100-Year-Old Laundry Soap Saved My Favorite Pants

Every so often you run across something that is ridiculously simple that works amazingly well. Truth be told, I feel a bit strange writing you about soap, but after my last adventure I can't help it. So here goes.

A few years back, I had ruined a one of my favorite sweaters when I dropped a tube of lip stain on it. After that, I was lamenting to my cousin about the loss when she suggested a stain bar that her daughter in Mexico. She said everyone uses it and has found to be unstoppable.  Of course, I said, "Mexico?" To which she said she'd seen here it Walmart.

The name is Fels-Naptha. It's in the laundry soap aisle. Long story short, I tried it and lo-and-behold the stain came out. Shazam!

Since then, no matter what the laundry tragedy I have encountered I have thought what the heck I'll give it a shot and 99.9-percent of the time it is magic. So you may be asking what laundry mishap finally made me break down an tell the story. Try spray paint.

I have this bad habit of doing projects in good clothes. The other day, I was spray painting a set of shelves and unknowingly got over spray on my favorite pants. I didn't even notice until days later so it had plenty of time to set in. I was bummed and thought why not try the soap. Noting to lose at that point. So I grabbed the bar and soaped them up and low and behold once again the paint was gone. Completely gone. 

These bars have been around since 1884 and cost all of 97 cents.