Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

How I’m Getting the Stink Out of Laundry: Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator GIVEAWAY!!!

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Ok, so my stinkiest laundry is definitly cloth diapers. Let’s just be open and honest about it…I’m washing material that has pee and poo on it. It doesn’t get much more stinky than that!

And I have a new washer and dryer set. I got the fancy front loaders that I’ve been oogling over for probably 6 years, now. They sure are nice.

Unless you have really stinky laundry.

And then they are sort of terrible. They use so little water that if your clothes really need to be rinsed very thoroughly over and over in order to get fully clean, you are hard-pressed to figure out the right “formula” for getting your laundry truly clean.

Every time I wash cloth diapers, I feel like a sorcerer, concocting an intricate spell the requires great concentration and a bit of luck to pull off.

I’ve added all sorts of different detergents and other potions to my routine, and I’ve tweaked the wash cycles, soil levels and spin speeds I use again and again. Just when I think I have it all figured out perfectly, the stink returns! It’s a never-ending battle.

But Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator has now been added to my routine. I did some online research to see if others have had success with this product. A few folks out there are reporting good results, but for the most part, I think people haven’t really tried it, yet. Nobody wants to be the one who goes first and have something mess up all her diapers!

Well, I stepped up to the plate and decided to just go for it. And I’m so glad I did! Febreze works by capturing the odors that are in the water during the wash and when your water leaves the machine, so do all those trapped odors!

Here’s my method:

I add 1/4 cup of Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator directly to the detergent section when I run my first quick rinse of the diapers. I add another 1/4 cup of the product along with my detergent when I do my long wash cycle. My diapers come out smelling nice and clean, and so far, they aren’t stinking as soon as they get soiled (which is a sign of a diaper that wasn’t fully clean). I can’t promise that my diapers will never stink, as I’ve only been using this for about a week, but so far, so good!

I also like that the scent of the product is very light, and won’t interfere with any other scents that may already be present in your detergent. I happen to prefer unscented detergents, but if you have a favorite product that smells delightful, Febreze will not interfere with that smell. In fact, your laundry may even smell better as the scented detergent doesn’t have to work as hard to mask odors!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a Febreze odor eliminator kit!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. 

Home Air Freshener and Odor Eliminator: Pure Air Candle Review

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So here’s a story about a time when I didn’t follow my nose. Two weeks ago, I was making dinner for my family. It was taco night, so I pulled my ground turkey out of the fridge (we aren’t so much into ground beef). When I opened it up, I thought it smelled not so awesome. But I second-guessed myself and thought, “Eh, I bet raw meat always smells gross and I’m just not remembering.” So I threw the meat into the pan and cooked it. Then I added the taco seasoning to it, and since I thought it still didn’t smell fabulous, decided to give it a taste.

OMG. Rancid meat. Cooked rancid meat with taco seasoning on it. That’s what it was. My nose tried to warn me, but I refused to listen! After I spit out the bite in my mouth and then pitched that night’s dinner into the trash can, I was left with an olfactory reminder of my mistake. The kitchen and dining room totally reeked, and now that it had been confirmed that the smell was bad meat, it made me sick to my stomach.

home air freshener pure air candles That’s when I remembered that I had recently been sent the Pure Air candles from David Oreck. These candles claim to eliminate odors, not mask them. I knew that rancid meat smell would really put them to the test! I brought in the candle, lit it, and left the room for about 5 minutes. When I came back in, the smell was mostly gone. After an additional 5 minutes, it was completely gone. And that’s with the gross cooked meat still sitting in the kitchen garbage can. Yeah!
If these candles can stamp out that nasty smell, I think they can tackle pretty much anything. I was very impressed! I also like the fact that these are made with a non-toxic odor eating vegetable compound blend, so it isn’t releasing chemicals that are unsafe to breathe.
Buy it!: Right now is an EXCELLENT time to buy these candles. They are trying to get the word out and get people excited to try them, so they are offering a Buy 1 get 2 free deal! Woo hoo! Purchase the 22 oz jar candle for $34.95 and you’ll receive two 11.6 oz candles absolutely free. These make excellent gifts, but you should definitely keep one for your own home!

Edit: this giveaway is closed
Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win a Pure Air candle for yourself! Yay!

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Truly Safe Odor Eliminator: PureAyre (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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I think most of us can agree that little babies are soft, snuggly, super cute and that they even smell great, right?

Well, they smell great most of the time.

But they can also produce some rather unfortunate smells. If you use disposable diapers, you have probably either spent a good deal of money on a diaper genie contraption to contain the smell, or you do battle with your diaper hamper to try to keep the smells at bay.

But before I get all smug on you as a cloth diaper user, I have to tell you that we aren’t immune to the smells, either! Our wet bags do help contain the smell, but they can only take so much before they start to smell, too. Trust me, I know.

So is the solution to just spray some air freshener in the baby’s room every day? I hope not! The chemicals in those products are highly questionable for us to be breathing in. We’ve actually banned them from our house, altogether, because we don’t like ingesting the chemicals, nor do we like adding them to the environment.

