Came across this in my news feed ...I Could Never Get My White Sheets Really Clean...

[mattl]

 

<h1 class="Post__headline">I Could Never Get My White Sheets Really Clean, Until I Tried This 2-Ingredient Combo</h1>
<blockquote>

But (there’s always a but!) stripping the sheets off the bed can be gross. We have white sheets—which I love in theory because they feel extra fresh and are just so classic—but turning down the covers and wiggling the pillows out of their cases makes it very clear how not white our white sheets really are. Yellowed head marks and vague body forms on the sheets make it impossible to ignore the fact that it’s largely body oils that make sheets grimy. The only thing worse than confronting these stains when I take the sheets off to wash them is seeing that they’re still there when we make the bed later, after the sheets are washed.

Honestly, one of the reasons I switched from colored sheets to white ones is so that I could bleach them in my quest to obtain that hotel-room-pristine bedding feeling. I don’t like having bleach around or using it, but I was willing to do it for brilliant white bedding. No such luck, though. My attempts at bleaching did little to brighten our sheets, and I also didn’t like the faint chemical smell it left behind or how rough I know bleach is on cotton fibers.

 

<h2>How I Keep White Sheets White with Baking Soda and Vinegar (But Not Together!)</h2>

Here’s the formula: Add about a half cup of baking soda to the drum of the washing machine and then add distilled white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser. This specificity is important to note: allowing vinegar and baking soda to combine in the process will render each of them no more useful than salt. Splitting them up, on the other hand, allows them each to work their magic without interference, since the vinegar gets released later in the cycle through the fabric softener dosing cup.

After my first load, I could hardly believe how much whiter and, incidentally, softer our sheets were. My husband even noticed—and y’all know that means there was a noticeable difference!

 

</blockquote>

 

Wow, how dirty were her sheets?  I've have sets of white sheets but have never seen "vague body forms on the sheet" - ever.  I may let my sheets go for a couple of weeks but they never look dirty when I toss them in the wash.  Odds are the writer is washing her sheets in cold water and hoping for the best.

 

 

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-whiten-white-sheets-36765736

 

[thomasortega]

Maybe she should change her sheets more often...

Or maybe take a shower more than once a year...

Or maybe stop rubbing carrot or beet juice on her body before she sleeps

Or maybe change the brand of lube she uses. I've heard Castrol is good for cars only.

Or maybe try adding a dose of detergent in the washer. Experts say that if you use detergent when you wash your bed sheets, they usually come off cleaner than washed with water only.

That's the experience of a married man that changes the sheets at least twice a week. (Sometimes more often because once in a while one of my daughters have some accidents when she tried to mark her territory so her sister can know it's "HER" side of the bed.

 

[donprohel]

Seems a quite common issue

I am not sure if the the technical term for that is "copy and paste" or rather "Internet contents supplier"

https://www.journalposts.com/i-might-by-no-means-get-my-white-sheets-actually-clear-till-i-tried-this-2-ingredient-combo/

 

[panthera]

Worth Remembering

That modern US washers call 'hot' what we used to call 'luke-warm'. At best.

They use too little water, too little heat, too little detergent and not sufficient rinsing to get clothes clean.

 

The rules of nature aren't subject to political (or, for that matter, religious) musings.

 

Oh, and, yes - Thomas is quite right. Heck, our dog's bed sheets get changed out more often at once a week than do many peoples' bedsheets.

 

[philcobendixduo]

I have noticed.....

....."oil stains" from my hair and/or face on my colored pillowcases - even after washing them in WARM water with detergent. I will have to try this baking soda wash and vinegar rinse to see if the stains are removed. BTW - I am using Kirkland liquid detergent in my 1987 Kenmore Limited Edition Electronic Fabric Care washing machine. 10 minute wash. Permanent Press cycle.[this post was last edited: 7/6/2020-09:56]

 

[maytagbear]

Remember.........

Baking soda is a source of water softening sodium. One might have an accidental oversudsing event.

"Your milage may....."

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[appnut]

Well, with my Whirlpool front loader, I know my hot water wash can heat to 125 to 130 degrees just on the Whites cycle.  That with Tide Ultra Stain Release gets my light colored sheets clean and stain free.  

 

Each sett is used between 7 & 10 days each and then changed and and then both sets are washed together to make a full load.

 

[petek]

Unless I missed it nowhere do they say what brand/type of laundry detergent they are using which is an important factor because they are not all the same. For all we know the writer could be using $1.99 per barrel ERA liquid.

 

[polkanut]

 

[rickr]

Keeping bedding fresh, and white

I always use Foca detergent, and plenty of ammonia with whites. Bedding is laundered weekly. We shower every morning, and sometimes in summer take a second shower, if working outside. No problem with dingy sheets here. When sheets, and pillowcases are worn out, (always the bottom sheet, is the first to go) they are still nice and white.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Sheets

Just replaced my 3 year old white Nautica percale cotton sheets on Friday. They were washed weekly in hot water using various Tide detergents and no FS. A little ammonia was added to each wash. Despite having fairly heavily soiling with dogs and personal use, they always came out like new. A sanitize cycle would be ran if I was sick. This might have helped a bit.
As someone else mentioned poor rinsing is a likely factor. HE TL washers do spray rinses unless selected otherwise. Of course the average consumer has no clue about this.

 

[ea56]

We have over a doz. sets of Cal King sheets, 4 of them over 35 years old.  I change the bed once a week on Saturday morning.  I’ve always washed them in hot water, the four sets of white sheets get a dose of LCB most of the time, but not always.   Even the four sets over 35 years old have no stains, no odor of body oils, and are clean as a whistle.  

