The best way wash your dress shirts

I love a fresh white dress shirt, but they are the worst when it comes to stains. Nothing can hide, especially around the collar and cuffs. With warmer weather approaching, you’ll probably notice more sweat stains. In the past, I tried lots of methods to remove these stains and found a lot of products didn’t work very well. Dry cleaning was also a resounding failure to remove these common stains, too.

But I’ve finally found a working solution: OxiClean. It’s the only thing that works. I wish it hadn’t taken me years to discover this, but better late than never.

Here’s how to wash your dress shirts and actually remove oil stains.

1. Buy OxiClean and a huge contractor bucket (or similarly large plastic bin). 

2. Fill the bin with cool water. It doesn’t have to be frigid, but avoid hot water. 

3. While it’s filling, add several scoops of OxiClean. There’s instructions on the packaging. 

4. Add your shirts and agitate the water. 

5. Let them soak for several hours. I recommend overnight or while you’re at work. 

6. Drain the water. You can squeeze out the water from the shirts if you’d prefer.

7. Add your shirts, detergent and a scoop of OxiClean to your washing machine. Cold water. 

8. Hang dry and iron. 

Caveats: Tough, set in stains may require you make a paste of OxiClean and scrubbing the area directly, then doing the soak and wash. I also recommend soaking alike colors together. While I haven’t had an issue mixing different colors, some fabrics may bleed and react differently. Finally, if you have sensitive skin, know that OxiClean will do a very mild chemical burn with prolonged exposure and you might want to wear gloves.