My whites are dull, because I wash my clothes in lake water. How do I get them bright? I don't really want to use bleach.
By janice
Try adding some borax or oxyclean to your detergent. If that's not possible, hang your wash to dry in bright sunlight--natural bleach.
Lemon juice and baking soda in any wash cycle work wonders. I am careful about the lemon juice with bright colors, however. The baking soda can go with any load. I love it because the clothes always, always smell so fresh as well as come out so clean and bright!
Once a month, I toss a dishwasher tab in with my whites. Brightens them up nicely.
I use borax and vinegar but my favorite product for whites is liquid bluing. It is sold on the top shelf of the laundry isle at most supermarkets and has saved many a yellow shirt that used to be white from the wastebasket or rag pile.
The crazy part is that its what your grandma used to dye her grey hair to make it sparkle and its perfectly non toxic and 100% biodegradable. I know a woman with beautiful long grey braids that dips the ends in it at full strength. Its quite stunning.
Warning: do NOT get on other clothes besides whites and follow bottle instructions to the letter! It washes out eventually but at full strength it can take forever!
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I have a couple old pillow protector cases, zippered, in good condition BUT are dingy yellow with age. Short of bleach (which I think I have tried) any suggestions to make them white again? I guess it doesn't really matter as long as they are clean. I will also add that I have tried a bluing product on other things with less than fabulous results. Thanks in advance for any hints.
Try Oxy- Clean detergent, to brighten whites. Most of the time this is much better than bleach.
You can dry in the sun after you wash it.
You can try a solution of equal parts lemon juice (I use the kind in the bottle--but if real lemons are cheap, that is the best juice to use--just remove seeds, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide--just what you can get at the drug store. Mix it together in bucket and then add a few drops of any of the BLUE Dawn dish soaps--not any of the other colors--swish again-- then add a gallon of hot water tap water and let it soak for 15 minutes.
I don't use bleach, so how do I remove yellow spots on white shirts?
Do you know what caused the stain? You could try a mixture of laundry detergent and baking soda and rub it in then rinse.
You can soak overnight in 5 gallons of hot water to which you have added 2 T each of hydrogen peroxide and powdered dishwasher detergent. Wash as usual in the morning.
Try baking soda and water.
If white cotton, try toothpaste with whitener and a toothbrush. That often works. Also if you soak in water over night with a tablet of denture cleaner.
Since we do not know what type of fabric, what may have caused the stains, where the stains are located, or if shirts have been dried we can only offer the usual solutions so I hope one of the suggestions offered will work for you.
Have you tried placing shirts in sunshine and continuously wetting the yellow spots? Sometimes this is all that is needed but it may take a day or so to remove the stains (leave out overnight in open for dew to keep it damp/wet).
Here is a link to a web site that offers suggestions for all types of fabric:
home.howstuffworks.com/
cleaning.lovetoknow.com/
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Does anyone have any tips of how to get white clothes whiter without using bleach? Mine get really dingy over time.
Do you have any tips on washing white socks and underwear. The only thing I know of is not to wash white socks with anything else because it will yellow the underwear or anything white.
Can someone please explain to me why all of our white clothing articles have labels that say "Non Chlorine Bleach Only"?
A wonderful tip for getting clothes white if your out of bleach. Add white vinegar to the wash.
