How to whiten a white t-shirt that has turned gray? In the winter under a sweater or shirt, in the summer without anything, with jeans, most of us often wear white t-shirts. The problem is that after repeated washings or under the effect of perspiration and deodorant, a t-shirt tends to become gray, and to yellow under the arms. Discover 20 effective tips to get a bright white shirt back.
20 tips to whiten your t-shirt
A white shirt can be returned to its original whiteness by hand or machine washing.
Bleaching your t-shirt in the machine
1 – Lemon
Thanks to the citric acid it contains, lemons are very effective in restoring the whiteness of white T-shirts that have turned grey or yellow.
Whiten the T-shirt that has lost its shine by adding the juice of a lemon to the laundry tub.
2 – Sodium crystals
Soda crystals or soda ash or sodium carbonate or soda crystals or crystallized soda is a natural product, derived from sea salt and chalk, which has the same uses as baking soda but more powerful.
This forgotten product, which is rightly making a comeback, whitens white laundry, makes it brighter and dissolves stains and dirt.
Add 1/2 cup (125 mL) of baking soda to each wash to keep T-shirts looking white.
3 – Oxygenated water
Wash the shirts at 95°c, on the long program, adding hydrogen peroxide in the tub.
4 – Yeast
Yeast is inevitably associated with baking bread and cakes. But our grandmothers used the same yeast to brighten up gray clothes.
Restore your shirts to their original whiteness by adding a packet of baking powder to your washing powder.
5 – Sorrel salt
A crystalline, odorless and colorless powder, sorrel salt, known as oxalic acid, restores whiteness to fabrics that are turning gray.
Pour a tablespoon of sorrel salt into the laundry tub of the washing machine.
Hand-bleaching of laundry and clothes
7 – Sodium bicarbonate
Alkaline salt, soluble in water, baking soda is a fine, white powder, practically odorless.
Baking soda is a whitener that has the power to remove bad odors.
Soak the gray T-shirt in a bowl of warm water mixed with 2 glasses of sodium bicarbonate.
8 – Boiling water and cut lemon
In a pot filled with water and a sliced lemon, boil your white shirts.
9 – Boiling water, bicarbonate and lemon juice
Soak the white T-shirt in boiling water with the contents of a glass of bicarbonate and the juice of a lemon. Rinse thoroughly.
10 – Boiling water, bicarbonate and dishwasher detergent
Add a dose of dishwasher detergent to boiling water, the contents of a glass of bicarbonate and leave your T-shirt to soak for at least an hour.
11 – Oxygenated water
Hydrogen peroxide not only bleaches the laundry but also disinfects it.
It is a liquid thicker than water, rather odorous but colorless that we use that very diluted which has an impressive power of discoloration.
It is thus the perfect product to bleach a t-shirt become grayish.
During ¼ of hour plunge your t-shirt in a bowl filled with hot water added with hydrogen peroxide.
12 – Milk and Marseille soap
A milk bath, this very old method, can whiten T-shirts but only really works if the fabric is slightly grey or yellowed.
It consists of soaking the fabric in whole milk, if possible hot, with a little Marseille soap added.
The result will probably be more visible if you add baking soda to the milk.
Soak them for one hour in milk.
You can use fresh whole milk or powdered milk diluted in water.
13 – Dishwasher detergent
Dishwasher detergent containing very strong bleaching agents is very effective for bleaching yellowed or graying t-shirts.
Soak the shirt in hot water with a dose of dishwasher detergent for at least one hour.
Rinse generously.
14 – Sodium Percarbonate
This white powder, composed of both sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, nicknamed “solid hydrogen peroxide”, restores the shine to gray or yellowing white laundry.
To bleach a T-shirt, soak it for at least 2 hours in hot water and percarbonate (1 measuring spoon for 5 L of hot water).
Whiten your laundry with a natural method
15 – Sun
xposing your laundry and clothes to the sun outside is a natural method of bleaching and saving energy.
But be careful, do not expose a synthetic shirt to the sun. This exposure is only suitable for a shirt made of natural material like cotton and perfectly detached.
Whiten the underarms of the T-shirt If the deodorant has left a yellow deposit
16 – Iron
If the deodorant has formed a kind of crust. Apply absorbent paper to the armhole and then run a hot iron over it. Normally, the paper will absorb everything.
Then, if a trace remains, clean it by following these tips:
17- 70° alcohol
Dab the stains left by the deodorant with a cloth soaked in 70° alcohol.
Rub gently.
Wash normally.
18 – Ammonia
Remove yellow sweat stains from the T-shirt by dabbing them with a cloth soaked in water mixed with slightly diluted ammonia.
Rinse and wash.
CAUTION
Ammonia is undoubtedly the best stain remover for sweat and deodorant stains, but it is also a product that must be used with care, in a very ventilated room, avoiding breathing it and with hands protected by household gloves.
If the sweat has yellowed the underarms of the T-shirt
All the solutions that we give to bleach the T-shirt can be effective, but these 2 methods are more effective.
19 – Bicarbonate and lemon
This solution has the double benefit of cleaning the sweat stain while getting rid of the sweat smell.
Rub the stains with bicarbonate moistened with lemon.
Then immerse the shirt in the sink or a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes.
20 – Lye, starch, salt, lemon juice
Spread an equal mixture of lye, powdered starch, fine salt and lemon juice on the armholes.
Rub gently.
Soak the shirt in a basin of hot water for 20 minutes as soon as possible.
