Question
I am potty training and my children seem to have accidents. It can stink pretty bad and is hard to get the smell out in the laundry. It’s not just in the underwear but in the blue jeans or pants they are wearing as well. I don’t have an issue bleaching the underwear, but obviously don’t want to bleach jeans or colored pants. What can I do to get rid of the smell?
Answer
Oh the memories… I noticed from your question that you said you are potty training children, so it sounds like you may have twins—it was a big enough challenge for me training one child at a time! I have some good news for you—more often than not, denim blue jeans can be safely laundered with Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach. You can use the bleachability test to check first. Just add 2 teaspoons Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach to ¼ cup water and apply a drop of that solution to a hidden part of the blue jeans (like inside the pocket facing, or the inside hem). Wait one minute then blot dry—no color change means you can safely bleach the blue jeans! You may also find that if the jeans fade slightly where the drop of test solution was applied, the color change is minimal and something you can live with. You can also use this test to confirm bleachability of the other colored pants—just don’t bother testing leggings or other pants that have spandex in them (check the care label) since spandex will yellow when bleached. Surprisingly, khaki pants are also often bleachable, just be sure to check first because it varies from brand to brand.
For pants that can’t be safely laundered with regular bleach, you can wash them with detergent and Clorox 2® For Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive. Always rinse away any solids prior to laundering. Be sure to select a hot wash temperature and the heavy duty cycle to get the pants as clean as possible, and sanitize them by adding Clorox® Laundry Sanitizer to the softener dispenser. This product is appropriate for all machine washable laundry, including colors.
Of course you can also limit your kids to wearing only bleachable pants until they are potty trained!
