A crisp white T-shirt is an essential for a summer wardrobe. However, wearing them comes with risks…In fact, any piece of white clothing does – because once a spill, droplet, or crumb touches the fabric, it feels like it is completely game over.
There are plenty of whitening products that promise to get white clothes back to their original state, but often they don’t really work on those tougher stains.
Fortunately, as well as many supermarket options, there are also many cost-effective and easy methods, such as this simple one that requires one ingredient that is most likely already in your kitchen.
Baking soda and vinegar are both good options for removing stains from white clothing, but something even simpler can be just as effective.
According to the home appliances company Bosch, salt is an effective way to remove tough stains from white clothing, especially red wine stains.
It explained that the “surprisingly effective” remedy involves soaking any ruined white garments before adding them to your wash.
The website reads: “A surprisingly effective stain-removing remedy, salt can be added to cold water to create a soak for white clothes. Leave for four hours, add detergent and then wash as usual. It is also very good at soaking up fresh red wine stains.
As well as offering a selection of chemical and natural remedies, the company highlighted exactly what not to do when attempting to remove stains from white clothing.
• Never use chlorinated bleach on yellow stains, as it could make them worse.
• When rubbing a stain with a cloth never use dark material, as it could transfer some of its colours to your whites.
• Don’t mix oil and water. If the stain is oil-based, don’t add water, as it will be repelled and could cause the mark to settle. Instead, use a dry paper towel.
• Avoid ironing or machine drying a stained item, as the heat will make the stain set.
• Never mix ammonia and bleach, as it causes toxic fumes.
• Don’t use hot water on a stain, if you don’t know what caused it. If it’s protein-based, the heat will make it worse