Fluff the Nest Friday: La Laverie!

It has been a really long time since I did a “Fluff the Nest Friday” post! They used to be one of my favorite posts to share so I’m going to try and get back to doing them. For any of you who might be new, I’ll explain. Even though I do different cleaning chores throughout the week, Friday is typically my main cleaning day because I like for our nest to be nicely fluffed for the weekend. So, Friday just seems like a good day to post different housekeeping topics here on the blog. Today, I’d like to share something I learned about laundry…..from the French!

A couple of years ago, my daughter gave me a very interesting book for Christmas. Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making a Home, by Danielle Postel-Vinay, explains how the French create their homes, room by room, to be very practical yet personal, creative, and inviting. Each chapter covers a room of the house and how the French approach that room. I’m not saying I would adopt every aspect of their practices, but I found most to be intriguing and inspirational. One of those was the chapter on the laundry room, or “La Laverie”!

For many years, I took such care to inspect garments before putting them into the wash, checking every pocket, treating stains, and making any necessary repairs (loose buttons, seems coming undone, etc.). Over time I guess I became either lazy or too rushed (or both) and began to just throw the clothes into the machine with the soap, set the cycle, and walked away. However, Home Sweet Maison reminded me of the importance of slowing down and really taking care of my garments as an investment!

Now, I admit I won’t ever go to the laundry extremes described in the book, although it was lovely to read about some of those old practices. But at least one takeaway that I have implemented has been to treat stains individually with the correct treatment. I used to use just one kind of “stain spray” for all stains, but Postel-Vinay explains how the French consider what the stain actually is and how they treat it with a specific stain remover that actually lifts those particular particles. In other words, it’s a science! But no worries, the solution is easy and available in some grocery stores and online!

Postel-Vinay recommends purchasing bottles of Carbona’s Stain Devils. These are individual formulas for treating everything from chocolate to rust to nail polish. And they work! At least in my experience they have so far. I’ll share an example of the treatment for cooking oil which is one of our most common stains due to splattering while cooking.

I took these photos last winter for this post that I’m just now getting around to. This is a hoodie my husband was wearing while making popcorn or maybe cooking at his Blackstone. I can’t remember exactly but obviously it was last winter because it’s way too hot right now for a hoodie! You can see the grease spots splattered all over the front. My old go-to would have probably been to use the one spray I used for everything and just hope it would work. But this time I had the Stain Devil stain remover specifically for fat and cooking oil.

I squeeze some of the solution on each spot.

And if I feel like it needs to be rubbed in a little, I’ll do so with a clean rag.

After treating the stain(s), I wash as usual in my regular detergent and hang it to dry. I always hang-dry if there is a stain I’m working on because the dryer heat will set a stain if it’s still there. BUT, as you can see below, after hang-drying, the stains were nowhere to be seen! Gone, yay!

Have you tried these Stain Devil bottles yet? If not, give them a try and let me know what you think! I first ordered mine from Amazon but then found them at my local grocery store.

Happy Friday!