out, damned spot!

this is not a sponsored post -- I just have to sing the praises of a product that saved me the cost of replacing a basketball uniform that went through the wash with a ballpoint pen (!!!!! and I was the one who put the load in, so I can't even blame anyone else. how the pen snuck in there, we will never know). on the bright side, it was the only piece of clothing in a full load that got stained... but why did it have to be the uniform and not the $2 leggings from the consignment store?? 

the silver lining was that this happened after their last game of the season, so it was the final wash prior to returning the uniforms and I had some time to work on it. I always line dry our uniforms, so thankfully it did not go through the dryer. I first tried my standby trick of using hair spray to lift the ink, but there was so, so, so (so!) much ink that you could barely see an improvement. then I soaked overnight in OxyClean and used an OxyClean spray stain remover before washing it again. no dice

finally, I went down the rabbit hole of stain removing recommendations on Reddit and found two products touted as the best: InkGo, which was only available on Amazon in an industrial size jug for $128, and Amodex, which came in a more reasonable 4 oz bottle for $12 (still a hefty price for such a small amount, but certainly less than the replacement cost of the uniform). following the directions, I placed several folded paper towels underneath the stain, saturated the stain with Amodex, and worked it in using a stiff brush, rotating to a clean area of the paper towel as soon as the ink transferred and repeating again and again and again. of course, the directions did say that it works best if the stain has not already been treated with a different agent, so I hoped it would still be effective.

after rinsing with warm water, I could finally tell a difference in the stains, but again, there was so much ink in the fabric that I ended up leaving it to sit overnight. 

this was after lots of elbow grease to the three lighter stains; originally they were all as dark as the one on the left.

and the next morning, after all the stains had soaked overnight!

after rinsing, more saturating and leaving to sit (but still with a faded stain to near the seam)

finally, after another night of soaking, rinsing, and a wash cycle in hot water: voila!

suffice it to say, it's the best $12 I ever spent. for next time, I will leave stains to soak overnight from the beginning rather than spending so much time on scrubbing. I'm amazed that it didn't disrupt the fabric or pull any color out of the shorts (the reverse side of the shorts is navy). better living through chemistry is what I say!