Add a cup of baking soda: Simply add the baking soda to the washing machine along with your regular laundry detergent and wash as usual. Or consider soaking your whites in baking soda and hot water for a couple of hours before washing.
Hydrogen Peroxide
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. Add one cup to a load of diapers to whiten, deodorize, and disinfect.
Refill sink (or bucket) with hot water and add about 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Add clothes and allow to soak for about 15 minutes. Drain water and rinse whites in warm water.
The baking soda makes your detergent slightly more effective and the vinegar softens fabrics and helps remove pet hair but neither will whiten anything in any amount.
Dull-looking clothes are often a result of hard water that contains an excessive amount of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Too much of iron salts in the water can also settle on clothes and cause them to look yellow.
To pre-treat, mix hot water and white vinegar and allow your garments to soak. For an in-wash solution, simply add vinegar and detergent to your washing machine and select your desired setting.
Create a soaking solution by dissolving half a cup of baking soda in a basin or sink filled with warm water. Submerge the yellowed clothes and let them soak for a few hours or overnight. Afterward, rinse the garments thoroughly and proceed with regular laundering.
Get stained white socks and dingy dishcloths white again.
Add 1 cup white distilled vinegar to a large pot of water. Bring it to a rolling boil and drop in the articles. Let soak overnight. Some stains on clothing and linens can be soaked out using equal parts milk and white distilled vinegar.
Adding vinegar directly to the wash with your laundry detergent may compromise its cleaning performance. Laundry detergents are formulated for specific pH levels, which may be disrupted by the acidity of vinegar, leading to less effective cleaning. It's best to avoid mixing them to ensure optimal results.
Constant washing at low temperatures (40°C or less) and increasing use of detergents (enzyme-based) can block hoses, cause odours in the washing machine and can leave deposits on your laundry. This can lead to mould and gelatinous dirt build-up inside door seals, pipes and drums.
“Oxygen bleach and other shop-bought laundry whitening products can restore white towels,” advises Paterson. “Oxygen bleach is a powdered product (sodium percarbonate) that can be used to remove stains and disinfect. It's considered gentler and eco-friendlier than chlorine bleaches.
To maintain the whiteness of towels, hotels use oxygen-based bleaches, which are less harsh than chlorine-based alternatives. Regular washing at high temperatures, combined with these bleaches, helps to remove stains and maintain a bright white colour.
Laundry detergent buildup will create that grey appearance in whites over time." Her picks? Tide Ultra Stain Release for detergent, and OxiClean White Revive or borax for boosters.
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.
Brighten colours and whiten whites: White vinegar helps to prevent colours from fading and can brighten whites over time. Remove stains: It can help tackle some types of stains, especially when pre-treating before the wash.
To help whiten white and light-colored items like clothing, sheets and towels, you can use baking soda instead of bleach for a natural laundry boost. Adding baking soda along with your detergent can also help brighten colorful fabrics and may prevent white garments from yellowing.
While chlorine bleach can be used in the wash to eliminate mold or mildew from clothing, towels, or bedding, it can only be used on whites. Vinegar can be used on colors, so it's a good choice for washing items that aren't white that are moldy.
Using vinegar in laundry is simple. You can add it to the fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine or pour it in during the final rinse cycle. When adding vinegar towards the end of the cycle, manually pause your machine right before the final rinse cycle and add a 1/2 cup of diluted white vinegar to the load.
Try baking soda
Freshen up whites by adding 1/2 cup of baking soda to the washing machine along with your detergent. Sara Lundberg explains that the alkalinity of baking soda will help neutralize acids in the water and remove dirt and stains.
Oxiclean or any brand of powdered oxygen-based bleach will whiten T-shirts that have turned yellow or gray. The trick is to let the yellowed shirts soak in the solution for several hours or overnight.
For best results, pre-soak the sweat-stained garment OxiClean™ Odor Blasters™ Versatile Odor & Stain Remover. Yellow sweat stains and stubborn sweat smells will bow to the deodorizing and stain fighting power of OxiClean™ Odor Blasters™.