Two days ago I saw that one of my favourite shirts has mold stains. So far I’ve soaked it in 1:1 water and vinegar, dilute colorsafe bleach, and detergent separately for a few hours each. That might’ve killed the mold but the stains aren’t coming off. I rubbed powdered detergent on the shirt and left it in the sun for a few hours then scrubbed it with a toothbrush but the stains are still there.
Do you guys know of any good ways to remove mold stains?
I don’t have an answer for you, but my dry cleaner used to hollar at me when I wouldn’t talk to them before trying to remedy a stain multiple ways myself. She would tell me the more things i tried the less likely it was she could help because i’d helped set the stain by trying unsuccessful methods to clean the garment. Take it to your cleaners. Worst case, you decide not have them do anything. Best case, they’re able to get it done.
Ah shoot hahah I hope I didn’t make things worse. I’ll try asking tomorrow if they can remedy this. Thank you!
Crossing my fingers for you. Hope you get it it cleaned.
Mould eats the fibres and dye, so it might be a permanent change I’m afraid. There are specialist mould removers but they might bleach coloured fabric.
Oh man I hope that’s not the case with this.
Maybe the dry cleaners know what to do
Thank you. I’ll try asking tomorrow. Hopefully they can do something about this.
A little off topic, but your laundry should never be in a condition to allow mold growth. Stuff should be allowed to dry out if it got wet (if you don’t intend to wash it soon) and washed laundry should be promptly dried. If you are doing that and it still happened, you might have a mold problem in your home. The shirt might not be saveable, but this might be the lesson to avoid more expensive mistakes in the future.
Ok, but for the rest of us who AREN’T perfect, this could be a situation that one encounters.
“Should haves” are the least wanted advice.
Who pissed on your Wheaties this morning? Got a little mold on your favorite pants?
From experience: sodium percarbonate. This is the active ingredient in oxy-clean powders and can be purchased online. In it’s pure form it’s commonly used as a sterilizing cleaner for brewing and bottling equipment. I’ve been using it in laundry for 10 years.
Not to be confused with sodium perchlorate. That stuff is spicy!
To be fair, it will also get stains out of clothes.
If it doesn’t have a design on it, you could dye it a dark color with some rit dye to hide the staining.
I’ll do that if the stains can’t be removed. Thank you!
Color-safe bleach seems to be Hydrogen Peroxide based, so you were probably safe.
Traditional Sodium Hypoclorite bleach should never be mixed with vinegar. That can release chlorine gas which is very bad for you even at low concentrations.
In general, use one cleaning agent at a time with thorough rinses in between. It can be hard to predict how cleaning agents will react. You’re likely to reduce the effectiveness of them by mixing, and there’s a chance of making dangerous byproducts.
They were quite clear about the fact that they didn’t mix bleach with anything.
You could try a direct application of white vinegar to the stain, and if that doesn’t seem to get it out, leaving it in bright sunlight might help. However if you’re in a spot that isn’t seeing much sun currently then I definitely second the suggestion to take it to a dry cleaner’s.
What color is the shirt? You might be able to bleach it back to white if it was a white shirt. Otherwise, you might have to invest in a new favorite shirt. What made it your favorite?
PSA most white garments are dyed white and will yellow if bleached. There are almost no “true white” fabrics/fibers in nature (cotton and wool are more cream colored, for example) so be careful using bleach on your clothes
It’s plain and cream colored (which makes the stains stand out more) so I avoided using strong bleach. My gf gifted it to me. I wore it when I visited my family. Some drama happened and I completely forgot to dry out the shirt :(
Depending on what sort of shirt it is, could you considered sewing an interesting patch over the area? Take a sort of ‘visible mending’ approach? That way it just becomes one more memory associated with the shirt.
