the unremoveable contaminant?

Today I may have learned how to get rid of the unremovable laundry contaminant. I got it into two small quilts I rely on, and my previous method for light contamination -- two washes with detergent, two with vinegar, and one with just water -- didn't work. It worked great on single layers of nylon, but cotton quilts are another thing. Anyway, I decided to go with Oxyclean, even though soaking badly contaminated pillow cases didn't do a whole lot.

So this is what worked (I think) on the quilts: two washes with detergent and Oxyclean, and then as many washes with vinegar as it takes to make the rinse water not foam. I think it was around five. Then after the quilts dried, I had to air-fluff them in the dryer for three hours to get the unrinsable residue out because that was making them stiff and icky, besides giving me heart palpitations. Ok, I can totally work with stiff and icky. It was the heart palpitations.

Tomorrow, assuming I don't get blown out of here by the wind combined with lots of recent dirt-moving at the road construction site, I should start this procedure on the pillow cases and maybe even the nightshirts, maybe with three or four washes with Oxyclean.

I guess this post was more record-keeping than interesting, but it could turn out to be fascinating to the right person down the road. Hopefully not me. Never mind, I hope nobody ever has this problem ever again, but I'm not holding my breath.