ADVERTISEMENT
Don’t have baking soda on hand? Don’t worry! White vinegar works great too! An easy-to-find natural ingredient, white vinegar will whiten and soften your clothes! Very effective against yellow stains (especially on cotton clothes), it also has the advantage of eliminating all bad odors . Here’s how to use it:
Wash the clothes by hand
If you plan to wash your clothes by hand, pour 3 cups of white vinegar into a bucket of hot water and let your clothes soak for 1 hour before scrubbing. It’s quick and easy… Who says better?
Washing clothes in the washing machine
If you opt for the machine, put 125 ml of white vinegar and 60 ml of regular detergent. Place everything in the slot normally reserved for the stain remover and press start!
Once your clothes have been washed, they will be dazzlingly white and, as an added benefit, they will lose all the bad smell of perspiration!
What if you don’t have baking soda or white vinegar at home? Many will think of bleach! But stop! This is not a good idea at all! It is true that it removes stains from clothes better than regular detergent, but it is not a good product to keep clothes in good condition. In fact, bleach can cause both yellowing of the fabric and weakening of the fibres of the garment!
“What to do then?” you might ask! Rest assured, we have more than one trick up our sleeve!
Cheating
Simply pour a cup of lemon juice into the machine or rinse clothes with lemon water. Your dull or yellowed clothes will naturally regain their whiteness.
potato
Start by cooking the potatoes, add some salt and eat them! Well, jokes aside, potatoes are just as good stir-fried as they are in bleach, so once cooked, cut them into wedges and rub them on your dirty clothes. Then rinse with clean water and you’ll be fine!
Marseille soap
Liquid, in shavings or cubes, quickly whiten your clothes with this soap, which forms a kind of crust when wet. Leave it to act before rinsing. And voila!
Milk
This technique only works on white cotton, linen or silk clothing. Dampen the fabric, let it dry, then wash as usual.
Baking powder
Pour a sachet of yeast into the detergent drawer and then proceed with the wash as usual.
sodium percarbonate
continued on next page
ADVERTISEMENT
