Have you ever wondered how to deep clean laundry? It’s 2020, after-all. Everything needs to be cleaned and cleaned again.
Deep cleaning laundry is also known as laundry stripping.
I first learned of this on my new obsession, the GoCleanCo Instagram account. If you don’t follow them yet, go do it! You too will become obsessed with her deep cleaning methods!
(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you).
This post is all about how to deep clean laundry!
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What is deep cleaning laundry anyway? Good question. I had no idea it was even a thing before I started following this account.
Shouldn’t our washing machine be doing all the cleaning we need? You’d think the answer would be yes, in theory, right? But, I have eyeballs and I know that my washing machine does not do a great job of getting my kids 1800 stains out of their clothing.
I digress.
Anyway, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good at doing laundry. I don’t sort anything and I rarely pretreat. I basically don’t change any settings.
So, I was intrigued by laundry stripping and how it might help me improve the look of my sheets and towels after years of mistreatment.
I saw some videos and pics online and even people that are good at doing laundry were getting dark water from the stains and gunk coming out of their clothes. So that’s good! And gross.
So, how is it better than the regular wash?
Basically, it goes the extra mile. The stripping method gets out all the buildup of the crap from your washing machine and also from our own grossness.
This includes: hard water, laundry detergent and fabric softener, body oils, dirt, and bacteria. (This is straight from the genius at Go Clean Co company.)
Seriously though, I feel like my washing machine doesn’t do much good! Also, it’s currently broken.
Tangent time: We’ve lived in our current home for 6.5 years now and are on our second washing machine already, which is broke as of last night. The first one was a top loader without an agitator which got recalled by the company for exploding lids- yikes.
The second one, our current broken one, is a front loader. It smells most of the time (like everyone warns you about) and it doesn’t clean well. Neither did the top loader for that matter.
Lord knows I need as much help with laundry as a machine can give so I’m ready to switch back to the old school top loader with agitator. (On advice from the Go Clean Co cleaning master.)
Laundry Stripping Recipe
First, gather the ingredients listed below.
You’ll then want to fill the bathtub up with HOT water, add your laundry, add the ingredients below, and stir every hour for about 4-6 hours.
The final step is to run the freshly stripped laundry through a normal wash cycle with no soap and then dry the stuff.
You will need the following 4 cleaning items:
1 Big Scoop Tide Powdered Laundry Detergent. The original.
1/4 Cup Each of the Following:
Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
Ok, a couple notes here:
I linked all of the above products for you so you can see exactly what to order. For me, I only ended up ordering the Arm and Hammer online.
I already had Tide ( although the Amazon price seems fine here) I found the Borax cheaper at my local Target than it was on Amazon. Amazon was also more expensive for the Calgon. But, I would have had to make a special trip to Walmart for the Calgon. Luckily, the Go Clean Co lady says that Calgon is not absolutely needed and ain’t nobody got time for a special trip to Walmart.
But if you are a straight up rule follower with no extra time, go ahead and order everything through Amazon. It just may not be the cheapest you can get.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
Laundry Stripping Process
I decided to try this first with my cream colored sheets and white robe.
Note, I fully expected this to produce big results because 1.) I wear my robe daily and 2.) I’m a big night sweater.
You’re welcome for those visuals.
So, I filled my kids bathtub with the hottest our water would go, added in the ingredients (sans Calgon), stirred it up every hour, and awaited the glorious promised results.
Laundry Stripping Results
The water was definitely really cloudy. But, not as black as I was expecting. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing? Lol.
As mentioned above, our washing machine broke last night. I know great timing to do the laundry stripping but, you do what you can with your time, ya know.
Like I said, beggars can’t be choosers and I’m not exactly swimming in free days for laundry experiments.
So anyway, the final step of this process is to run the freshly stripped laundry through a normal cycle with no detergent. (Since they just soaked in soap for 6 hours) and then dry them.
Since, I can’t currently do that, I’ve drained the dirty water, rinsed as best I could, and will throw them in the dryer later.
How To Deep Clean Laundry Conclusion
Overall, I think the sheets smell fresh and this wasn’t hard to do. With the help of my fingernail, I even got some sticky gum mark off of one of the pillow cases. You can thank my 9 year old for that one.
Will I do this often? Doubtful. I’d say this is maybe a twice a year thing for sheets and towels. Unless we go full Coronavirus lock down mode again, I don’t see having enough time or desire to deep clean our sheets on a regular basis.
But, I know a lot of people like to do this with their workout clothes too, which seems like a good idea and easier to do. You could probably do it in the sink.
Well, that’s it! If you try it, tag @LinleyDianeBlog on Instagram so we can see how it goes for you!
This post was all about how to deep clean laundry!
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