I Searched, Tested, Tried—Behold, The Secret to Keeping White Laundry Brilliantly White

If you’re sick and tired of perfectly functional household linens or clothing items ending up in the rag bag simply because they turned a dingy shade of gray when you expected your white laundry to come out brilliantly white, help is on the way. 

Dingy gray is usually a sign of a build-up of too much detergent that is not getting rinsed away entirely in the rinse cycle together with new stains, sweat, bacteria that work their way into textile fibers. If you have well water or hard water containing unusually high amounts of iron, that could also contribute to this problem.

The Frugal Fix

Here’s a frugal way to fix I have discovered that can and also prevent this problem of white and light-colored items like sheets, shirts, and towels taking on an ugly shade of pale gray.

Add a half cup of borax to each wash load with the clothes (in the detergent dispenser or just throw it in with the clothes ) for both top and or front-loading machines. This will boost the cleaning power of your laundry detergent. (Homemade laundry detergent does contain Borax, but a very small amount which translates to a minuscule amount in a washer load, which may be sufficient for maintenance.)

7 Reasons to Add Borax

Natural

Borax is a natural mineral, sodium tetraborate, which has been mined out of the ground and used for thousands of years.

Safe

Borax is safe to mix with chlorine bleach and detergents and has been proven to enhance their cleaning power.

• • MORE: “Laundry Stripping” is the Easy Solution for Dingy Gray Sheets, Towels, Underwear

Whitens whites

Borax whitens your whites because it converts some water molecules to hydrogen peroxide, a whitening agent. This enhances the action of bleach, whether you add it separately or it’s already present in your laundry detergent. If you don’t like to use bleach, borax is still a good whitener on its own.

Releases detergent

The borates in Borax work to keep soap dispersed throughout the load, so it’s more likely to rinse out. Test: Try washing your clothes in just water for some time (no detergent), and you’ll be amazed at how much detergent comes from your clothing.

PH buffer

Borax acts as a pH buffer which means cleaner clothes. It softens hard water and also helps to remove soap residue from clothing.

Gets rid of odors

Borax neutralizes laundry odors because it inhibits fungi and mold; it has disinfecting properties. It helps to get rid of ammonia odor in baby clothes, diapers, bed pads, and incontinence pads.

Boosts detergent

Borax increases the stain-removal ability of your detergent. The alkaline pH of borax helps to break down acidic stains like tomato or mustard.

• • MORE: What is Laundry Stripping? A Complete Guide

How to Reverse the Gray

For super-stained items or uniforms that have become dingy gray, do a one-time pre-soak for 30 minutes in a solution of one tablespoon of borax per gallon of warm water or add 1/2 cup of borax to a pre-soak cycle in your washing machine. Then continue to launder as usual.

Borax is sold as Twenty Mule Team Borax in many stores or in bulk as borax powder. As long as unscented and nothing else (oddly) added, it’s all the same. Find the best price and you’ll be golden.

 

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