First: Separate the whites and rewash them, using a nonchlorine bleach or a cup of white vinegar. If you put the clothes in the dryer before this second wash, the heat will set the stains. “It’s always better to handle anything that has gone wrong while it’s still wet,” says Linda Cobb, host of the DIY Channel’s Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean.

Then: Dry as usual. And next time, separate your loads. You might have washed that crimson shirt a dozen times with your husband’s tighty whities, but “just because a shirt didn’t run before, doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen in the future,” says Ilene Fudim, director of marketing for PWS–The Laundry Company, which runs laundry chains across the country.