Wash, Washer, Washing...

Homework this week from over at Carrie's

Washing Eric's dress shirts drives me nuts, with their tendency to yellow and stain regardless of all my efforts. When it comes to doing laundry, what's your personal nightmare? How have you come to battle it? Lye soap? A brand-name product? Some special knack passed down for generations? Saying "to heck with this" and sending it all to the cleaners?

In Georgia there is red dirt. Let me set this scenario for you. Three boys/white socks/red dirt. Three boys/knees of blue jeans/red dirt. Really it made for some fun laundry days. But see laundry is my thing. Not so much that I *love* doing it (although I do enjoy it, really) but it's one of those things were I'm crazy anal. I use Tide w/Bleach, Oxy Clean, Downey and Bounce every time I do laundry. Donald will wash his uniforms but a lot of times they are sent to the cleaners. My daddy who wears dress shirts all.the.time. swears by Dawn for ring around the collar. I use Zout for stain removal. But honestly I rarely have to use it (well I did with the red dirt situation...) Tide w/ bleach pretty much eliminates my need for a pre treater. I know it cost more, but for me it's not time efficient or cost effective if I'm having to wash and rewash something along with pre treating.