A couple of months ago I talked about one of my pinterest fails. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I thought I would do my second pinterest fail.
I have these white dish towels that are constantly getting stained and dirty. Even the ones that don't have big stains on them look grey and dingy. They don't look that bad in the picture, but they are gross. So, I thought I would try out a couple of methods I had heard on pinterest for getting them white again.
I started out by letting them soak in lemon juice. To me, this had the greatest chance of working. I used 50% lemon juice and 50% water. I let it soak for about 8 hours.
After 8 hours I pulled them from the lemon juice and washed them. I really couldn't tell a difference from before.
The second tip I tried is letting them sit in the sun. I laid them out on my back porch, four hours on each side.
At the end of the 8 hours I couldn't really tell a difference. I thought they were a tiny bit whiter, but the stains didn't budge.
After this I decided to try good old bleach. I filled a bowl with 5 cups water and 1 cup bleach. Then I let the towels soak for about 8 hours. I didn't see this tip on pinterest, but my mom would sometimes do this to get stains out of whites. I really wanted to try to avoid using bleach, but since I didn't have any luck with the first two I thought I would try it.
After letting them soak I washed them in the washing machine. I could tell a big difference in the dish towels. Not only were the stains almost gone, but the towels were much whiter too.
I was happy to have my dish towels not so stained anymore, but was disappointed to not find a better solution than bleach. It is always fun to try those ideas that I have seen on pinterest, even if they don't always work. How about you? Do you have a way of getting the stains out of whites without bleach? What have been your biggest pinterest disappointments.
Mary Cole says
I saw your article on trying to whiten your kitchen towel which I have had the same problem many times when I worked at a restaurant years ago the dining room manager told me to use Mrs Stewart's concentrated liquid bluing and you gotta mix it real good before you put it in with your white clothes but it has worked miracles for what you take that grey out
Julie says
Thank you so much! I will give this a try. It looks like it might be great for shirts that have turned a dingy yellow. Thanks for the tip.
Bec says
I think the main reason the other two methods didn't work for you is because you have microfiber towels. The lemon juice (and sunshine!) work best on natural fibers like cotton, linen or wool. But I second the peroxide instead of bleach! It works really well. Thanks for sharing your fails, it's always interesting to see whether or not these tips work out jn real life.
Julie says
I will have to try that. Thanks!
Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden says
I'm glad you found something that works. I use bleach too -less than my Mom did of course. It works great.
Julie @ Logger's Wife says
The only thing that really works well for me on stains is a spray bottle with 2 parts hydrogen peroxide, 1 part Dawn. Wet down the item, spray it on, rub it in a little, and let it sit over night. I then rinse and scrub a little bit. It is usually gone but if not, I do the process again. I've never had to do this more than twice. (visiting from Titus 2 Tuesday)
Julie says
I will have to try that. Thanks!
Caressa says
You have got to try peroxide for stains. It is magic! 🙂 Just pour a generous amount over the stain and let it sit and watch your stain wither away. And as a cloth diapering mama, the sun is my best friend for getting stains out completely without any hassle! Thanks for sharing via #amammasstory
Julie says
I will try that! Thanks