Baseball field socks

[Anonymous]

Any tips on how to wash? The clay is baked in and even with using spray and wash and on hot it won't come out. I have a whole basket full of socks that have streaks of dirt and they are expensive. They are not 100% white so can't really bleach.

[Anonymous]

Soak in Oxiclean before washing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soak in Oxiclean before washing.

This was going to be my tip too. And by "soak" if possible I mean let it sit for a solid week. Then spray it with every spray you can think of. Then wash.

[Anonymous]

White Brite and Fels Naptha soap are the keys to baseball laundry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White Brite and Fels Naptha soap are the keys to baseball laundry

Would White Brite work if there are other colors on the socks? People use it for reverse tie die after all...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soak in Oxiclean before washing.

This then just be one with the baseball dirt. Who really cares? Not your son.

[Anonymous]

I just wash it and if they’re dirty looking or dingy I don’t care. He’s just gonna get them dirty again immediately.

[Anonymous]

A mistake I did, and sounds like you might've also, was using hot water.

After looking into it, found out that dirt is like organic matter and you can't wash it off like some stains. (this is based off of memory and may be remembering the details incorrectly)

So if you use something like hot water, it'll end up baking the stain into it.

You actually want to soak it onto cold water first.

And I've tried multiple things, oxiclean, vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, etc. Currently I just use a mixture of detergent, oxiclean and vinegar.

For the batch of clothes that I tried soaking in hot water, I don't think I ever got the stains fully out. And have had them soaking afterwards long enough for rust to start showing on the buttons. (might've been cheaper quality clothes)

But now with the new routine of presoaking and rinsing with cold water first, the stains on other clothes come out a bit easier and better. Might take a couple of washes.

Also you may want to try good old fashioned elbow grease along with those washing boards people used to use to scrub against. My main issue with that was that it would wear out clothes faster. But for socks it may not be as big of deal.

And I think I've seen some people mention some kind of chemical you get from a home improvement store. Like some sort of rust remover? Never tried that method.

[Anonymous]

Zote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White Brite and Fels Naptha soap are the keys to baseball laundry

Would White Brite work if there are other colors on the socks? People use it for reverse tie die after all...

It depends, and you’ll need to color test for sure. IME it does not fade embroidery and baseball pant piping, but it does fade the color on those plastic-y logos.

Fels Naptha is always my first go to, and it has been fine to use on anything. It is a bar and you have to scrub it right onto the clothing, so kind of time consuming, but it works like a charm on clay.

[Anonymous]

Biz

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A mistake I did, and sounds like you might've also, was using hot water.

After looking into it, found out that dirt is like organic matter and you can't wash it off like some stains. (this is based off of memory and may be remembering the details incorrectly)

So if you use something like hot water, it'll end up baking the stain into it.

You actually want to soak it onto cold water first.

And I've tried multiple things, oxiclean, vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, etc. Currently I just use a mixture of detergent, oxiclean and vinegar.

For the batch of clothes that I tried soaking in hot water, I don't think I ever got the stains fully out. And have had them soaking afterwards long enough for rust to start showing on the buttons. (might've been cheaper quality clothes)

But now with the new routine of presoaking and rinsing with cold water first, the stains on other clothes come out a bit easier and better. Might take a couple of washes.

Also you may want to try good old fashioned elbow grease along with those washing boards people used to use to scrub against. My main issue with that was that it would wear out clothes faster. But for socks it may not be as big of deal.

And I think I've seen some people mention some kind of chemical you get from a home improvement store. Like some sort of rust remover? Never tried that method.

I’m sure this is great advice but holy cow that sounds like a lot of effort for kid’s socks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mistake I did, and sounds like you might've also, was using hot water.

After looking into it, found out that dirt is like organic matter and you can't wash it off like some stains. (this is based off of memory and may be remembering the details incorrectly)

So if you use something like hot water, it'll end up baking the stain into it.

You actually want to soak it onto cold water first.

And I've tried multiple things, oxiclean, vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, etc. Currently I just use a mixture of detergent, oxiclean and vinegar.

For the batch of clothes that I tried soaking in hot water, I don't think I ever got the stains fully out. And have had them soaking afterwards long enough for rust to start showing on the buttons. (might've been cheaper quality clothes)

But now with the new routine of presoaking and rinsing with cold water first, the stains on other clothes come out a bit easier and better. Might take a couple of washes.

Also you may want to try good old fashioned elbow grease along with those washing boards people used to use to scrub against. My main issue with that was that it would wear out clothes faster. But for socks it may not be as big of deal.

And I think I've seen some people mention some kind of chemical you get from a home improvement store. Like some sort of rust remover? Never tried that method.

I’m sure this is great advice but holy cow that sounds like a lot of effort for kid’s socks.

lol to be fair, it's not just socks but is part of a uniform and admittedly I'm kind of anal when it comes to that kind of thing.

But I agree, socks might not be as big of a deal to me, depending on how bad they look. They shouldn't be as hard or expensive to replace if it comes down to that. I guess my kids wear more of the open hem type of baseball pants that you wear like regular pants. So the socks aren't as noticeable when they wear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mistake I did, and sounds like you might've also, was using hot water.

After looking into it, found out that dirt is like organic matter and you can't wash it off like some stains. (this is based off of memory and may be remembering the details incorrectly)

So if you use something like hot water, it'll end up baking the stain into it.

You actually want to soak it onto cold water first.

And I've tried multiple things, oxiclean, vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, etc. Currently I just use a mixture of detergent, oxiclean and vinegar.

For the batch of clothes that I tried soaking in hot water, I don't think I ever got the stains fully out. And have had them soaking afterwards long enough for rust to start showing on the buttons. (might've been cheaper quality clothes)

But now with the new routine of presoaking and rinsing with cold water first, the stains on other clothes come out a bit easier and better. Might take a couple of washes.

Also you may want to try good old fashioned elbow grease along with those washing boards people used to use to scrub against. My main issue with that was that it would wear out clothes faster. But for socks it may not be as big of deal.

And I think I've seen some people mention some kind of chemical you get from a home improvement store. Like some sort of rust remover? Never tried that method.

I’m sure this is great advice but holy cow that sounds like a lot of effort for kid’s socks.

lol to be fair, it's not just socks but is part of a uniform and admittedly I'm kind of anal when it comes to that kind of thing.

But I agree, socks might not be as big of a deal to me, depending on how bad they look. They shouldn't be as hard or expensive to replace if it comes down to that. I guess my kids wear more of the open hem type of baseball pants that you wear like regular pants. So the socks aren't as noticeable when they wear it.

Lol yeah my kid just looks like a bum and he has accepted it.

(And it’s not that I don’t try at all, I’ll pretreat with some spray and throw some oxiclean in the washer, but beyond that I just let the chips fall where they may!)

[Anonymous]

Softball mom here and this drove me crazy for so many years! Luckily we mostly had black or colored socks but those white softball pants were awful -- always red clay on the butt and streaked down the side, ground in from sliding. Mine was a pitcher so would also get the clay on hands, then wipe down thighs.
We used the oxyclean white revive and a lot of shout -- but I think it comes out of the pant material better than the sock material. White socks with colored stripes are just a way to torture baseball and softball parents.