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.
“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.
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.
Our overall best pick for laundry whiteners is OxiClean White Revive. Not only will this oxygen-based whitener brighten your whites, but it also works on your colored clothes, too (although you should only use it on colorfast fabrics).
Use Optical Brighteners for Maximum Effect
Using a detergent that contains optical brighteners will make fabrics appear whiter than they actually are. The brighteners bend UV light waves to showcase blue light, minimising the amount of yellow light your eyes see, which in turn make fabrics appear whiter.
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.
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.
How to get white clothes white again. If your white clothes have lost their bright appearance, you can help to bring them back to life by adding a whitening agent, oxygen bleach or bleach-free products like baking soda or vinegar. Always consult each item's laundry care label to avoid damaging the garment.
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.
Half a cup of white wine vinegar will remove stains and whitens your towels.
The best use of vinegar in laundry is for mold and mildew remediation. 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.
Baking soda is a natural whitening agent that can help to remove stains and odors from your clothes. 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.
Baking soda
Baking soda presents an excellent bleach-free alternative. You can utilize baking soda to whiten shirts that have yellowed in two ways: Add baking soda directly into the washing machine before selecting a wash cycle. Avoid putting it in the detergent dispenser to prevent clogging.
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™.