Laundry Stripping

Get ready to be grossed out.  In kind of a good way…

I’ve stripped almost everything textile in the house! And here to tell you how it went.

Here’s what you need:

• Clean Clothes
• Powdered Laundry Detergent 
• Borax
• Washing Soda 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a Soaker tub use

• 1 CUP – Powdered Laundry Detergent 
• 1/2 CUP Borax
• 1/2 CUP Washing Soda 

For Standard Bath or Laundry Tub

• 1/2 CUP – Powdered Laundry Detergent 
• 1/4 CUP Borax
• 1/4 CUP Washing Soda 

Steps & Tips:

• Fill tub with Hot tap water and add all detergents
• use back end of broom to stir it up
• submerge clothes – (I sorted them by colour.
• Soak for min 4 hours. Check and stir every hour
• After 4 hours, ring out the clothes and wash in washing machine NO SOAP.
• Stare at the disgusting water that’s left!

Observations

• Water turns grey almost immediately after clothes are submerged
• Your hands will feel very sticky after handling the clothes (even after washing them, for a few days)
• Dark clothes water seemed to get very black, perhaps from dye seeping out, however any dark clothing that had white trim or ties didn’t get ruined.
• Grimiest was jeans, leggings and cotton T-Shirts.
• 2nd grimiest was dish cloths, towels & oven mitts.
• There is a bit of a smell. (ya, it’s gross, not super bad, but we opened the windows)

Before/After Photos

The tubs started out like this each time:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 4 hours light towels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 4 hours of soaking Darks – Leggings, T-Shirts, Sweat Shirts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outcome

• softer clothes
• darks appear darker
• some whites appeared whiter
• didn’t remove stains
• clothes felt lighter
• less stiff when wearing (especially jeans)
• all laundry smelled SUPER fresh, even though no soap was used in the final wash.

Laundry stripping while technically time consuming, it will take you a few days to get through everything. However,  you really can just set it and forget it, stirring it up a few times throughout the process. You will have a giant mound of folding to do after.  I could see doing this once a year.

I’ll let you know next year if the water is less disgusting!

Jen