7 Tips for getting the most out of clothes * Moms and Crafters

Kids make a royal mess. Whether it’s ketchup stains, or a grass run you’re battling, here are some tips for getting the most out of your children’s clothing.

It goes beyond diapers that leak, and spit up stains. The toddler years offer a whole new selection of dirt, and now that he actually fits into a garment for more than a few months, I need a solution for those stains. My toddler hits the dirt every time we go out. He loves finger painting, and eats like, well, a toddler! We go through lots more clothing than I ever imagined possible.

Let your kids have fun! They like to get dirty – they even need to get dirty. Knowing how to treat your kids’ clothing after they are messy will allow you to be calmer, and your kids to get messier.

It’s not just kids who can be messy. Just the other day, I was eating a berry and kale smoothie (21^st century stain problems…) while wearing a white shirt (DARE to wear white!) and lo and behold, I walked away with a white and purple shirt. So, which should I skip – the smoothie or the white clothing? The answer is – neither!

8 mom-to-mom tips for getting the most out of clothes:

Knowing how to deal with dirt as it happens will help you live life a little fuller, breathe a little easier, and get a little messier.

Pretreat any stains with Shout^® Trigger Triple-Acting Stain Remover – don’t just dump them in the wash!
Catch it right when it happens, before stains have a chance to set.
Which leads me to: always be equipped! Shout^® Wipes have always been a staple for me. It’s saved me from tomato juice spills on many a flight. I took them with me to England, when I lived in a dormitory there, and sometimes couldn’t wash stains out immediately.
Don’t worry about separating colors – use Shout^® Color Catcher^®. When you mix colored garments with light ones, the dyes run, causing your garments to look dingy and drab. Separating helps, but if that’s not an option, you can just throw in one or two Color Catcher^® sheets to help catch the extra dyes. Saves you time and money on doing double the load.
Know the right products for your clothing or stain. For real tough stains, go for Shout^® Advanced Gel – a super-concentrated formula.

Don’t dry it until the stain is out – as drying sets stains.
Follow instructions on your garment label. Oh, and learn how to read those symbols! 89% of Americans don’t know what the dry clean symbol looks like!

All of the above products are safe for colorfast washables. They have been a lifesaver for me, as well as many others, for many years.

Millennials and our Stains:

While previously our moms worried about ketchup stains, grass stains, and lots of tree-climbing dirt stains, today’s moms also worry about a whole new generation of food stains. Think: berry smoothies, organic baby foods, or sriracha.

Our moms used Shout^® to allow us to be kids, while knowing they’ll be able to get rid of our stains. Shout^® products help us allow our kids to eat 21^st Century super foods too – like kids do! And they still help us tackle those same old grass stains while we allow our children to play outdoors and live a healthy, active lifestyle. With each new generations of stains that comes up, Shout^® has proven to be effective.

For years, Fashionistas have relied on Shout^® products to help them keep their favorite garments in the running for longer, and now you can use it to keep your mini fashionista well-dressed.

According to a recent survey:

In addition to discovering that 89% of millennials don’t know what the dry clean symbol looks like, the experts at Shout^® uncovered some more surprising stain facts about our generation:

We have been helping out with our laundry on average from the age of fourteen but still worry the most about how to get out stains.
Our biggest worry is with the new generations of stains. We seem to be confident about getting out our ketchup and grass stains, but worry about our kale smoothie stains.
We believe that our children are happiest when messy, but we tend to provide separate wardrobes for them to play in.
Even though all the information is out there for us, many of us had no idea just how messy our kids would be. Answer – pretty messy! On average, most of our kids go through two outfits a day!
Does your mom still do your laundry for you? 16% of millennials answered yes to that question. More than half of millennials worry that they might ruin their clothing while washing.
We tend to avoid wearing white, or our favorite outfits for ear of staining them.

The thing is, there is really no need to worry so much. We should calm down, let our children get dirty, and dress how we want to!

Treating stains is not as complicated as it seems, and having the right products really does the trick. Check out the Shout^® lineup of stain removers and laundry products and get dirty!

I’ve shared my tips for getting the most out of clothes – now it’s your turn! How do you do it? Which stains are you fighting? Share in the comments below.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.