I am using a homemade laundry powder. It works very well, except my whites are starting to look very dingy. I use a chlorine bleach and I do the whites in hot water. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Any solutions?
By Patricia from Mountain Grove, MO
My only guess is that commercial laundry detergents contain other ingredients besides soaps like optical brighteners which makes the whites look better. You could try hanging your whites out in the sun to make them whiter or maybe just use purchased detergent on your whites and use your homemade stuff on darks and colors.
Try laundry bluing. That is what people used in previous times. It should be in the laundry section of your store, and this is what it is for, to whiten your whites.
My 80-year old Aunt had the whitest undies and I asked her how she did it and she said baking soda.
I gave up using bleach in my whites because some whites would get yellow. I just add detergent + some baking soda and voila! Very white. For added whiteness, you can also stop the machine in mid-cycle and let the clothes soak in the baking soda for 20 mins or so. The only downside is that it takes away any nice smell from the laundry detergent since baking soda also removes smells.
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I recently requested help with my cloudy coffee which I still have. Now I need to know why all of my whites are a dingy yellow or brown. I use bleach, but that doesn't help.
