Baking Soda Stir one cup of baking soda into one gallon of boiling water, then remove from heat and add the dingy white clothes. Let them soak for at least an hour or overnight. The sodium bicarbonate will help cut through the soil on cotton clothing that leaves them dull. Wash as usual.
Use vinegar. Like baking soda, you can use distilled white vinegar as either a bleach-free pretreating solution or as an additive to a standard wash cycle. White vinegar is an acidic solution that can be used to brighten the appearance of white fabrics.
Add one cup of distilled white vinegar to one gallon of hot water. Submerge the white fabric and allow it to soak overnight, then launder as usual. Adding one cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle when washing white or colorful clothing will help cut through the detergent residue that leaves clothes looking dull.
Baking soda whitens, freshens, and softens fabrics. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda along with your regular laundry detergent. For spot stains, make a paste of baking soda and water and apply it directly to the fabric.
Baking soda is a gentle, effective substance that eliminates hard water stains, fridge odors, and – you guessed it – washing white clothes. Turn on your washing machine, dissolve ½ cup of baking soda, then run a normal cycle. For larger loads of laundry, you can use a full cup of baking soda.
You can use hydrogen peroxide to whiten and brighten clothes, disinfect laundry, and remove stains. Pour it directly on stains such as blood. Add one cup of hydrogen peroxide to whites in the washing machine to brighten them.
If you need to resurrect items from your wardrobe that have become dull and faded, here's her pro tip: "Soak [your clothing] overnight in a vinegar and water solution. Then wash using half to a full cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle," she says. This should be especially helpful from fulling darker colors.
Baking soda in the laundry can be a great addition for a natural fabric softener or controlling excess suds, while vinegar in laundry can be an amazing agent for getting those whites extra sparkling and banishing mildew odor. They help even the best laundry detergents to be more effective.
Don't mix baking soda and vinegar.
pH is a scale used to measure acidity or basicity in chemistry. Since vinegar has a low pH and baking soda high pH, they will neutralize each other when used together. What you want to do instead is to use baking soda first mixed with water to do your laundry.
Dissolving one cup of baking soda in four litres of warm water makes not only a great whitening solution but also an effective deodoriser. Soak your white clothes in the solution for around eight hours before popping them in your usual wash.
For Extra-Clean Clothes
“It will help lift dirt and grime from clothing,” says Reichert. Don't put baking soda in your washer's detergent dispenser, however. Instead, sprinkle it into the empty drum of your washer, then add clothes and whatever detergent and fabric softeners you'd normally use.
Add 1⁄2 c (120 mL) of vinegar to the fabric softener compartment, then sprinkle 1/2 cup (100 g) of baking soda into the drum of the washer. Add detergent like you normally would, then wash all your whites with cold water.
Add ½ cup of baking soda to your washer. Add detergent, like ARM & HAMMER™ Plus OxiClean™ Odor Blasters. Run the wash cycle. Add another ½ cup of baking soda in the rinse cycle.
Baking Soda and Water
Mix 4 tablespoons of baking soda with a quarter cup of water and scrub into the stain, and let the mixture sit on the stain for about an hour. Then, wash the piece of clothing in cold water. Once complete check to see if the stain is removed, if not, repeat before drying.
One of the most well-known secrets of the hotel industry in keeping their sheets enviably is peroxide-based detergents. Bleach is also added to the mix. While these chemicals are truly effective in preventing white linens from greying or turning yellow, they do require some level of expertise.
If linens are yellowed, add 1/2 cup oxygen bleach to 2 to 3 gallons of water (do not use chlorine bleach, which can weaken fibers). Gently agitate by hand, then let soak until the cloth appears white (this may take several hours). Rinse with cold water.
Leave them for at least 24 hours—longer is better—to help remove odors.
Before going further, we have to warn you: adding vinegar or baking soda to the wash along with your laundry detergent increases the risk of poorer cleaning performance, as detergents are optimized for a specific pH level, which is altered by the presence of these two household additives in the wash.
The acetic acid in vinegar acts as a disinfectant and reacts with the baking soda to lift stains. This combination is also great for brightening whites. With a little bit of scrubbing and leaving the paste to set for 30 minutes, I was able to almost remove the stains completely from my white jeans.
Vinegar is sometimes used as a fabric softener or for getting rid of stains and odors in laundry. But as with dishwashers, it can damage the rubber seals and hoses in some washing machines to the point of causing leaks.
When washing your clothing, add 1/2 cup of vinegar to the fabric softener compartment just before the last rinse cycle. If you'd like your clothes to have a mild scent, add four or five drops of essential oil into the fabric softener compartment.
If your clothes smell like sweat or smoke, it's best to let them soak in a baking soda solution overnight. Soaking gives the baking soda time to go to work as a deodorizer. Mix 1 cup of baking soda with 1 gallon of water in a bucket.
Vinegar is safe to use to clean your clothes and will not ruin them. However, it's a good idea to measure the right amount of vinegar to use and spot test your clothes before washing them. Vinegar is a great cleaner used to remove stains and odors out of clothes and shoes.
Using vinegar starts with presoaking fabrics. Presoak with pesky odors that just won't come out in the wash. Add 1/4 cup of Scented Vinegar to a washbasin or sink filled with warm water. Soak up to 30 minutes, then launder as normal.
The real cause of these yellowish stains is a mixture of the minerals (especially salt), mostly due to body oils and sweat mixing with the ingredients in antiperspirant or deodorant (primarily aluminum). This is the combo that makes the yellow stains on white clothes and discolors the collar, cuffs and underarm areas.