What is the best way to bleach all-white work shirts?
October 2nd, 2009
jbrbbt asked:
I work at a grocery store that requires me to wear standard button down white shirts but they have gotten so dirty and stained that I have to get them fixed or buy new shirts. Trying to find out what is the best way to bleach these shirts enough that I can make them look as new as possible. Please help.
JULIET
I work at a grocery store that requires me to wear standard button down white shirts but they have gotten so dirty and stained that I have to get them fixed or buy new shirts. Trying to find out what is the best way to bleach these shirts enough that I can make them look as new as possible. Please help.
JULIET
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use your washing machines whitest white cycle if it has one - if not - follow the directions on the bleach bottle for soaking. you can’t make it too strong or the bleach will eat away the material. i would hang them in the sun to dry instead of the dryer. the sun is natures whitener.
Take each stain and cover with liquid Tide or make a paste with powder Tide and water. Let it sit for about half an hour. Then fill your washer with warm water (if the shirts can take being washed in warm) add your Tide, and chlorine bleach, let it mix for a few minutes. Stop the washer, and add your shirts, let it sit for about five minutes, then re-start the washer, then wash as usual. Check the shirts, if not looking good, then re-wash, once they are clean enough, then dry the shirts.
If you have a front loading washing machine, there is a stain cycle, and a bleach area where you add the detergent. Just follow the machine directions, no need to start and stop the washer.
It depends ENTIRELY on the fiber content of the shirts.
If they are a poly blend you should not use chlorine bleach (Clorox, Hilex) - it will make them permanently gray.
Poly blend: use max recommended amount (or a little more) of an oxygen bleach, hot water. (Oxygen bleach is any of the color-safe bleaches - check ingredients, make sure chlor isn’t part of any word in them.) Soak first but make sure they stay fully submerged in the water the whole time. Use a little bit more detergent than the recommended max.
100% cotton: as above but use chlorine bleach - recommended amount. (For a top loader that’s usually 1 cup.)
Either (I cannot be responsible for this but I would try it on my own clothes): wet them in a strong lemon juice/water solution - the bottled kind will be easier and cheaper and, I think, OK. Hang them or lay them in strong sunshine making sure the sun can reach all parts of the shirt. Then wash well.
Hydrogen Peroxide. Just mix 1 cup with a load of whites in the warmest water possible.. It works great!
I would get some nappy (diaper) soaker like Napisan or whatever brand is on special and foolow the instructions…Usually you just fill tub/bucket with HOT water and add soaker powder or liquid,. then stirr and add items to be soaked…leave overnight then wash next day as normal…