How To Get A White Softball Uniform Clean

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Here is a top tip for busy baseball moms: how to clean white baseball pants easily and effectively. This time-saving tip is cheap and easy to find, too!

This magical tip will clean white softball and baseball pants easily and effectively! Use these step-by-step instructions to remove stains quickly - there's even a great tip to get those really stubborn grass or red clay stains OUT! #howtocleanbaseballpants #youthbaseball #baseballpants #clean #momtips

Calling all baseball moms!

Baseball season is back! I have three boys and two play competitive baseball. The weather is finally warming up so we can get out – and we just had our first scrimmages of the season!

(ironically it's snowing hard as I write this 😉)

Thanks to multiple boys playing games and tournaments (sometimes as many as 8 a week!) for several years, I've learned a thing or two about cleaning baseball pants.

Cleaning pants is tedious and time-consuming at best, and frustrating to the point of wanting to bang my head against the wall when stains won't come out. Especially the white baseball pants.

I've got a tip or two here that will eliminate the head-banging impulse and save you time too!

Baseball Moms Know the Time Commitment of Cleaning Pants

As any baseball mom knows, the baseball season takes up SO much time in a week, it's practically a part-time job all on its own!

Competitive baseball means tournaments, and baseball tournaments consist of several 1.5-2 hour games that basically take up your entire weekend.

At first, my boys only wore grey pants, which were usually a snap to clean – spray them, throw them into the washing machine, and done!

Then a couple of years ago the coaches for both of my sons' teams announced that the team would be wearing white baseball pants.

The dads were happy and making comments about how sharp the uniforms would look. The moms…well we all let out an involuntary but very audible GROAN.

Because we knew how much work it would be to keep them clean!

Seriously, I'm convinced that whoever came up with the idea of white baseball pants never did a load of laundry in their life.

I used to spend multiple precious hours every week and tons of energy soaking, scrubbing, and washing white baseball pants. Sometimes, only to have the Colorado red clay NOT come out.

Ugh, I did it all SO WRONG for so long! I tried using Oxi-clean in the wash, washing with hot water or warm water, spray treating, letting Chlorox 2 sit on the stains (AVOID regular bleach because it will turn white polyester yellow 😬) and more.

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Fels-Naptha Soap: The $3 Solution

One day, after spending hours the night before working on getting a white pair of baseball pants semi-clean for early games the next morning, I was sitting at a game and noticed one kid had amazing white pants.

I asked his mom "how are your son's pants SO white?". Her answer was "Fels-Naptha" and I was completely baffled. What was that?

I did a little research and found Fels Naptha laundry bars in several different places: Amazon, Walmart, and even Ace Hardware. The cost? Under $3!

2 bars of Fels-Naptha soap: one in the package and one out

This yellow laundry bar has been around for decades. It vaguely sounded familiar to me at the time, but it wasn't until later that I remembered my grandmother used to keep a bar in her home for cleaning.

I came home and tried it out. I fell in love because it worked like a champ…and it smells amazing!

How to Clean Baseball Pants With Fels-Naptha Soap

In order to see how effective this solution is, it's important to see how dirty my sons' pants can get! Here's a quick "before" picture.

I wish I had taken this picture when he was wearing them for the full effect…but I didn't think to take one! I think you'll be able to get the idea of just how dirty and nasty these baseball pants are…

In the past, I would spray down these pants with stain remover and throw them into the wash. 🤦‍♀️

No wonder they didn't get clean!

Now after lots of experimenting, here's what I do – and it WORKS!

Baseball Mom Secrets: How to Clean White Baseball Pants

Colorado is known for its red clay. Fun fact: the name 'Colorado' comes from the Spanish for "colored red".

That red may look beautiful and striking when looking at our awesome foothills, but when it comes to cleaning white baseball pants, it's not quite as… beautiful so much as it is a major headache.

If you do a search for how to clean baseball pants, you can find a LOT of different suggestions. I tried lots of different methods too – and spent a LOT of time trying to find the EASIEST, MOST EFFECTIVE method.

That's even after I found Fels-Naptha!

So, what is the best way to clean baseball pants? Here's what I came up with and what I recommend based on experience – and it only takes a FEW minutes!

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Here's What You'll Need:

Fels Naptha laundry bar
Sponge – I LOVE these eco-friendly sponges because they scrub without ruining the clothing.
Spray Bottle of 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part Dawn dish soap (TIP: get a DARK spray bottle so the hydrogen peroxide doesn't break down in the light)

Step 1

Rinse the dirty pants out with cold water – or soak them in cold water for a few minutes. This helps to remove any excess dirt so that it doesn't just find its way back into those baseball pants when you wash them!

rinsing the leg of a dirty pair of white baseball pants

Step 2

Spray any really dark stains or grass stains with the spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide and Dawn soap. Let that sit for about 5 minutes or so to loosen the dirt and stains.

