Cleaning & Storing Garments

JOIN THE SOAKING CLUB!

&

BRING BACK SNOWY BLEACH!

I am always so shocked to hear how many of my mama friends do not soak their kid’s clothes before throwing them in the machine as normal. Is it one extra step, yes. Do we have time for this, No. Is it worth it… YES. Soaking has saved so many garments in my household both heirlooms and play clothes!

I asked Angela, Our heirloom seamstress her methods and she said two names I have never heard of before.. Snowy Bleach and Ivory Snow… They seem to be the cleaning magic we need in 2026!

As promised I want to share Mine and Angela’s tips on cleaning and storing heirloom clothing. I Will also add a little note below on how I clean my two kids’ normal every day clothing, too. Let them get messy in the cuteness!!

Heirloom clothing should NEVER go into the washing machines. It is so important that you do not put any type of delicate, hand made garment in the washing machine… ever!

I have two bowls that stays in my laundry room, I call them my soaking bowls. I use one bowl for all the nicer clothing, including heirlooms and the other for every day clothes etc…

1. Heirloom Clothing Cleaning… According to Tay:

   1. I use DAWN Dish soap and also will spot clean certain spots very gently on the lace, collar, etc with a tide pen. Depending on the stains or spots I try to keep most of the garment dry and spot clean the collar etc. My kids are messy, and we wear our heirlooms out to church, special occasions etc! I like to come home and immediately put Luke warm water into my bowl, add dawn, a generous amount, and soak the entire thing into the water. There might be spots that need a little more love…I use my fingers and carefully massage the dawn onto the spot, running water over it while I massage. This 99.9% of the time gets the food, sticky, icing etc out! If it gives me a harder time, I will go to my next method and try to Tide Pen. You can be generous with the Tide Pen. Use your fingers to carefully massage the spot, just like you did with Dawn. Then let it soak. I soak everything that has a spot that gives me a hard time in the bowl of water and Dawn OVERNIGHT. The next day, I take it out, rinse it well, and repeat the process of dawn on my fingers over the spot that needs the love. Most every time after the overnight soak, this spot lets up and is gone! Soaking it in the dawn will do the trick! Clothing that is soaked, washed with Dawn and comes out clean the first time I do not soak overnight. I rinse really well and lay flat to dry. If you hang it to dry, use a clean plastic hanger, no colored hangers or fabric on the wet items. Never use the sunshine to dry heirlooms, let them dry on their own!

2. Every Day Cleaning on Things with Tough Stains

   1. Y’ALL BETTER SOAK IT! I soak everything that has a spot or needs brightened in Oxi-Clean White Revive Powder. Yes, It is totally okay to use on colors. Promise. I cannot take full credit for this method. Ive followed the most precious family for years, Maggie Lawrence on instagram. She has three boys, and has the cleaning process DOWN to a science. I got this idea from her and am so thankful. She is the sweetest and has the best taste if you need boy dress or decor inspo go follow her, love her!

      Soaking is the only way… I was a nanny for my older cousin right out of college, who also had two boys! She used to have buckets in her laundry room, (im sure she still does) just for soaking. She, too would soak EVERYTHING for at least 24 hours in a bucket of water in Oxi -Clean before it went into the washing machine. She taught me to soak and then pour the water with the soapy oxi-clean and garments right into the machine with the other clothes. It works great y’all. But remember, Oxi-Clean White Revive POWDER is the way to go, i use it on everything non-heirloom related. You will thank me later! *if you have other stain spot cleaners you use and love, use them as normal plus soaking in the oxi-clean powder. I do this with harder stains and it helps!

3. Angela’s Cleaning Advice:

   1. From Angela... “In the past, when the products were available, I used 2 parts Ivory Snow and 1 Part Snowy Bleach (A non-chlorine bleach) with just enough water to soak the garment in. You could soak it up to a week and not harm anything.” Side Note: This method got black sharpie out of Angela’s daughter heirloom dress once… WOW!

      “I would mix a paste out of the two products to hit the spots first and it worked beautifully. This was a solution i got from a museum back in the 80s, they used it to treat historic clothing. They no longer make snowy bleach and ivory snow is only in a liquid form now and very hard to find.“

      Angela believes that Ivory snow Dreft baby detergent and a non-chlorine bleach could be used to get the same result as the Ivory Snow and Snowy Bleach… She has never tried it before, let us know if you do!*

4. Products to get the Yellow Stains

   1. Retro Clean Cleaning Product, found on Amazon. This product got all of the yellow stains out of my dad’s heirlooms from his childhood, that my son Bates wore. I soaked all the garments together over night with this solution, it worked perfectly. Highly Highly recommend them, found on amazon.

5. Storing Heirlooms

   1. I store all our family heirlooms in an acid free storage box with acid-free tissue paper. The box does not need to be taped shut, let it be breathable! Boxes need a lid that fits on the top. There are several online, amazon has a ton, too! I wrap the garments in the tissue paper and store them in the box inside my home, do not keep the box in your attic. Keep the box in a climate controlled room, like a closet! I keep some under Libby’s bed and some of mine are in our guest room closet. Be sure you clean the garments before tucking them away to be celebrated and loved again! #ThisWasMine

So in conclusion… Its much easier than you think!

For heirlooms: Use Dawn Dish Soapy water, rub dawn on areas that need love, if that isnt working, try the Tide Pen (very carefully).

For everyday play clothing, trunk, boutique, any other fabrics that are not delicate: Use Oxi-Clean White Revive Powder! Powder is the key. I am very generous with this and use a lot in my bowl with hotter water. After it soaks over night or 24hours, i pour the bowl with the water and garments into the washing machine and wash as normal!

It seems that i need to try to track down or call these companies that made the Snowy Bleach and Ivory Snow in the 80s and beg them to make a come back! Or someone in the cleaning product industry reading this… yall bring it back. I mean anything that is okay to use on heirlooms, with strong enough power to get sharpie out is a WINNER! right! If you try the Dreft and non-chlorine bleach method let us know. I may, too try this and report back.

Cheers to soaking, cleaning and preserving the precious heirloom memories! We got this!

Edited Update:

I google searched Snowy Bleach and the solution from the 80s is available on eBay…

I googled Ivory Snow and found that Dreft makes several versions… I may try them on my kid’s garments!

XX

Tay