 

I’ve owned at least 20 different washing machines over the last 35 years, some have been better performers than others, but they’ve all gotten the sheets clean every week.

 

My current washing machine on the Normal/Regular cycle, which I use for all the sheets except the flannel sets, uses a lower, but adequate water level and spray rinses on the Auto Sense  option and the cycle takes 34 mins with hot water.  I was reticent to use this cycle at first, but thought well the only way to know if its effective is to try it.   If I don’t like the results then don’t use it again. There are options for full fill washes and deep water rinses, even 2 rinses.  I’ve tried them all, and I find that the 34 min. cycle I use most of the time does an excellent job on every load that I’ve washed this way.  I think its because of the higher concentration of detergent in the water.  And using HE Gain Original Liquid they have NO residual detergent when the cycle is finished.  I realize that many here will take this as heresy for doing laundry.  But the proof is in the pudding.

 

Bottom line, if you want your sheets to be clean, CHANGE them at least once a week, wash them in hot water, and have at least 3-4 sets so you can rotate them, minimizing wear and tear.

 

Eddie

 

[launderess]

I've told ya

That yellowing seen on bed linens is same as shirt collars; body oils combined with soil that has oxidized. Basically as with any oil the substance has gone off hence changed from clear to yellow.

This is not new and laundresses, laundries and others have been dealing with it for centuries.

If bed linens and whatever are coming out of wash yellowed, then it isn't a matter of "stripping" anything. Rather wash day habits are slovenly and want changing. In particular whatever detergent or soap being used, and or technique for wash day isn't doing what it should; remove all those oils from textiles.

Remember those old "ring around the collar" Wisk detergent adverts?



That liquid detergent contained something powders then (and most today still not), solvents and emulsifiers that will break down and remove oil and grease. WE know from that other television advert (Seven Seas salad dressing) that oil and vinegar don't mix. Well neither do oil and water. Hence you need some sort of emulsifier just as when making mayonnaise.

Powder detergents then (and many still today) relied upon brute force of high pH; all that washing soda, sodium hydroxide, sodium metasilicate, soap and other alkaline substances that break down oils by saponification basically. Those of you adding ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) to wash are doing same thing. AH is a base gas suspended in water creating ammonia solution. That whiff you get from the stuff is ammonia quickly evaporating back into a gas.

Fels Naptha soap of old was great at getting out oils (and is why many used it for shirt collars), thanks to addition of Stoddard solvent; essentially dry cleaning petro chemical bonded to soap which enhanced cleaning. At one time one could buy soap with benzine or simply added the stuff to wash (very dangerous).

Key to keeping whites that way is simple. Don't wear/use things for days or weeks on end, and send them to wash promptly. Taking linens off bed, and leaving them to sit in hamper for several days, week or longer just prolongs contact and gives those stains time to oxidize.

Rest is pretty basic, using proper detergent, in right water temp with good mechanical action should keep things white. Addition of good oxygen bleach with each load, or the occasional use of chlorine bleach should help things along.

In old days laundries would use oxalic acid to bleach out yellow on sheets and shirts. But that substance can do a number on cotton and linens so is best left alone.

What's that you say? What about bluing? For things that are already white but have just a tinge of yellow, the stuff will work well enough. But if we're talking about moderate to severe yellowing bluing does nothing. You end up with a white article tinted blue and the yellow area an odd color due to blue overlay.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

ea56

What kind of machine do you have? A GE TL? I am shocked you find that rinsing adequate based off of hearing other people's stories. The newer GE HE TL I have used actually does a good job.

 

[ea56]

Lakewebsterkid

its a Roper RTW4156FW TL with a dual action agitator.  Purchased at Lowes for $399.00, such a deal. Since I bought mine 14 mo ago its gone up in price.  If I use it with the deep fill option its just like a conventional TL of yore.  The turnover is remarkable.  But living in California where we have a perennial shortage of water I feel guilty using that much water when its not necessary.  

 

The Auto Sense fill option works great with the spray rinses.  When I wash something bulky like pillows, a king bedspread, blanket or comforter I use a deep fill.  For everyday loads of clothing, linens, towels, ect.  this works very well.  And even tough the spin speed is only 700 rpms, the loads spinout well, damp and not excessively wet.  Most loads dry in the time it takes the next load to wash for a 34 min. Normal/regular cycle.  I wash just about everything in hot water.

 

Eddie

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Roper-3-5-cu-ft-High-Efficiency-Top-Load-Washer-White/1000074111

 

[mrsalvo]

Reviving this thread.

 

This headline popped up in a newsfeed. I nearly hurled my coffee.

 

You would think in the age of Covid people would be more prone to launder their bed linens, and personal attire.  I can't understand why the behavior. Depression? Laziness? 

 

Seriously, what gives?

 

Please discuss.

 

Barry

 

 

A third of people 'only wash their bed sheets once a year' | Metro News

 

[DADoES]

 
"A quarter of men admitted to washing their underwear after every five washes, compared to just 13% of women."

Typical bad grammer and/or proofreading nowadays, even from presumed-professional journalists.

That's my first thought, LOL.

 

[mrsalvo]

Glenn, yes I noticed that too. Had to read between the lines! Would read it, “washing their underwear after every five uses...”. I can’t imagine there’s any detergent out there that could take care of the severity of stains. Would be better off buying new underwear.

 

Barry

[this post was last edited: 8/6/2021-16:31]

 

[lakewebsterkid]

No kidding, DADoES

Makes me question their credibility.
Mrsalvo, I would imagine it is pure laziness. People are willing to slack wherever they can anymore.
Though I am shocked to see their statistic that claims 40% wash their towels after every use. I usually use mine 3-4 times before washing. I let it thoroughly dry between uses though.