Monday 15 October 2018

The #ACEforSchool Challenge

The bottom of the laundry basket is, for most parents, the promised land. We know that - technically - it has to exist. That’s just elementary physics. Its glory, however, is not for us to behold.

Personally, I’m fine with this: given the volcanic urgency with which my basket spews soiled clothing, the precambrian linen at its lowermost stratum is best left to the experts.

The ever-spewing laundry basket
It never stops...
What I can say, however, is that I spend an awful lot of time dealing with laundry - mostly other people’s. As a result, I see things - things I can’t fathom, and things I can’t unsee.

This doesn’t make me special. There isn’t a parent out there who hasn’t marvelled at how creatively filthy their offspring can get themselves, even during the most benign of tasks.

The most obvious danger zone is of course the dinner table. It doesn’t matter how well you’ve drilled your child in table manners before they start reception; within one week of school they’re kneeling on the table and eating soup with their fingers. If you've ever stepped foot in a school dining hall, you'll understand exactly why your children never fail to come home looking like Jackson Pollock’s compost bin.

Then of course there’s the art lessons. Not to boast or anything, but my kids really know how to put the pain into painting. For years, my eldest refused to entertain the idea of whitespace, and instead approached the canvas as a drunken ship dabber might a barge. At night. Without glasses. So well did he gloop up the sugar paper that it was still wet when it came out the kiln. Against such robust artistic expression, aprons and old shirts provide little protection.

As for the genius who had the bright idea to give marker pens to infants in white shirts, if you’re reading this, we need to talk.

I’d go on, but the number of ways kids can filth themselves up grows by the day. This is a fact universally acknowledged, of course, not just by parents but thankfully also detergent manufacturers.

ACE laundry products

Indeed, it was with this in mind that the kind folks at ACE recently asked a whole bunch of parents to road-test their wares, specifically their ACE Stain Remover spray and ACE for Colours gentle stain remover liquid, to demonstrate how well they tackle stains and grease and keep colours bright and fresh.

I’ve got to level with you here: in the two weeks between receiving my ACE products and publishing this post, my offspring - despite their perpetual grime - somehow managed to stain nothing so badly that it needed pretreatment, so I can’t yet comment on the efficacy of the stain remover spray. However, in case you’re unable to read between the lines here, that translates to a vote of confidence for the stain remover liquid - I’ve successfully purged their uniforms of multiple varieties of food grease, as well as chocolate cake, tomato sauce and glue, not to mention various other stains of unknown origin.

The Eight Deadly Stains that ACE promises to sort
This is great because when my lads eat in their shirt sleeves, I invariably end up tackling the tomato sauce stains with a combination of washing powder and sun-bleaching. That’s fine in June, but at this time of year, not so good.

Victory!
I've also dealt effectively with more bed-wetting than I care to recall and spruced up some shorts I found that were still coated with ground-in muck from several months back.

What's also great is that ACE promises to look after my colours - something that's really important when both my children are wearing dark trousers and navy sweaters on a daily basis.

All I need now is something that will stop my eldest son from insisting on three outfit changes per day. If ACE can do something about this, then the laundry really will be the least of my worries!



This post is an entry for the BritMums #ACEforSchool Challenge, sponsored by ACE. Get help for all kinds of stains with the ACE Stain Helper. http://www.acecleanuk.co.uk/ or to buy head to your local Tesco’s, Morrison’s, Waitrose or Sainsbury’s.

2 comments:

  1. Your last comment makes me smile. Good to hear how you got on. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part

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  2. We had to patiently await a stain too in order to put the ACE products to the test - frustrating when normally the kids come home covered in them! I've been really impressed - it tackles my boys smelly clothes as well as the food and paint stains. Wishing you heaps of luck - your blogposts always make me giggle!

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