Get Rust Out of Your Clothing and Survive!!! I did!

So, I recently laundered a load of whites and when I removed them was loathed to find brown "rust" splotches all over my whites.  UGH!  I have put a pair of pants in the laundry that had a safety pin in them.

I tried everything I could to remedy the situation.  I started out with the typical treatments, spray & wash, resolve, and etc.  No difference.

I stepped up then to the ever so popular Clorox Bleach Pen.  Nothing.

FINALLY, I threw all the whites in with a big old helping of straight bleach.  And I let it soak and soak and soak.  While it was soaking, I cam across an article about laundry and rust stains.  The article stated to never treat rust with bleach as it would turn the stains orange.  It did.

Arrrrggg!!!!

As a last result, I marched up to the hardware store, yep that's right, hardware store.  I asked Steve, the owner (it's a small neighborhood hardware store... I think he's gotten used to my strange questions since I came in there a few months ago asking for plungers with really long handles for the stage musical I was producing, "Forever Plaid."  Other customers were in there staring while me and an employee were standing around trying to dance around and suction plungers to the floor)... anyway, I asked Steve if he had anything that would take rust out of laundry.  After some pondering, he came back with this:

It's called Super Iron Out.  So he hands me this stuff and I look and it says on the label that it is suitable for all kinds of hardware AND laundry.  I must admit this made me a bit skeptical.  Clean your toilet bowl, sink and underpants with one miracle cleaner! I figured if this stuff is that great, then perhaps Billy Mays was selling the wrong brand (and I loved Billy Mays, to this day I have issues walking by OxiClean in the store without having an overwhelming urge to purchase it). Hmph. However, I kinda figured my clothes were pretty well ruined anyway, so why not?

As Steven is ringing up my purchase, he leans over and says to me (I am not joking), "Be careful, this stuff will kill ya!"  I'm like "wha?"

He goes, "Oh yeah, it's toxic.  I used it in a toilet and stuck my face down in there close to it and ended up on the phone with poison control.  They said I would be sick for at least a half hour."

Did this perhaps make me a bit skeptical about using this product, though I had no intention (like most normal human beings) to stick my face in it? Um, yes...  I don't want to die.

One thing that really surprised me as I began to measure out the amount needed for my laundry load was that I expected a liquid.  The bottle is shaped like a drain cleaner bottle, yet a powder came out.  Strange.

So I dumped the powder into the running water, then added the clothes.  The label stated that it whitens and brightens and is safe for whites, colors, lace and embroidery and stuff.  Which was awesome cause the pants that I most wanted fixed had all this going on!

Please see Exhibit A.  My pants, i.e., the Culprit.  Yes it was these pants that lost a button and were being held onto my body with a safety pin... which made it into the darned wash and then danced around wreaking havoc and destruction.  Grrr:

Exhibit A: Pants with awesome Embroidery, Lace
Unsightly crotch safety pin rust stain
Note that this is after several rounds of bleaching and cursing

Now, I have a towel with a HUGE spot on it and one of my husbands shirts that got covered.  Go figure I couldn't fine either of them, so it appears I'm going to have to go Round 2 on this rust laundry.

Anyway, I put the garments and other effected towels into the wash and let them soak for five minutes as it instructed on the bottle (note.  Do maybe wear a mask, open a window, and close the darned lid to the washer quickly.  The stuff is pretty stinky and my local hardware store man apparently expects to be attending my funeral soon).

I then added detergent and let the wash continue it's normal cycle.  As soon as it was done I pulled out the laundry and holy friggin cookies!!!!

Exhibit B: Miraculous crotchety rust recovery!!

IT'S GONE!  I can't believe it! It is all gone! Not only that the entire load of whites look seriously whiter than if I had bleached them.  I don't know what happened when I closed the lid of the washer and Mr. "Super Iron Out" took over. I just don't understand it.  There was a stain. The pants are white. Bleach didn't work. Fail. So seriously, there must have been some effing magical fairies swimming around in there with glittering launder-wands or something.  The only way this stuff could have possibly been more "super" is if I had opened the washing machine and Steve Buscemi was sitting inside. (And because I just cannot NOT share this:  Chicks with Steve Buscemeyes)

All I know is that I tried every single remedy that I could find on the internet, I tried Martha Stewart, I tried bleach... whatever it be, I am grateful to the sacred magical fairies that tinkled out of that bottle.  These are seriously one of my favorite pairs of pants, and I can wear them again! (well, next summer anyway...)

If you get a rust stain in your clothes, I'm not kidding you, this stuff is a freaking miracle!!!

Thank you fairies!!!!