Lighting candles isn’t really a good alternative, as they aren’t a safe option when you have kids around, or when you are in the season of your life where you are very tired, and therefore, likely to forget that you lit one. What we’ve been doing, instead, is a combination of washing the diapers more frequently (which isn’t great, because then we are using even more water), or just dealing with the smell (which isn’t great for obvious reasons).

So I was excited to learn about a new product on the market called PureAyre Odor Eliminator for Baby. This is the only food-grade odor eliminator on the market, which means that it is the safest way to get rid of icky smells, all without compromising the safety and health of your child, yourself and even your pets. The product is enzyme-based and does not use chemical products or artificial fragrances.

And there’s another great feature that this product has: it can be used to remove stains! I really love when a product has multiple purposes. Our space for housing cleaning products is limited, so it is always a plus to me when one product can meet several needs. I have tried it as a stain remover, and yes, it works!

I also think this is a terrific product for anyone who suffers from allergies or asthma, as chemical-based air fresheners can cause breathing difficulty for these folks. This is a non-issue with PureAyre!

In addition to having an odor eliminator designed for dealing with all sorts of baby smells, PureAyre also has products designed for pets, dogs, marine life and the home. I will say that I have found the baby product to also work fine dealing with cat messes. I used it to clean up a hair ball, and it dealt with the smell and the mess all at the same time!

Buy it!: You can find your nearest retailer of PureArye here, or shop online! Product prices start at just $2.99!
Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Cleaning Stinky Shoes with Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator

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What was your very first job? Mine was being a cashier at Captain D’s. I only worked there for 4 months while I saved up some money to be in a really big regional pageant (that’s a topic for an entirely different post, my friends…). Anyway, I’m really glad that I had that job, awful as it was. It taught me to, among other things, pursue the very best education I could, be kind to those who work SO HARD to provide services that are easy to take for granted, and to understand that money is attached to earnings (so how bad did I really want that $50 sweater from Express, given that it would take me about 12 hours of tiring work to be able to afford it?).

One thing I didn’t learn while working at Captain D’s, though, was what in the world to do about my work laundry. You guys, I always smelled AWFUL after a day, or even a couple hours of work. I smelled like fish batter, malt vinegar and sweat. UGH!!! Detergent worked ok for a while, but there came a point, after being there just a few months, when that smell would just linger in the clothes, wash after wash. At least it was a uniform and not the same clothes I wore to school!

But now there is a product on the market that is designed to seriously kick the butt of your most offensive laundry odors. Let me introduce you to Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator! I had the opportunity to try it out, recently, and I’m excited to tell you about what I discovered.

First, though, I wanted to share with you a bit about what I learned about the product’s “green” factor, since I’m actively trying to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals I use. The primary active ingredient in Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator is derived from naturally occur starch (corn starch ) by treatment with enzymes. It is readily biodegradable. High purity water and a small amount of ethanol make the product liquid. This accounts for over 98% of the formula. The remaining ingredients are fragrance and preservatives which are approved for use in cosmetics and personal care products.”

While it isn’t the most green laundry product in the world, it seems to be very mild on the scale of how yucky something like this can be for the environment, so I personally feel at peace about using it.

Cleaning Stinky Shoes

how to clean stinky shoes So now let me tell you how I used it. I did something a bit unorthodox. I soaked my favorite pair of shoes in it! Seriously! I have a pair of purple flats that I got for $3.00 from Wal-Mart (I’ve mentioned them once or twice before!). They are super comfy, really cute and I absolutely adore them. I wear them almost every single day.

And that’s the problem, folks. As much as I like to think that my feet smell like roses, at the end of the day, they are feet. And feet smell. ESPECIALLY if you keep putting them in the same shoes without giving those shoes a breather, so to speak. For so long I have hated taking off my purple shoes because they are so comfy, but lately I’ve hated taking them off because they stink so bad! (Oh my gosh, can you see me blushing through the computer screen???).

So in a desperate attempt to save my beloved shoes, I filled up my bathroom sink with water, added some Febreeze Laundry Odor Eliminator, and let them soak for 30 minutes. I gently swooshed the around a bit, but that’s really it, because I didn’t want to risk hurting the shoes in any way (remember, I LOVE these stinkin’ shoes!).

The result: I’d say the stink factor was reduced by about 50%. This wasn’t what I was hoping for, but to be fair, this product is designed for fabric, which my shoes are not, and they just sat in the water for 30 minutes and weren’t agitated or anything like that. So really, a 50% improvement isn’t so bad.

I also used this stuff on Darah’s bedding after she had a leaky diaper incident. It took care of that smell 100%! And the rumor going around the blogosphere is that Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator can also get rid of the stinkies with cloth diapers. I’ve been a little nervous to try it myself, but I think I just might in the future!

Buy it!:Febreeze Laundry Odor Eliminator is available at major retailers including your nearest Wal-Mart!

Win it!: Two lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will snag a coupon for a free 1.5L bottle of Febreeze Laundry Odor Eliminator. The contest will run until December 13th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me about something in your house that you’ve done battle with to eliminate foul odors. Did you win or are you currently being defeated? Aside from my shoes (I can’t believe I told you guys about that!), we occasionally have to take our trash cans outside and give them a good soak with a little bit of bleach. Seems to work ok, although I always get nervous using bleach because it is such a harsh chemical.

Additional entries:

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Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links.