Does anyone know of a good way to remove the odor of bleach from washed clothing? My husband is allergic to it (sweat and bleach don't mix very well), but some of his t-shirts needed to be bleached due to a faux pas on my part. Help. Any and all suggestions are welcomed.
By Marilyn J Ference from Orlando, FL
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Chlorine will dissipate in fresh air & also evaporate from water in a day or two... Just hang the clothes outside in the sunshine! They can also be rinsed in your machine's rinse water with half a cup of vinegar added. But the fresh air is best!
Here's a very good bleach alternative:
Add 1/2 cup of vinegar and a 1/2 cup of baking soda to your wash.
Your clothes will be brighter then ever, stains will disappear, and you will be doing your hubby a favor ;-)
Bad advice. Use either vinegar OR baking soda. When you mix them, the chemical reaction negates everything so you are left with neither vinegar nor baking soda, but water -- in which case, you've wasted money and done nothing beneficial for your clothes.
During a normal wash, I'll typically throw in some baking soda and boiling water in addition to the detergent. If I'm being serious about cleaning something, I'll do one cycle with vinegar and then a subsequent cycle with baking soda.
Im struggling with white clothes, machine made brown marks on whites. WHAT CAN I USE?
Yes, after washing as normal, in the last rinse, add something you can get from a pet/fish store. It takes chlorine out of water, really changes it to an amino acid, but it's really good at this.
Try Oxiclean and put the clothes on the soak cycle for a while. Baking soda also works well.
Put clothes that have been bleached back through for a second wash and rinse cycle with no soap or additives to get as much bleach residue out as possible. Also, the next time you need to get a stain out of his clothes, try using hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach. I am very sensitive to bleach and have been using it for several years now as a bleach substitute. Make sure you test the peroxide on a small place that doesn't show before using it. It can sometimes fade black, blue and dark green.
Thank you to all who responded to my problem! The only items I was trying to bleach were whites and ended up having to rewash them about four times (with oxi-clean and vinegar alternately) before the smell dissapated. I'm in Florida and we are now in our rainy season so drying outdoors is out of the question since we have (almost) daily downpours. I will keep in mind all of your suggestions and I repeat Thank You again. This is a great resource for many problems and I believe we are all grateful.
I love the look of the bleached flannel shirts and have made several. Of course it takes a strong bleach solution. I am very sensitive to bleach and can't get the smell out. I am unable to wear them...anyone else have this problem and have you found a solution?
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Here is something I discovered by accident. When washing items that require bleach, let them go through the wash cycle as usual. When you come to the rinse, be sure to put your softener in the water after it is full and let it swish around a few times, about a minute. Then turn the machine off and let it sit in the mixture for a few hours. Then turn on the machine to continue the cycle and dry as you would normally. I found that there was no bleach smell on the clothes, yet they smelled fresh.
By RoseMary
I wash them, then rewash them and use baking soda to remove the smell. (01/31/2005)
I only use bleach in my bed linen and towels and cannot stand the bleachy smell. What I have discovered that works for me is only putting a very small amount of it in the wash and putting 1&1/2 half cups of baking soda, with one third cup of borax in the wash. During the rinse cycle I will put in one cup of white vinegar. (08/19/2006)
By 1bigmama