Step 3

Now it's time to scrub the dirt out. Don't worry! This isn't a hard step.

It's not like scrubbing grout or anything that intensive – we're just loosening up the dirt and stains and letting the Fels-Naptha do the heavy lifting with the help of a sponge!

getting soap on a sponge to scrub a pair of baseball pants

With just a bit of elbow grease, I scrub the stubborn stains out of the pants with the Fels-Naptha, give them a quick rinse, and then they're ready for the last step.

Here's a picture where I've scrubbed one pant leg but not the other so you can see the difference side by side.

how to clean white baseball pants: one leg dirty and one leg clean

Step 4

After the scrubbing and rinsing are complete, then it's just a simple step of throwing the pants into the washing machine.

Baseball mom trick: a clean pair of white baseball pants (without taking all day to scrub)

And then you're done! Pants clean and ready for the next big game 😁 Good job, Mama!

Here's a before and after shot side by side so you can see what I mean:

A Baseball Mom's Tips for Success

Here are a few helpful things I've learned along the way that may help if you run into any snags the next time you go to clean those white baseball pants!

Use Cold Water

Use a cold water setting to prevent from setting any remaining stains that didn't immediately soak or scrub out into the fabric.

I need to preface this by saying I rarely like using warm or hot water when doing laundry because it costs more, can shrink clothing, and can set stains so they're harder or impossible to get out.

In my opinion, hot water is essential for getting dirty dishes clean but detrimental to getting clothes clean.

That said, I would use hot (or warm) water if I found that it was helpful. I've tried it and haven't found that to be the case, so I always use cold water – it's cheaper!

Soaking Tip

If you find that you need a little extra boost in the soaking process so that more dirt comes out before you start scrubbing, try grating up some of your Fels-Naptha bar (with a cheese grater or in your food processor).

Combine some the soap with some warm-hot water so that the soap "melts" and dissolves into the water. Let the water cool a little and then soak the pants for 30 minutes to an hour.

If you don't have to time to scrub, this can help reduce or eliminate the need to scrub. I haven't found it to be completely effective all on its own for our red clay. But depending on the type of dirt in your area, it may completely take out the elbow grease portion for you!

Iron Out

Iron Out is a blueing agent product that you can buy that adds a small amount of blue to your white clothes to make them look more white. It's really a trick of the eyes, but it works.

Now, my thoughts on Iron Out are that yes it works, but it doesn't work any better than the method I've listed above, and it costs more. So, I would prefer to soak those white baseball pants and let the very budget-friendly Fels Naptha do its thang (there's the Southerner coming out!).

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I hope this technique helps all you baseball moms save time and money when cleaning your kids' white baseball pants!

Do you have more tips for getting those pants clean? Let me know in the comments below!

Need More Baseball Equipment?

3 boys in baseball for multiple years means I know my way around some baseball equipment. Here are some of my favorite good quality, affordable things your child may need:

Batting Gloves
Youth Baseball Pants
Youth Cup Underwear
Youth Baseball Socks
Baseball Bat & Equipment Bag (Rolling Version)
Marucci CAT 9 Bat (Bat Grip) – or Easton Youth Bat – or Louisville Slugger Youth Bat…unfortunately bats are pretty expensive. You can find some cheaper than these, but they really don't pop (bounce the ball off) as well. We've tried nearly all of them and these 3 ARE the best.

More Mom Tips and Tricks You May Find Helpful

How to Know if You Have a Strong-Willed Child (+ free quiz)
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Materials

Fels Naptha laundry bar
Sponge
Spray Bottle of 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part Dawn dish soap

Instructions

Rinse out the dirty pants with cold water or soak them in cold water for a few minutes to remove excess dirt.
Spray any stains with a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide and Dawn soap and let sit for a few minutes to loosen stains.
Take a sponge and get some Fels-Naptha soap on the sponge. Then lightly scrub the dirt and stains with the sponge. Get more soap on the sponge as necessary.
Once you have scrubbed all the dirt and stains, give the pants a quick rinse with cold water and throw them into the washing machine to remove any remaining dirt.

Notes

Here are links to help you find the supplies you will need. Please note these are affiliate links which means you won't pay any extra but I'll make a small amount to put to this site.

Fels Naptha laundry bar
Sponge – I LOVE these eco-friendly sponges because they scrub without ruining the clothing.

Spray Bottle of 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part Dawn dish soap (TIP: get a DARK spray bottle so the hydrogen peroxide doesn't break down in the light)