Introduction

One of my favorite hobbies used to be writing. When I was young, I would write all the time. When I finally moved out of my parents' house, I had notebooks full of fantasy writing.

As it goes with life, college happened. Kids happened. Life happened. I kept meaning to write more, to make a permanent document to the crazy life around me, but I just never seemed to be able to find the time. Worse yet, I would start, do well, and then poop out.

Another one of my hobbies is product testing. I love to try something new and recommend (or turn someone off). So, I thought, why don't I write and review?

As I was doing the laundry this morning, the idea hit me as I was using (you guessed it) a new product. So, here it is.

Tide Stain Release.

So, this past week, Kroger had a sale where Procter and Gamble products give $5.00 off of your grocery bill if you buy $25.00 in P&G products. [Easy enough to do when you buy Pampers by the metric crap-ton. :) ] Tide Stain Release, the large package, was on sale for $5.00. I had a $3.00 coupon, so the venture cost me all of $2.00. It usually retails for about 10 bucks for a package of 18.

They are easy to use; just throw it in while the washer is filling up with the regular detergent. (If you have a front loader, throw it in with the clothes and put your detergent in the slider tray per usual). They can get sticky if you are even slightly damp-handed, so make sure your hands are dry when you get one out.

The smell was nice. My father would laugh at me after my pregnancy debacle of sniffing 20+ bottles of fabric softener when my usual brand made me nauseated. I'm still sensitive to smells. So, I think it is pertinent to mention this.

The laundry came out smelling really good. The whites looked especially bright, but keep in mind that I use Arm and Hammer with Oxy Clean. However, the clothes did look markedly whiter.

The REAL test was the stains. Rick can come home with stains galore on his uniforms. This is usually blood, food, parenteral feeding, medicine, and things like pudding/applesauce that is used to mix crushed meds. In other words, a virtual cornucopia of stains.

Baby Ricky can throw up in the manner of Linda Blair.

Grace can get just about anything on her, too. She had dirty socks for this experiment.


Results:

-The blood stain just did not come out. The whites were whiter, the minor dirt stains were gone, but that nasty stain remained. It looked a little lighter, but I could still see it.

-The dirt on the bottom of Grace's socks was lightened, but still not gone. (Where the heck did that girl walk, anyway??)

-Baby Ricky's burp cloths, clothing and my clothing that he, erm, expressed himself upon were good as new.

Disclaimer:

I only used one Stain Release packet, as it was a small load. The instructions state that two packets should be used for large loads and bad stains. Also, since I was also using Oxy Clean, I felt only one was necessary. I must also note that I did not pre-soak, I just did a heavy duty wash.

Grade:

4/10. It is somewhat pricey, for dubious results. It did get out minor-to-moderate stains, but that also could have been due to the Oxy Clean. I have had better results with the Super Oxygen Cleaner from the Dollar Tree (which got old coffee stains out of my Mom's car carpet).

I'm glad it was on sale, and I had a coupon. Would not buy again.