also now place your order for this and other Oxi Clean products on GreatCleaners.com .

This article was written for a campaign run by the Family Review Network, who arranged for Arm & Hammer to send us a product sample to base this review upon.