Fill your tub with hot water. Pour 1/4 cup of borax, 1/4 cup of washing soda, and 1 cup of powdered laundry detergent into the tub. Place your linens in the solution and stir. Leave the mixture to sit overnight, stirring occasionally.
Use as a Presoak to Brighten Dingy Whites and Remove Odors
To whiten dingy washable items, add 1/2 cup of borax for every gallon of water. Add the white clothes and allow them to soak for at least one hour (longer is better). The clothes should then be washed as usual.
Yes. Borax and Baking Soda make whites brighter and with colored clothes it acts as a cleaning booster.
Steps for Laundry Stripping
Fill your bathtub (or a large bucket) with enough hot water to submerge the items. Add ¼ cup borax, ¼ cup washing soda, and ½ cup detergent to the hot water. (If using a smaller vessel like a bucket, adjust the amounts based on how much water you're using.
A more profound treatment might be necessary for tough, ground-in dirt and stains. Create a soak solution with borax. Mix one cup of borax in a gallon of warm water, stir it well until it's entirely dissolved, and pre-soak the dirty clothes for around 30 minutes to an hour.
Borax is a great accompaniment to your regular detergent when looking to disinfect your laundry naturally. Set your wash cycle to warm before you add half a cup of Borax in. The warm water activates the cleaning process and helps the Borax dissolve and evenly cover all laundry.
Borax is a powerful stain remover, capable of tackling even the toughest stains. Whether you're dealing with wine, blood, or grease, a borax paste can make a big difference. Mix borax with water to create a thick paste, then apply it directly to the stain.
Soaking clothes overnight, whether inside a washing machine or out, is best avoided. Follow recommended guidelines when soaking clothes and using chemicals, and always remember that prolonged soaking can and will damage your clothes.
Popularized over social media, the laundry stripping process is typically done in the bath tub and uses a combination of washing soda, detergent, and Borax. This three-step regimen is an easier, safer alternative that will clean and soften your towels (without the dirty water!).
Fill your bathtub, sink or a large bucket with hot water. Add borax, washing soda (sodium carbonate — not baking soda) and laundry detergent in a 1:1:2 ratio. For a bathtub, add ¼ cup borax, ¼ cup washing soda and ½ cup laundry detergent. Stir until all three ingredients dissolve completely.
(But don't ever mix it with vinegar. That combination is potentially toxic and corrosive.)
Fabric Damage
Textiles are only made to stay soaked for a short time. Extended dampness begins to break down the fibers, leading to a noticeable decrease in the quality of your clothes. Some materials are more vulnerable than others; for example, delicate fabrics like silk degrade faster in damp conditions.
Borax can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if you ingest it by itself, and large amounts can lead to shock and kidney failure. It's banned in U.S. food products. It also can irritate your skin and eyes, and it can hurt your nose, throat, and lungs if you breathe it in.
Add ½ cup of Borax for every gallon of water and allow to completely dissolve in the water. Add ½ cup of washing soda for every gallon of water. Add ¾ cup of laundry detergent for every gallon of water. Add your laundry to the tub or sink.
How do hotels keep towels soft? Hotels use a combination of techniques to ensure their towels remain plush and inviting. To prevent towels from becoming stiff, they avoid overdrying and use tumble dryers with precise settings that help maintain the towels' softness.
Baking soda or vinegar will do the trick. BAKING SODA: Adding baking soda to your towel wash helps remove soap and chemical residue that can end up covering your towels. Add half a cup of baking soda with your washing detergent, then wash as usual.
In the end, I've discovered that the answer to our bath-towel woes is much more straightforward than an exhaustive investigation might reveal, and it's certainly more cost-effective than tossing our towels whenever the mildew odor lingers. The solution is actually quite simple: a scoop of borax and a hot laundry cycle.
While it's best practice to place your garments in the dryer or on the clothesline right after the cycle finishes, it's perfectly okay to leave your wet clothes in the washer overnight, Martha says. "I mean, don't leave it for a long time—don't leave it for a week," she says.
For set-in stains, allow the spray to penetrate overnight or up to a week. For fabrics prone to color change, do not let stand longer than 5 minutes. Do not treat the garment while wearing it.
Soaking clothes overnight can work well for really tough stains, but you don't always need to do it, and it can be a bit risky. For most stains, soaking for 4 to 6 hours should be enough. That said, if your only other option is to throw away the item, do try soaking in Oxi Clean for a few days and see if that helps.
Borax is safe when used as directed. Do not bathe in, apply to skin or ingest it. Borax is not intended for use as a personal care product or dietary supplement. Do not use outside the recommended uses as a laundry booster and multi-purpose cleaner.
Borax isn't going to damage the colours of your clothes either, as bleach is known to do.