How to Bleach Out Stubborn Whites

Ink stains are a common problem, and bleach is the solution.

You attend the first cookout of the summer wearing your favorite white shirt, and a bite of barbecue escapes and goes tumbling down onto your shirt, leaving a blaze of reddish sauce in its wake. Removing a stain on a white garment can be challenging, because if you do not remove the stain completely, you will ruin the garment. Bleach will remove most stain from whites, but some stains require special care to ensure they vanish completely.

Things You'll Need

• Blunt knife
• Stain pretreatment
• Bleach
• Detergent

Instructions

1. Scrape away any solids, such as caked-on sauce or dirt, from the garment with a blunt butter knife.

2. Spray a stain pretreatment on the stain. If the stain bleeds through to the back of the fabric, spray the other side as well. Some stains -- such as those made by blood, oils, grass or dyes -- will require pretreating before you can bleach them, because the enzymes in the pretreatment break down the stain. This allows the bleach and detergent to do the rest of the work, according to The Ohio State University Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

3. Start the washing machine on a warm cycle. Avoid using hot water, because heat can set some stains, such as blood.

4. Pour in the amount of bleach and detergent recommended for your load size. Allow the water to fill halfway in the washing machine. Let the bleach dissolve and mix with the water before you add the clothes, to prevent you from pouring bleach directly onto the clothes, which can weaken fabrics and seams over time.

5. Add the clothing and wash it on the appropriate cycle settings for the garment. Add only white garments, to prevent the bleach from fading colors. In addition, avoid adding unstained garments in with your soiled item, or the stain might spread to the unaffected clothes.

6. Check the garment once it is done washing. If the garment is still stained, repeat the spot treatment and washing steps. Do not dry the garment, or you will set the stain.

Tips & Warnings

• For very heavy stains on durable fabrics, wet the garment and rub a small amount of detergent onto the stain before you wash the item. This may loosen a stubborn stain. Do not use this technique on delicate clothing, however, or the fabric may get damaged.

References

• The Ohio State University Information Extension: Quick n' Easy Stain Removal
• Textile Industry Affairs: Stain Removal Answers to Common Stain Questions