Ok ladies, it has been an enlightening weekend. I found myself with filthy white baseball pants and no shout or bleach. I was too tired to find a car wash to spray out my son's pants, so I decided I would scrub them with a bar of soap from the hotel and he would just have to wear them, no matter how they looked. What do you know, but that cheap hotel soap took out that dirt and red clay easier than any spray in wash I have ever used. Had I only known that 10 years ago.

tigermom ...

That is funny but how many miniature bars of that soap would you have had to use over the past 10 years?

Have you tried Iron Out? It works wonders on the white pants. Just make sure you test any colors first. Just be warned, it smells HORRIBLE.


Thanks for the tip.

I really like iron out--it does take out the color of the embroidered (did I spell that right???) label on pants (like the easton E that is now white on my son's pants).

I also learned from some wonderful person here to take the pants to the car wash and use the power washer on them when they are really bad.

Between those two approaches, I've had pretty good luck with the clay stuff and brick dust. tigermom--glad the soap worked, I may have to try that someday!

Bleaching the white baseball pants tends to turn them a dull yellowish color after a while...
...I use a combination of Clorox II and Greased Lightning and let the pants soak...sometimes running through a double rinse cycle to get out the extra soap. For the ground-in mud, I double wash the pants. It all seems to work great.
(now back to my man cave before my man card is revoked)

I admit it, I'm a bleacher But, my son generally gets a big hole in his pants before they can turn yellow. I always bring Fels Naptha and love it!!

If you want to make sure you get all the soap/bleach out use white vinegar in the rinse water. Gets out all soap residue and is really good at getting rid of odors! I use it in all my laundry and it does a great job.

Thank you for mentioning the Car Wash- I just got back from there. What a wonder on white pants. I just have a few spots of something & a dot or two of grass to scrub with the Fels Naptha soap now instead of all of both pairs. My hands don't like the fels too well but it really works too.

i purchased ZOTE bar soap after finding mention of it on this board. a good friend also recommended it.

here's what i do:

spray the pants with oxyclean and let them sit for a while.

i then grate some of the ZOTE bar into the washing machine tub and toss in the pants. I run a soak cycle with cold water only. wash and rinse in cold too. the pants are coming out clean and i am very pleased !

ZOTE is a little hard to find but i found it in a local hispanic grocery store.

Our travel coach suggested Greased Lightening. It is an auto detailing detergent, but is also recommended to launder heavily soiled clothes. Spray it on wet pants, scrub a little, presoak, then wash. The pants come out clean.

Hey Ladies,
I don't post often but I found that Fels Naptha soap has been the best thing to get my son's red NC clay/muddy white pants (he's a catcher) clean again. I use the garden hose to "pressure wash" his pants and then just rub the soap bar into the stains (which are pretty much the whole pants). Then I take a brush and scrub over them and pop them in the wash. I have never found anything that works as well as this. Good luck! kj