To those with “crisp” clean preschoolers...

[Anonymous]

This thread is eye opening (even outside of the bizarro poop comments). I don’t use a brush, hairspray or an iron on myself or my own clothes so it never occurred to me to use them on my kids. They go to daycare a little wrinkly but they do get a bath every day so I don’t care as long as they are clean!

[Anonymous]

Bathed daily, unless it really seems not to be needed. Gel for hair. I hate to iron, so both of our clothes are tossed in the dryer on the refresh setting for a few minutes to remove wrinkles. Wash shoes and sneakers before they get super messy. I stay away from too much white, or only have him wear it when he is with me for the day.

[Anonymous]

My kid takes a bath nightly. In the morning, we brush teeth and hair. We wash hands and wipe his face on a regular basis.

I scotchguard his uniform shirts after laundering. I keep an oxyclean stain stick in his closet, and as soon as we get home, he changes clothes, and I pretreat the stains before I toss the clothes in the hamper.

I throw away stained or torn clothes if I can’t fix them.

I also wash his sneakers regularly.

[Anonymous]

For all the "crisp" kid parents - what brand polo shirt launders the best? My DS may wear any color polo and khaki shorts/pants for his "uniform".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all the "crisp" kid parents - what brand polo shirt launders the best? My DS may wear any color polo and khaki shorts/pants for his "uniform".

I love the Under Armour ones. They're not cheap but they hold up well and stains come out very easily.

[Anonymous]

I spend hours a week removing stains. For some people that is a waste of time, but I listen or watch TV as I do it. If a shirt has a stain I can’t remove I toss it, but that’s rare. Her hair is easy. I put it in a half ponytail with a little clear plastic band and a clip bow. Stays in all day. I take pride in how she looks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spend hours a week removing stains. For some people that is a waste of time, but I listen or watch TV as I do it. If a shirt has a stain I can’t remove I toss it, but that’s rare. Her hair is easy. I put it in a half ponytail with a little clear plastic band and a clip bow. Stays in all day. I take pride in how she looks

This is me, although I prefer elastic hair ties to plastic and I have learned the hard way to stain treat as I go My kid gets as messy and disheveled as any other 3 year old, but it's not difficult to start the day clean and orderly, or to keep her stuff in general good repair. I think it helps that I line-/rack-dry almost all of her clothes, versus putting them in the dryer.

[Anonymous]

Kids bathe/shower every night. Shampoo + conditioner.
Brush teeth every morning and night.
Eat breakfast BEFORE changing into school clothes.
Brush hair every morning.
Wash face every morning.

I tend to buy clothing that can hide stains well, but generally find that higher quality clothes (e.g., Hanna Andersson) are thicker and release stains and wrinkles more easily. Also, color-coordinating helps with the put-together look. I buy patterned tops, and solid bottoms. Good quality shoes that I clean regularly.

[Anonymous]

I am LOLing at the poop schedule lady. But, I have actually heard of this before, I bet this PP's country is probably India. I am also loling at her assertion that it is somehow gross to poop outside of the home.

[Anonymous]

I shout the hell out of everything. Promptly fold or hang. Take noticeably torn or stained clothes out of rotation. Bath every night. Hands and face wiped after breakfast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the best leave-in conditioner you have found? My girls like their hair long and it's very pretty but one of them has very thick hair and it's a nightmare!

I use It's a 10 light on my 5 year old. She has long wavy hair that is usually pulled into a ponytail or braid unless she yells and screams and I don't bother (this is rare).

[Anonymous]

I don't understand people who ONLY use clean clothes. It seems so wasteful to throw out stained clothing. We have separate play clothes and nice clothes. I'm ok with sending the lightly stained play clothes to preschool because that's where they get dirty to begin with. The stains we get are usually artwork-related, my kids are fairly tidy eaters at this point.

I rarely iron their play clothes - but most of them are cotton and don't wrinkle much to begin with. I will iron clothes if we're going somewhere nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand people who ONLY use clean clothes. It seems so wasteful to throw out stained clothing. We have separate play clothes and nice clothes. I'm ok with sending the lightly stained play clothes to preschool because that's where they get dirty to begin with. The stains we get are usually artwork-related, my kids are fairly tidy eaters at this point.

I rarely iron their play clothes - but most of them are cotton and don't wrinkle much to begin with. I will iron clothes if we're going somewhere nice.

I just can’t send my kids to school in stained clothes. I save them for art projects at home.

[Anonymous]

Help me get tomato sauce stains out of my DS’s nice cotton tees. I soak in OxiClean, wash on warm with lots of detergent, and the stains still take multiple rounds of this to come out—if they ever do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help me get tomato sauce stains out of my DS’s nice cotton tees. I soak in OxiClean, wash on warm with lots of detergent, and the stains still take multiple rounds of this to come out—if they ever do.

You may be using too much detergent. Try using Dr. Bronners liquid soap and hand wash before throwing in the laundry.