Laundry Whitener

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/miracle-laundry-whitening-solution.html#more-2161
Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution

So when I came across this “recipe” for whitening whites in the comments section of a post at Homemade Mamas, I knew I had to try it. And I had the PERFECT test subject! A dingy mattress pad that I have washed time and time again…but never comes out WHITE anymore. For some reason I just KNEW there was a whiteness still lurking under the dinginess…I just needed the right formula to apply to it. This one seemed very promising.

four simple ingredients!

Katie JoMar commented:

water
1 cup of laundry detergent
1 cup powdered dish washer detergent
1 cup bleach
1/2 cup borax

After filling the washing machine with HOT water….I also dumped in a large-sized pot of water I had brought to a boil on the stove. I was looking for HOT HOT HOT water, just like Katie said.

Another thing to remember is to add the above ingredients to as small a load size as possible. You are looking for CONCENTRATED cleaning power, and the more water you have in the tub, the less concentrated it will be. Shoot for BARELY enough water to cover the article.

Let soak for as long as you can stand it!

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/move-over-oxicleantheres-much-cheaper.html

Move over OxiClean®…there’s a MUCH CHEAPER stain remover in town!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 · 90 comments


OK…I promised I would share my experience with the homemade OxiClean recipes I found….and I am now sufficiently prepared to do so. :-)

I couldn’t bring myself to post about it until I had given it a thorough test.

I made my first batch on Saturday. It was kind of a mess. The most common recipe you will find when you Google “Homemade OxiClean” is this one:

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide
1/2 cup baking soda


Of course, me in my infinite wisdom thought that didn’t seem like very much. So I decided to quadruple the batch! My personality type tends to think….if ONE of something is good…then TEN of something must be much better! :-) Hmmm…might have played a part in my stint in rehab…ya think? lol. Well…that’s another story….for another day.

So I quadrupled the “recipe” and put it in a big mason jar. It immediately separated into what looked like a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the bottle…topped with water. I shook it up REAL good and poured it in a load of laundry. Seemed to work ok. But nothing to write home about.

I wasn’t ready to give up on it though…so, I decided to do a little more research on the subject. While I was waiting for my son’s prescription to be filled at the pharmacy….my Droid and I found some interesting thingsabout “faux” OxiClean:

Most of the recipes out there call for BAKING Soda…but what the ingredient SHOULD be listed as is WASHING Soda. Baking soda will work…but it’s a lot less effective. Washing soda has a pH of 11 (with 7 being neutral), while Baking soda has a pH of around 8.1. That being said….if you are laundering baby diapers…I might stick with the Baking soda…but for normal dirty clothes…I would recommend the WASHING soda.

Another thing I learned is that once mixed together….the hydrogen peroxide and washing soda only remain effective for up to 6 hours. If it sits around, it will loose it’s efficacy because the oxygen boils off. I guess that explains why the original recipe was for such a small amount. :-/ So I basically wasted my “quadruple” batch.

Finally, for maximum effectiveness you need to let the clothes SOAK in the solution for awhile, preferably overnight…but at least for a couple of hours.

Soooooooooo…….all that having been said. I had a MUCH better experience with the homemade OxiClean recipe today! In fact, it isn’t really a “recipe” at all. This morning before work I tossed in 1/2 cup of Washing Soda (already had a box from my detergent-making) and 1/2 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide (I pay .88 cents for a 32 oz bottle) to the load of whites I was washing, along with the homemade laundry detergent I made, and after letting it agitate for awhile…I left the load to soak until lunch time. When I came home for lunch I finished washing the load, threw it in the dryer and tonight when I got home from work I was extremely happy with the results!!!!