Yahoo News Mum shares 'magic' cleaning hack to get grubby socks looking brand new again
White socks can often become stained and turn a disagreeable grey colour, but there's an easy method to restore them to their former glory.
Karen Lee, an expert at natural household solutions, shared that her children usually come back from sports with discoloured socks, and cleaning them seemed like an impossible task. She confessed: "Since I no longer use bleach, I had to figure out how on earth I was going to wash these."
Bleach might seem like the go-to solution for whitening socks, yet it can harm the fabric and give socks a yellow hue, resulting in a dingy look. Instead, Karen revealed that she came up with a homemade natural concoction that can effectively get rid of sock stains without resorting to bleach.
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How to whiten and clean dirty socks
You will need:
One tablespoon of liquid laundry detergent
One tablespoon of washing soda (also called soda crystals)
One tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide
Lemon juice
A washing basin or bucket
Method:
All you need to do is first shake off as much dirt from the socks as you can and place the socks in cold water to wash away as much of the dirt as possible.
Pour around a gallon of lukewarm water into a bucket or basin and add all the ingredients, making sure the powdered ingredients are completely dissolved.
Add the socks to the solution and make sure they are submerged in the water, then leave the socks to soak overnight or longer.
Karen said: “I left these socks for two days (I forgot about them.) Hydrogen peroxide works with time so the longer it has to work on the stain, the better.”
Hydrogen peroxide is a natural cleaning product often found in mouthwashes and tooth whitening products as it is a mild bleaching agent that can break down stains.
Soda crystals, also known as washing soda, are strongly alkaline which means it helps break down acidic stains such as sweat or dirt while also boosting the performance of regular laundry detergent.
After the socks are done soaking, make sure to hang them outside on a sunny day as the lemon juice bleaching is enhanced by sunlight.
Karen said: “Something about lemon and sunshine - they are a great duo for whitening laundry.”
Once the socks are dried they will be white, bright and clean once again, but this simple laundry solution can also help whiten other laundry such as towels.
Karen said: “I am also going to use this method for my dingy white towels. I will have to tweak the formula a bit to be able to use for a large load but you get the idea for the ingredients.
“If you don't want to use bleach, hydrogen peroxide is your go-to whitener. Just be careful when you are handling it as it will whiten your dark clothes.”
