White laundry often loses its radiance after a short time. But why is it that after just a few machine washes, white laundry is no longer brilliantly white or has a gray or yellow tinge? We shirt ironers reveal the secret.
Clothing with a yellow tinge
If your clothes turn yellowish, there can be various reasons for this. Regular nicotine consumption can stain your clothes yellow, but so can sweat or deodorants with aluminum salts. This happens particularly in the armpit area when aluminum salts mix with sweat. You should avoid deodorants with such salts anyway, as they are suspected of increasing the risk of Alzheimer's and breast cancer. But clothes can also turn yellow if they are stored in the wardrobe for too long. This is usually due to food stains that become discolored over time. If your clothes are only slightly yellowed, we advise you to simply wash them several times at 60 degrees with a white detergent.
Clothing with a gray tint
If your clothes are grayish in color, it may be due to the detergent. If you wash with too little, the rinsed dirt cannot bind properly with the rinse water and therefore cannot be washed out. Dirt particles can remain in the drum and then stain the clothes again during the next wash. However, it is also possible that the detergent is of poor quality and simply does not get the clothes properly clean. Soap residues from the detergent, which remain if white laundry is washed at too low a temperature, can also cause a gray haze. The soap in the washing powder only dissolves slowly in the water at 30 or 40 degrees and residues can remain that discolor the clothes greyish. If you wash white clothes with colored ones, a grey haze can also appear, so we from the TUBIE ironing doll and shirt ironing team advise you to always wash white with white.
Stubborn yellow or gray discolorations can be made nice and white again with bleach from the drugstore, but such bleaches contain aggressive chemicals and can damage your clothes, in the worst case even eat holes in the textiles. We shirt ironers therefore recommend using natural bleaching agents such as vinegar, baking soda or citric acid.
Vinegar
The miracle cure for yellow or gray stains is vinegar. Acetic acid removes discoloration and dissolves lime soap residue. Simply add half or a whole cup of clear vinegar to the fabric softener compartment and wash as usual. The smell of vinegar will then disappear when drying at the latest.
Baking soda
Baking soda also works well with discolored laundry and even has an antibacterial effect. Simply add half a cup of baking soda to the washing powder in the machine and wash as usual.
Citric acid
Citric acid works wonders, especially for yellowish discoloration in the underarm area. Simply dissolve 12 - 15 grams of citric acid powder in a liter of warm water, leave clothes to soak for approx. 4 hours, put in the washing machine to wash and you're done.
Stay sparkling clean - your TUBIE shirt ironing machine team
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