White laundry should shine. Even in grandma’s day, there were clever tricks and household remedies for removing gray stains and whitening yellowed laundry. The advantage of these is that they are not only effective, but also gentle on the laundry and the environment.
Make your laundry white again with these household remedies
Gray haze usually occurs when the detergent dosage was too low or too old (yes, even detergent enzymes lose their strength over time). Instead of pulling the dirt out of the white laundry and binding it in the detergent solution, the water penetrates the textile fabric with tiny dirt particles that become trapped in the fibers.
Sometimes the gray haze only emerges after the laundry has been in the cupboard for a while and the optical brighteners in the detergent have decomposed. The good news is that in both cases, the gray haze can be removed and the laundry shines white again.
Stain remover, laundry whitening cloths and chemical stain removers are not necessary. In most cases, old household remedies from grandma’s time are sufficient. Home remedies such as soda, baking soda, vinegar or sunlight remove the gray haze, are long-lasting and gentle on the fabric.
Remove gray haze with sunlight
In the past, white laundry was spread out on the lawn to dry. The UV light from the sun breaks down the color pigments and brings back the original whiteness of the laundry.
Tip: In rare cases, white laundry may turn yellow when drying in the sun. To avoid this, you should pay close attention to the washing powder dosage instructions when washing and avoid using liquid detergent or fabric softener.
Remove gray haze with vinegar
Vinegar is well known as a limescale remover. However, the fact that vinegar is an organic acid and therefore also very good at dissolving dirt particles from organic compounds has been unjustly forgotten.
Place the yellowed laundry in a mixture of white vinegar and water for a few hours and then wash it as normal with detergent.
Tip: Vinegar works best in hot water. However, you should make sure that the clothing can withstand high temperatures. This is often not the case with synthetic textiles.
Remove gray stains with baking soda
Add a sachet of baking soda to your laundry detergent and the stuck-on gray haze is a thing of the past. The reason for this is the mixture of sodium hydrogen carbonate (better known as baking soda) and solid acid in the baking powder. In hot water, this mixture reacts to form an alkaline solution and CO₂ – an excellent mix against dirt.
Tip: You can also pre-treat stubborn stains with baking soda: Slightly moisten the baking soda and work it into the stain. Then pour boiling water over it.
Removing gray stains with soda
Soda (more precisely: pure soda or washing soda) used to be found in almost every household. Soda forms alkaline hydroxide ions in an aqueous solution – a so-called potassium hydroxide solution. This is highly effective against stains, sweat residues, persistent odors and gray haze.
Tip: Unfortunately, the use of soda is not entirely harmless. You should therefore wear household gloves and ventilate the room well.
Does salt help against gray haze?
You often hear the tip to add a little salt to the detergent compartment. However, it remains largely unclear what function the salt is supposed to perform during the washing process: saline solutions are pH-neutral and hardly ever undergo chemical reactions; if the salt does not dissolve, there would be a risk of residues in the laundry. Nevertheless, many people swear by the trick – maybe you just have to try it yourself?
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Washing white laundry properly
The easiest way to prevent gray stains is to prevent them from forming in the first place. You should therefore follow a few tips to prevent white laundry from turning yellow:
- Sort: Always wash whites and colored laundry strictly separately. If the white laundry has a colored pattern, it belongs to the colored laundry. Heavily soiled items are also treated separately.
- Cold soak: It is best to soak dirty laundry while the stain is still fresh. Use cold water first, as some types of stains curdle and set at high temperatures. If you know the origin of the stain, you can of course also use hot water for soaking.
- Use heavy-duty detergent powder: Good heavy-duty detergent powder washes white laundry particularly clean with its mixture of surfactants, enzymes, bleach and optical brighteners. In no test could liquid detergents and gel pads even come close to achieving this effect. According to Stiftung Warentest, the key to clean whites – even when treating gray haze – lies primarily in the heavy-duty detergent powder used.
- Dosing: In addition to the detergent, the correct dosage is also important. Too little detergent promotes gray haze; too much detergent leaves residues and harms the environment.
- Increase the temperature if necessary: Even though many detergents achieve good results at 30 °C, bleaching agents work better at 60 °C against gray haze and stains. Of course, you should not wash delicate fabrics at such a high temperature.
Modern detergents and stain removers have made laundry washing easier in many respects. However, the old household remedies also produce good results, especially for light stains or gray haze. White laundry is not only visually brightened, but is also really clean down to the pores.
Sources: test, oekotest
