A couple of weekends ago, the hubs and I sent the kids up to Grandma's house overnight so we could start getting organized for the new baby. This included an entire garage cleanout because all of our baby stuff was stored there. I know some people will think I'm crazy when I say that I love sorting and organizing, but I do, which makes this project right up my alley!
We found all the main gear to clean and bring in - infant car seat, baby swing, bouncer, etc. but the main thing I wanted to sort through and clean were the clothes. I have all of Shay's clothes organized by size in bins, however, all the newborn stuff were in the bins at the bottom of the stacks. So the first order of business was to reorganize. The baby bins moved to the top of the stack and the size 3T bins moved to the bottom.
We moved all the newborn and 0-3 month bins into the house, which included clothes, and other miscellaneous stuff like blankets, bibs, burp clothes, towels, hats and sleep sacks. I should have taken a picture of the huge pile of stuff. After 4 baby showers, and of course some shopping of my own to prepare for my first child, there was definitely enough stuff in that pile that there would be no need to buy anything this time around. I dumped everything out on the floor and went to work sorting into 3 piles:
- good condition
- stained
- donation
Boy was I bummed when in the end, the "good condition" pile was smaller than the stained pile!
Even though the pieces were in good condition when stored, sometimes after awhile, yellow stains appear. And that is exactly what happened to a lot of our stuff. Here are just a few pieces of stained clothes. It's hard to see the yellow in these pictures but they are definitely there.
I was determined to salvage as much of the baby items as possible! After doing some online research, I decided to try my luck with Oxiclean and cross my fingers for great results!
The solution I experimented with contained 3 scoops of Oxiclean to approximately 1 gallon of water. On second thought, I think the ratio was a little more heavy on the water, but it was really hard to know exactly how much water was flowing into the bucket when you're just eyeballing it.
Each load of stained baby items soaked for 6 hours.
After soaking, the pieces were put through the rinse and spin cycle in the washer. They were then washed normally, with free and clear detergent. I was so excited to see that the finished products were stain-free!
Again, it's hard to see, and I only photographed 2 items for the "after" shot, but I promise, they are clean and white again!
Here's a before and after of one of Shay's little white tops.
I'm so relieved that all those clothes, blankets, etc. won't be wasted! Thanks to Oxiclean, our new little girl can wear this cute little outfit...
(Shaylin 2 weeks old)
...and reuse this blanket...
...and wear the white top that was shown above numerous times. :)
(Shaylin 4 weeks old)
I'm so glad we were able to salvage all the stained baby items that I would have otherwise gotten rid of, and all it took was a container of Oxiclean! Babies grow so fast, I can't imagine having to spend money on new clothes that will get grown out of within weeks when all of Shay's things were begging to be reused. Big check off the list and a sigh of relief!
xo,
Carly
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