After Holiday Laundry Mess??

The holidays bring wonderful memories and tons of company, I have some tips to plow through these not so welcome holiday leftovers! Pre-treat ring around the collar stains on dress shirts with shampoo. It's the oils in your hair and skin that cause that stain, so the shampoo will break it up. Dish Liquid is also a gentle and inexpensive pre-treater for all sorts of stains on all sorts of fabrics - just squirt it on and work it in. The stain will launder out without a problem. If there's a chance you won't be doing laundry for a few days, use a clear dish soap so the colorant won't transfer to the fabric. Adding a cup of white vinegar to your wash cycle will remove the sour smell from towels that they sometimes get when they're piled up. A great substitute fabric softener is a half a cup of baking soda added to the wash cycle. Your clothes will come out soft and fresh. As an added bonus, baking soda is a milder than fabric softeners so it won't irritate sensitive skin. Finally, when you're folding laundry, an easy way to keep sheet sets together is to slip the sheets inside the pillowcase. Now that we've gotten through that Thanksgiving laundry - lets start gearing up for those December holidays!