Home Remedies to Get Dirt Out of White Laundry
One of the most difficult laundry chores is keeping white items bright and clean. White clothing and linens are extremely easy to stain, and dirt deposits can cause them to turn gray or yellow over time. You may be tempted to pick up a bottle of bleach, but there are chemicals in bleach that can irritate sensitive skin. Fortunately, you can remove dirty buildup on your white laundry with natural items that you already have around your house. Does this Spark an idea?
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Lemon Juice
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When white laundry takes on a dingy, gray cast, you can use a few lemons to brighten its look. Place a medium-size load of whites in your washer with store-bought detergent as you normally would. As the rinse cycle starts, add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to your items. If you are washing a larger load, you may need to increase the amount of juice. The citric acid in the lemon juice lightly bleaches the clothes to remove any lingering stains and dirt that are giving your whites a dingy appearance. To enhance the results, allow your laundry to air dry in the sun.
Hydrogen Peroxide
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If you have hydrogen peroxide in your bathroom to treat cuts and scrapes, you can also use it to get rid of stubborn dirt and stains on your white laundry. It is particularly effective for removing yellow sweat stains from the underarm area of white shirts. Saturate the stained area with hydrogen peroxide, and allow it to sit for approximately half an hour. If the stain is extremely yellow, you may need to let the hydrogen peroxide sit for longer. After it has soaked in, wash the shirt with a load of whites as you normally would. The hydrogen peroxide acts a gentle bleach and removes the yellow stains.
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White Vinegar
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If you live an area with hard water, your white laundry can take on a gray cast from the minerals in the water. White vinegar from your pantry can help get rid of the dirt and stains, so your whites are bright again. Wash your white laundry with detergent as you would regularly. When the rinse cycle begins, add 1/2 cup of vinegar to the water. A half cup works for extremely hard water, so adjust the amount of vinegar depending on the hardness of the water.
Borax
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For white laundry that has a fresh stain or dirt mark on it, use borax as a pretreatment before you throw it in the washer. Borax is a powdered mineral compound that is often used as a general cleaning agent. You can usually find it in the laundry aisle of your grocery store because it is often added to laundry to boost the cleaning power of regular detergent. However, when using it to pretreat stains, create a paste by mixing 1 tbsp. of borax with 6 tbsp. of water. Apply the paste to the stain and allow it to sit for several minutes before washing it as you normally would.
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References
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