Friends don't let friends wear stained t-shirts

When he was about eight years old, my younger brother had a red cotton jacket with a baseball patch on it. Kid loved that jacket and wore it nonstop, until it turned from a cheery cherry red to a dingy brick hue. Finally one evening my mother managed to get it away from him and into the washing machine. I'm not sure what she used on it, but the end result was so astonishingly wonderful that she hiked up two flights of steps to my bedroom and woke me up just to show me how clean the jacket had become.

And that is just about how I felt when I successfully cleaned Opie's white Scurvy Friends t-shirt. This shirt, as you'll see if you click on the link, is flipping awesome and never fails to spread joy, sunshine, and vitamin C whenever it's worn. But like all of Opie's shirts, it also never fails to end the day stained with all kinds of Toddler Slime.

When I first became a mom one of my friends, oh-so-wise because her baby was 10 months older than mine, told me that she always threw a scoop of OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover into her wash, and then didn't bother pre-treating stains. I started doing the same and found she was quite right. For anything especially stubborn, I use the OxiClean during an extra soak cycle; this takes care of most everything my family can dish out in the stain department.

When Parent Bloggers Network first offered the OxiClean review I thought "Cool, I like OxiClean and I'll try something new if it's from them." The package arrived, I eagerly opened it ... and found a plastic bucket just like the one already sitting in my laundry room.

Oops. But then I actually read the label, something I clearly haven't done ever before, and learned about all these other uses for OxiClean. Aside from "laundry boosting," which is what I've been doing, you can also use OxiClean to pre-treat stains, de-spot carpets, and even clean your deck, siding, or outdoor furniture.

A whole new world! So back to the Scurvy Friends. When they turned up looking especially grimy, I hit them with an OxiClean stain-removing paste--which led to the Grandma-channeling excitement I mentioned above. So the scurvy friends and I give OxiClean two citrusy thumbs up.

What I liked: OxiClean is simple to use--just throw a scoop into your washing machine along with your regular detergent (the label says to put it in with the water, then add the clothes once the machine is full, but I've never done that and never had a problem). Clothes don't fade even after repeated washings (you know how toddlers can go through several outfits a day--I think Opie's record is 7 shirts and 6 pairs of shorts in one 14-hour period). If you buy one of the larger buckets, you can save it and reuse it for soaking small items (perfect for a few toddler onesies or small-child underpants).

What I didn't: That Billy Mays guy on the commercials is damn annoying.

Who it's for: Anyone who does laundry!

P.S. Mrs. Chicken likes it too.