Laundry Stripping - The Best Spring Cleaning Tip!
Like many others, I am sure you have seen or heard of the term “ laundry stripping”. For me personally I had only ever heard of it being used for cloth diapers, and was curious to find out what it could do for my everyday laundry. The idea behind laundry stripping is that you are to soak your desired laundry in a combination of cleaning ingredients for several hours. This process will release any embedded dirt and gunk that a regular wash just can’t get out.
I was skeptical after seeing some other tutorials and thought “this can’t be real” My laundry comes out fresh and clean, how much dirt can be left behind after its been through the wash?
Well let me tell you.... “shocked” is what I was when I saw what was left over in the tub. I tried the method out on a few clean towels first and I was so grossed out that I proceeded to strip the rest of my towels, kitchen cloths and bed sheets.
Stripping my laundry has made such a difference in the way that my towels and sheets feel now and you can bet that I will be doing this every 6 to 12 months to keep my laundry fresh and clean. So if you are about to replace your old towels or sheets because maybe they aren’t as absorbent or smell the freshest after being washed, why not give this method a try!
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For this method you will need a clean load of laundry, powdered original tide, Borax, and washing soda (this is not the same as baking soda).
Fill your tub up with as hot of water as possible. Add 1/4 cup of Borax, 1/4 cup of washing soda and one full scoop of the powdered Tide. Give everything a good stir until most of the powder has dissolved.
Add in your towels and let them soak in the tub for four to six hours, stirring every hour to slightly agitate them.
Here is a picture of the water after the first hour. I could not believe how dirty it looked already. These were freshly washed towels I had just thrown in there!
As gross as this was, it was also somewhat satisfying seeing all of that gunk being pulled out of the towels!
Here is the water at the half way point. I could barely see the bottom of the tub!
After about six hours it was finally time to give the towels a final wash in the washing machine. I removed as much water from the towels as I could, placed them in a bucket and transferred them to my washer. I did a rinse cycle first and then a normal wash with my regular detergent.
Here is what was leftover! After seeing this there was no way I could leave the rest of my towels. So over the course of the next few days I stripped the remainder of my towels, dish cloths and bed sheets. It sounds like a hassle but the amount of work involved is so minimal, to me it is completely worth the effort.
My towels came out so fluffy and clean! They are even much more absorbent which was a pleasant surprise. I was considering replacing some of the older towels but now there is no need as they look and feel brand new!
All it took was a few simple cleaning ingredients to completely deep clean and revive my towels!
Comments
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Can't really speak to how it works on colors, but I have found that nothing brightens dingy white towels, shirts, socks, towels, sheets, etc better than white vinegar in the final rinse when doing your laundry. It also softens!
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A lot of dingy-ness is caused by detergent being left in the material and then "burnt" in by higher heat in the dryer. A good long soaking with CLEANING vinegar (in top loading washers... or in a tub for front loaders) will break down the soap residue and remove it from the fabric... going forward ... always do an extra rinse and use White Vinegar or cleaning vinegar in the rinse.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
I use borax in the wash... and distilled vinegar as fabric softener... also works good. Why not just do this in the washing machine?
Why in the tub and not a washing machine??
Why not just soak the laundry in the washing machine?? Why the messy, laborious step of transferring dripping wet laundry from a bathtub to a washer if it ends up there anyway? Am I missing something?