How to wash yellowed or greyed laundry brilliantly white again


White laundry often loses its radiance after a short time. But why is white laundry no longer brilliantly white after just a few machine washes or has a grey haze or yellow tinge? We shirt ironers reveal the secret.

Clothes with a yellow tinge

If your clothes turn yellowish, this can have various reasons. Regular nicotine consumption can turn your clothes yellow, but also sweat or deodorants with aluminium salts. This happens especially in the armpit area when aluminium 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 yellowish if they are stored in the wardrobe for too long. This is usually due to food stains that discolour over time. For clothes that have only yellowed slightly, we advise shirt ironers to simply wash the clothes white again several times with a white detergent at 60 degrees.

Clothes with a grey cast

If your clothes have a greyish discolouration, it may be due to the detergent. If you wash with too little detergent, the rinsed-off dirt cannot bind properly with the rinse water and thus cannot be washed out. Dirt particles can remain in the drum and then soil the clothes again during the next wash. It may also be that the detergent is of inferior quality and simply does not get the clothes clean properly. Another conceivable cause of a grey haze is soap residue from the detergent that remains if white laundry is washed at too low a temperature. The soap in the washing powder dissolves only slowly in the water at 30 or 40 degrees Celsius and residues can remain that discolour the clothes greyish. If you wash white clothes with coloured ones, a grey haze can also develop, so we at the TUBIE ironing doll and shirt iron team advise you to always wash white only with white.

Stubborn yellow or grey discolourations can be made nice and white again with bleach from the drugstore, but such bleaches contain aggressive chemicals and can harm your clothes, in the worst case even eat holes into the textiles. We shirt ironers therefore recommend natural bleaches such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda or citric acid.

Vinegar

The miracle cure for yellow or grey haze is called vinegar. Acetic acid removes discolouration and dissolves lime soap residue. Simply add half a cup or a whole cup of clear vinegar to the fabric softener compartment and wash as usual. The smell of vinegar will disappear during drying at the latest.

Baking soda

Baking soda also works well for discoloured 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 discolouration in the armpit area. Simply dissolve 12 - 15 grams of citric acid powder in a litre of warm water, leave the clothes to soak in for approx. 4 hours, put them in the washing machine for washing and you're done.

Stay sparkling clean - your TUBIE shirt ironing machine team

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