bleaching clothes / sheets

wssla00

Usually the washing machine has a bit in the wash tub for the bleach and there is usually a cotton wash for it which will incorporate it. I usually add an extra rinse to them. I know you can get wash in starch but not sure where from. Think i saw it in sainsburys a while back... this is what it looks like

Other than that the lazy girls way of bleaching sheets: wash them, hang them out leave them for a day when its raining on the line and then leave to dry. Not sure why but it works....

mi_jardin

Ditto....I put bleach in the prewash bit in the washing machine on all my white washes, especially now I try to wash everything at 30 degrees.
Try that, then if they are still there I'd put a slosh in a bucket or bowl and fill it up with water and leave it for a bit.

greenbee

If you're using bleach in the WM, make sure that you use laundry bleach, as ordinary bleach can damage the innards of the machine

Seakay

Sometimes pound shops or local cheapie shops sell starch.
If not you can get it at Lakeland
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/traditional-laundry-starch/F/product/4813

luxor4t

wssla00 wrote: »

...Other than that the lazy girls way of bleaching sheets: wash them, hang them out leave them for a day when its raining on the line and then leave to dry. Not sure why but it works....

I do this on frosty days: actually, over night when frost is forecast is magnificent.
I used to do this with DS1's terry nappies too.
Scientific reason - water in the freshly washed article expands when it becomes ice, so the dirt etc gets pushed out of the fibres :cool:

BitterAndTwisted

As advised, soak in a bleach-solution in cold water then wash on the hottest programme and dry outdoors in sunshine if you can find any.

I'm sure you can make your own laundry-starch solution with corn-starch in water in the final rinse but it's such a long time long since I saw my Granny do this. Failing that, there are spray-starches available but I think they're silicon-based and probably not cheap either for large items like sheets.

ETA: I found this US link by Googling and I hope it helps.

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf001238.tip.html

sexki11en

I had some tea towels which had curry stains on them and nothing would shift them. I soaked them overnight in a bowl with 2 dissolved milton tablets then put them through a 90 degree wash (I know, I know but it was only once) and they've come up like new.

They were only a couple of pounds for a pack of 5, 3/4 years ago but they were perfectly good and I wasn't going to throw them out :rotfl:

I also soaked a sheet I had got brown hair dye on in the same solution and it got that out too.

SK x

horsechestnut

I used to get my laundry starch from Boots, it's a powder sold in packets. I don't know if they still do it, because I only use it for the Christmas Table cloth, so it has lasted years!!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

thanks ... will have a go with the milton first....

so if i got this right... first soak in milton/bleach

put into a hot wash

soak/rinse in starch

dry on-line

will have a mess around next week, and hopefully there will be some lovely frosty nights:rotfl:

Primrose

I've unearthed a pair of good quality but awful coloured yellow cotton sheets at the back of my airing cupboard and wonder if there's any way of leaching some of the colour of of them. If I soaked them overnight in a heavy bleach mixture, would this work? All our bed linen is white now. I doubt whether I could achieve that end result but any suggestions which would lighten the colour would be appreciated..