Yes, I dream big.

So this weekend, in addition to laundry, I went to Harris Teeter and stocked up on an entire inventory of advanced laundry products.

First, I bought some OxiClean. Billy Mays sort of scared me into buying it. Could that guy be louder or more insistant?

I’ll try anything to remove stains — it seems that anytime this family gets a new article of clothing, it attracts some kind of food spill immediately. Shout has been a standby for years but it’s letting me down, so I’m moving on. Not only that, but adding a scoop of this stuff is supposed to get your regular load even cleaner. So far so good.

Then, I bought some Downy fabric softener in the lavender and lilac scent. (Boy I lead an exciting life, don’t I?) After years of going fragrance-free with our laundry detergent, I wanted to at least have fabric-softened, scented sheets for our beds.

I didn’t stop there, of course, but washed our towels with the scented fabric softener, too. We tend to have a lot of static at our house in the winter so I’m still sticking with the Bounce sheets.

My fabric softener dispenser on my washer is broken. I don’t know how that happened, but alas, it did. So I bought a nifty Downy ball — you just pour in the softener, pop up the top and toss it in. The centrifugal force of the top-loading machine releases the softener at exactly the right time.

I have never tried color-safe bleach before. I use bleach on whites, of course, but this is a new product in my house. I like bright colors and I hate it when clothes fade, so I’m hoping this works out. I’m also hoping it helps (with the OxiClean) to get out any stains before they’re (and here’s my other favorite mom-character line in a laundry commercial) “set for life!”

My sister told me about a spray that she buys and uses on her family’s clothes. Reportedly, she sprays it on, smoothes out the clothes and the wrinkles disappear.

I tried it — another Downy product — the Wrinkle Releaser, as I ironed about eight of my husband’s shirts. This is a new record for me. I don’t think I’ve ever ironed eight shirts in a row before. The spray helped smooth out the wrinkles so the ironing was a bit easier. I couldn’t have done it without my iPod, nor would I have wanted to.

How do you keep your family’s clothes clean? Any stain-fighting tips? Any favorite laundry products you’d like to share?

*Update — I went back and counted. It was actually TWELVE shirts.
**Update — The OxiClean got a food stain out of a shirt that nothing else had worked on. It’s a winner!