How I Strip My Laundry of Build-Up

Is a cleaning series in the future of this blog? Not too long ago, I shared how I deep clean my dishwasher and now I’m blogging about how I do laundry stripping? Go Clean Co and TikTok cleaning videos have clearly really taken over my brain space, and with still being in quarantine, what else am I going to do other than strip every single couch cushions, towel, and sheet in my home???

I have a lot of white sheets and towels in my house and have always added OxiClean to the laundry cycle to try and keep the whites brighter. But it turns out, that a build up of laundry soaps and detergents can build up and hold onto dirt and keep your towels from being as absorbent! Through the Instagram page GoCleanCo, and various cleaning TikToks during quarantine, I’ve learned about “laundry stripping” using detergent, baking soda, oxi-clean and borax to remove build up from linens.

You can see the video I made where I stripped our couch cushions here!:

@saraannsuttonMaking forbidden tea with laundry stripping ☕️♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod

Now that I have attempted in about 5 times on various items, and I see how satisfying the cleaning is, I wanted to share with y’all how to do it! I let my laundry strip in our bathtub for about 5 hours generally, but you could do it for probably up to 8!

Here’s what you will need:

• Arm & Hammer washing soda (Or you could just use regular baking soda)
• Oxi-Clean
• Borax
• Detergent (Personally I think Tide is superior, and I tend to go for the Free & Clear one to avoid dyes and perfumes)
• A large spoon (or something to stir the laundry with)
• Large bucket
• Tub
• White vinegar

Since I mostly strip light colored items, I use hot water. I would caution you in attempting to strip dark or colorful fabrics, as their colors could bleed and might not be as vibrant once you’re done!

Fill up the tub with hot water and add a full cap of detergent, a scoop of Oxi-Clean, about 1/4 cup of Borax, and about 1/4 cup of washing soda. I use a big spoon (that will never be used for eating or cooking ever again haha) to stir everything up, and then I throw in all of my laundry that I want to strip.

(P.S. I’m mortified sharing this) This was after about 5 minutes of stripping our couch cushions:

And this is after about 5 hours:

Here’s about 5 minutes of stripping our white sheets and towels……

And here is about 5 hours….. (ew)

I normally drain the water out and then squeeze each item out of water as much as I can before I throw it in the bucket to take to the washing machine, but for the purposes of blogging, I took all of the laundry out and left the water so you could see how much dirt, grime, and nasty was left behind…. gorgeous right?!

So, once you get the now-stripped laundry to the bucket, I take it to my washing machine and wash it on a hot cycle, and add detergent to the laundry and about 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser.

I’ve recently been adding vinegar to all of my laundry cycles to help deodorize my laundry. I think it even makes my laundry a little softer!

For the couch cushions, I let them air dry (because the care instructions recommend against putting them in the dryer), but the towels I put in the dryer like normal.

P.S. if you don’t have a tub or if you just don’t want to use it, you could alternatively do this in the washing machine if you have a top loader– have it fill with hot water on a deep rinse cycle– add all of the ingredients and then throw your laundry in and then pause the washer so it does not drain. Then let the laundry sit for a few hours then unpause, let it spin, and then wash the laundry like normal. I’ve just never done it this way because I normally strip SO much laundry at once that it wouldn’t all fit in my washer! But it would be super convenient since you wouldn’t have to move the laundry from the tub to the washer!

Enjoy your now EXTRA clean laundry!!!

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