I just put my sheets in the washing machine with some liquid bleach in the water.  Yikes!  The problem with bleach is that it does its job too well.  Every time I use bleach to clean my laundry (or for anything else), I later discover tiny (and sometimes not-so-tiny) white bleach spots on the clothes I was wearing when I measured and poured the bleach.  No matter how carefully I work, I always make a mess.  I can’t tell you how many shirts and pants I’ve had to get rid of because of bleach spots or little holes in my clothes where bleach ate through the fibers.  And I don’t buy clothes very often, so it’s a big deal to have to toss an article of clothing every couple of times I use bleach.  It’s gotten so I only use the stuff a couple of times a year because I’m afraid that no matter how careful I am, or whether or not I’m wearing any clothes at the time, I will make a mistake and end up spilling or splashing the stuff on something that will be ruined by it.

I had a friend once who used bleach pretty much every day.  She would clean her bathrooms and kitchen with it regularly and wash her white clothes in it.  She diluted it for some things, used it straight from the bottle for other tasks.  She said it made her feel certain that the house was disinfected and it would keep her family from getting sick.  I told her about my fear of ruining everything darker than white and asked how she managed to keep the bleach only where she meant for it to go, and not bleach anything unbleachable.  She told me that she wears an old sweat shirt on top of her clothes, and that seemed to do the trick of keeping everything safe.

I imagine myself donning an old, ratty sweatshirt atop my blouse and bluejeans, then pouring bleach into the washing machine with the laundry.  So far so good…oh, but somehow some of it splashes onto my jeans!  Bleach spot.  Then I imagine wearing the same sweatshirt and jeans and cleaning the bathroom counter and floor with a bucket of diluted bleach.  Ooops…the cuff of my blouse gets out from under the sweatshirt while I dip a sponge in the bleach water and gets whitened.  Then I kneel on a still-wet portion of my newly cleaned floor to clean a stubborn spot and I have a white knee.  I don’t think a sweatshirt will do it for me.

The jury is still out on whether my current clothes have been ruined by my recent attempt to whiten and brighten my sheets, but I’m willing to guess that I’ve got some damage.  There must be a better way.  Do you use bleach often?  How do you manage to keep it on the things it should be on and off the things it shouldn’t?

1. Make a list of specific questions or issues you're working on and would like help with.
2. Fast about a specific topic before Conference
3. Pray
   • To feel the Spirit
   • About one or all of the things on your list
   • For the speakers
4. Learn about the General Authorities' lives, families, etc.
5. Have a Family Home Evening about General Conference (how to act during, what happens, who speaks, etc.)
6. Read your Patriarchal Blessing if you have it
7. Get plenty of sleep the night before
8. Do all your cleaning and chores before Conference if you can
9. Set out your clothes the night before so you can be dressed and ready to listen without looking around for what to wear.  Consider reverence and comfort when choosing your clothes for the day. 
10. Plan to discuss the talks after you watch Conference.  This helps you pay attention because you know you'll have to have something interesting to say about it later.
11. Plan to listen for which talk to focus on for your Visiting/Home Teaching lesson
12. Plan and shop for meals the day before.  Have a Conference food tradition.
13. Plan where and how to watch Conference in advance.
14. Find your journal or whatever you take notes in.  Find a pen, too.
15. Read talks from the last General Conference.

The first benefit of starching your clothes is that it reduces the wrinkles.  I ironed Colin's white shirt with it on Sunday and it was still wrinkle-free when we got home!  Colin thinks that may be why starch has sort of gone out of style–because we have wrinkle-free clothes now.  But we all know from experience that wrinkle-free doesn't really mean wrinkle-free.  I also starched my skirt, and Degen's pants, shirt, and vest on Sunday and everything looked impressively better than it normally does.

The other reason for starching your clothes is that it gives them weight and body.  You know how your clothes always feel different after you wash them than the first time you wear them?  Part of that is because the manufacturer puts starch or "sizing" in the fabric to add body and stiffness to the article.  Then you get it home, wash it, and it feels flimsier and limp.  The way to amend the problem is to iron it with starch! 

You use the spray stuff just like you do water in a spray bottle when you're ironing.  It's a cheap improvement at about $2 for a big can, so give it a try or try it again!