Many of us have experienced pulling our favourite white clothes out of the washing machine, only to find them off-white or the stains still there. Luckily, that special item can easily be salvaged without harsh chemicals or even a trip to the store. For most of the items you’ll need, the furthest you’ll have to go is to the kitchen or outside. Household products like baking soda, lemon, and vinegar can get your whites whiter and your other clothes looking brighter in no time. For those tricky stains tarnishing that perfect white top or trousers, bluing techniques and sunlight are excellent, non-toxic stain removers. To help you further, Whirlpool’s energy-efficient washing machines offer unique features and various settings that help keep your fabrics fresh and white as can be.
The Dynamic Duo: Baking Soda and Lemon
Take a trip to your kitchen and you’ll find the first two items lurking in your fridge. Baking soda is the jack-of-all-trades when it comes to household cleaning. It’s a must-have essential for trapping odours. It’s also a powerful, non-toxic bleaching agent and a natural fabric softener. Baking soda neutralizes the PH in your wash water which makes your detergent work harder at removing dirt and stains from your clothes. Adding ¼ cup of baking soda to your wash will keep your clothes cleaner and softer.
Lemon juice contains citric acid, a weak organic acid, has as many household uses as there are recipes calling for lemon. It is an excellent brightener and is second to none for removing stains and grease but should only be used on your white clothing. For tough stains and grease, you can pre-treat by squeezing lemon directly onto the stain and lay the item out in the sun. Add ¼ cup of lemon juice to hot water and you have an excellent pre-treatment soak. On their own, baking soda and lemon are effective, even excellent, wash-cycle boosters. But when their powers combine, your clothes are whiter, brighter, softer, and will stay that way longer.
Mix about ¼ cup of baking soda with ¼ cup of lemon juice, add the mixture to your detergent, and pop it in your washing machine’s hot water cycle.
Vinegar
Another stain fighting under-the-sink kitchen staple is white vinegar. White vinegar contains acetic acid which, like the citric acid in lemon juice, breaks down stains and grease. Unlike lemon juice, which is only useful for your white clothes, white vinegar can be used to keep whites whiter and darks nice and dark. The acetic acid is gentle on clothing but strong enough to dissolve alkaline residues left by soaps and detergents.
Adding ½ cup of vinegar to your Whirlpool washing machine’s fabric softener dispenser will result in softer, brighter, and cleaner clothes. If you occasionally forget to flip your laundry for a few days, running your laundry again on a short cycle with ¼ cup of white vinegar will take that away so nobody will ever learn of your momentary memory lapse. If you have teenage boys at home or enjoy an active lifestyle, adding vinegar to your wash cycle will eliminate the perspiration odours and stains part and parcel to both. White vinegar naturally brightens fabrics and helps strip away residue left on your clothes by soap and detergent. To make a simple vinegar soak for your laundry, fill a big stock pot with water and mix in 1 cup of white vinegar.
Bring the pot to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Add in your white clothes and let them soak overnight. The next day, run the clothes through the washer as usual and voilà - they should look crisp and clean.
Laundry Bluing
If you’ve ever gone platinum, your hair colourist will have recommended a blue shampoo or conditioner to help you keep your gorgeous bombshell blonde from fading or pulling brassy tones. Laundry bluing works the same way. This unusual product makes your fabrics whiter — by dying them blue! The blue undertone will negate brassy or yellow hues that white clothing will take on over time as a result of frequent washing and make them look cleaner and brighter in your top-load washer, dilute the product in water according to instructions on the packaging and add it to your wash cycle when the barrel is half full.
For a front-load washer, dilute about ¼ teaspoon of bluing in 1 or 2 quarts of water, then add it to the dispenser drawer after the machine is full of water. If your dispenser drawer locks during the wash cycle, dilute it according to the packaging and add as much as you can fit into the drawer before you start the cycle.
Be careful, though! Do not use any other detergents or laundry products when you are using this type of product or your whites might go Marge Simpson’s bouffant up-do blue.
Dry in the Sun
For most of us without the time or energy to line-dry, your Whirlpool dryer will get your clothes dry in no time. However, hang-drying your clothes so they dry by sunlight will brighten your whites and leave them fresh like a warm spring day. Be sure to hang them in a clean, dry place and let nature do its magic.
How Whirlpool Can Help
Whirlpool washers come with a variety of options to customize each wash cycle for your laundry’s needs. For best results, wash white clothes separately using hot water, then select the Soil Setting of your choice based on your Whirlpool’s washing machine’s Intuitive Touch Control. Furthermore, with Adaptive Wash technology the needs of each individual load are sensed and will gently flush away soap residue and grime without fading whites and colours. Whirlpool’s whitening features combined with natural whitening techniques will help keep your whites white, bright, and looking new longer.