white again

Yesterday afternoon I did a load of whites, and when I went to the washer I found them all looking like they'd been smeared with dirt. I thought I'd done something wrong: had there been a clump of dirt there I'd missed? (how likely is that?); had I loosened grime when I cleaned the machine last week? But when I started to let water in to re-wash them, it came in brown and that's when I called the water company.

The fellow didn't know of any work being done in our area but maybe sediment got in the pipes and he told me to run water from the highest faucet for twenty minutes. (Isn't that an awful thing to have to do?) He also said they had stain remover if I wanted some; but I decided to try with what I had.

Enter Oxi-Clean. I had a small tub of it from years ago which I'd never even opened, but knew the time had come. I put in what I thought I should, and then doubled the amount. Everything came out white and clean!  A relief!