What is the best way to remove stains from your white clothes?
Stains are often a result of natural bodily products such as sweat, combined with the chemicals we use to combat them like deodorant, and can embed and accumulate over time to make it seem like your white clothes are ruined. But don’t despair – there are many household products, which effectively remove yellow stains.Oxygen bleach can work wonders on yellow stains. Other products that have been proven to brighten up yellowing clothes include lemon juice, salt, and meat tenderizer powder. Salt is great as it can be used both prior to washing, by soaking the stained white clothes in a salt solution for a few hours, and can be put into your washing machine to brighten white clothes.There you have it your whites can be as bright and stain-free as the day you bought them with these tips – try it for yourself!
Are white cotton clothes colored with white dye, or are they naturally white?
Cotton is naturally a creamy-coloured off-white. The colour varies a little depending on the variety of cotton.There is a baby store near me that sells organic unbleached cotton baby clothes. The different colours of raw cotton fibre have been sorted and made into thread separately, so that stripes and other patterns can be woven into the cloth.To become blinding white, cotton has to be bleached. Bleach is not a dye. Bleach chemically removes the beige colour in the cotton by oxidizing the pigment. So colour is removed with bleach. But dye adds colour.Another way to bleach fabric is to first weave it, then wet it and lay it in the sun to bleach naturally. Hanging sheets to dry outdoors provides a gentle bleaching effect as well. The bleaching is caused by the reaction of water and sunshine to create ozone and/or hydrogen peroxide.Snow bleaching was traditionally practiced in Japan and can still be observed today, although it is used on ramie not cotton. The fabric simply lies on the the snow in the sun for a 10 to 20 days. Ramie is a very long lasting fibre like linen and so the extra effort is worth it.Image source: Ojiya-chijimi, Echigo-jofu: techniques of making ramie fabric in Uonuma region, Niigata Prefecture
How can I get clothes white without bleach?
Be careful switching ideas. Some cleaning agents won't play nice with others and can ruin the gown or even create poisonous fumes. Fortunately you are avoiding bleach and so far ammonia (you already used lemon juice so avoid this) so you should be relatively safe. One alternative nobody mentioned [edit: well it wasn't mentioned while i was first typing this] is hydrogen peroxide (safe to use after using lemon juice). Use a pray bottle to mist DILUTED peroxide. Make sure you're using peroxide meant to treat wounds, not bleaching your hair. The latter stuff is far more potent and might damage the gown. Mist, let sit for a few minutes, rinse, repeat until done. (BTW, peroxide is great for removing blood stains from clothes if you get a but or bloody nose). One last extremely important point: You used lemon juice to clean which is acidic. Over time the remant acids can break down the fibers in the dress. You can remedy this by soaking it in a baking soda solution to neutralize any acid that didn't come out while washing.
Do you know ways of whitening whites, aside from household bleach? Tried Oxy-clean, just for removing stains.?
Try Bluing for laundry or borax and automatic dishwashing detergent along with half of your regular laundry soap.
Baking soda for washing clothes?
Baking soda is an additive for your laundry, you can use less soap, but you still have to use some soap. Borax is a great all around cleaner. Lemon juice and vinegar are great! Vinegar is a natural softener and helps towels be more absorbant. (I rinse my hair with vinegar and water for a nice softness! The smell goes away when it's dry.) Vinegar also balances the Ph in your skin, mix 50/50 with water and close your eyes tight. (Kids wetting bed? Put 1 cup vinegar in bath water just before they go to bed, get them up in the morning for the bathroom, they'll have to go bad!) (I watch "how clean is your house" on BBCtv, they use all kinds of household items for cleaning rather than chemicals when they can!)
Do clothing colours never stop running (when I wash all the clothes together, eventually the white clothes turn grey)?
When washing a variety of clothing together like that with whites included it is always best to do a cold water wash only . The other thing that could be turning your whites grey is manganese in your water . It is best to wash whites separately when you can anyway . For the most part you will generally have some kind of resisdue build up on your whites when they are washed with colors. Even polysestees which are not supposed to release any color can effect your whites when they area washed with colors. Also don’t use a harsh laundry detergent . Use very little detergent as they have chemicals in many brands which tend to strip color and are sold as a brightening effect. So even though your clothing may not be releasing color run naturally , the detergent you are using could be effecting the whites very easily as well as your colored material .My suggestion is to wash whites separately when possible. I do both and have satisfactory results while using just a tiny amount of cheaper laundry soap and using cold water. That’s said, I will still do separate white washes as I know there is enough mana games in the well water where I live to effect a white wash , so eventually I will do a separate white wash to keep them bright and fresh looking .
How can I get my white dress to turn white again after my dry cleaner for some reason turned into this tinted-yellow color; is there hope?
When mills make bright white fabric, they use something called an Optical Brightener. Depending upon the fiber content of the fabric, it may never have been truly white. It may have appeared white.Depending on how you store the garment can change the color. If you keep garments in plastic dry cleaning bags they will change color faster, and if exposed to light, even more rapidly. If garments are stored in plastic, the discoloration may be more streaky in some places, as opposed to all over discoloration. If the garment is of a natural fiber, you can try dying it, but this isn’t usually a workable solution. And man-made fibers almost never dye evenly.Each time a garment is laundered or dry cleaned a bit of the optical brightener is removed. Eventually, over time, is removed completely and you are left with what appears to be dull or dingy. Imagine men’s white dress shirts. They often turn yellow under the arms and most people assume this discoloration is from antiperspirant or deodorant. That is not the case at all. It is the actual perspiration which has removed the optical brightener from that area of the shirt. It happens faster there because of the concentration of perspiration.This is one time when it isn’t your dry cleaner’s fault, but that of the mill which made the fabric.