How to boil laundry for bleaching: traditional and modern methods of boiling things

Housewives noticed that over time, bed linen, clothes, and towels lose their former fresh appearance. The reason lies in the fact that the remnants of washing powders, dust, and protein contaminants penetrate deep into the fibers of the fabric and do not respond well to regular washing. Colored items become faded, white items acquire a gray-yellow tint. In this case, our grandmothers used boiling laundry to whiten, remove stubborn stains and disinfect.

The need for bleaching and disinfection of things

Boiling is a labor-intensive process. Therefore, not many modern women are ready to devote time and energy to him, when there are still so many worries around. Usually, when laundry gets dirty, they resort to modern powders and bleaches. But in some cases, even they are powerless against stubborn stains and tarnished fabric.

They resort to boiling laundry in the following cases:

If there are allergy sufferers in the family who cannot tolerate household chemicals.
Having a newborn child. Baby diapers and undershirts must be boiled. This helps protect the child from contact with infection that accumulates on the underwear.
If there are people in the house who are sick with fungus, scarlet fever, scabies and other contagious diseases, digestion is one of the most effective methods of disinfection.
Old stains that cannot be removed using household chemicals.
The presence of a gray tint of fabric on white items.

For any color

Colored and permanently dyed fabrics are boiled for no longer than 30 minutes. This way you can get rid of sweat and grease stains. Chlorine bleaches are prohibited.

Boil colored items if you are ready to wear them after they are clean but have lost some of their brightness.

Laundry soap with soda

Grate the soap bar. Mix 50 g of chips with 5 tbsp. l. baking soda. Pour water over everything and stir until dissolved. Now place the item in the pan and heat it up. Don't forget to stir.

Salt with water

Sometimes just salt is enough. Per pan - 1 cup of product. Soda ash in the same amount will help enhance the effect of the granules.

General rules for digestion

In order not to spoil the laundry during boiling and to achieve the desired effect, you need to adhere to some rules and a certain sequence.

Learn about the rules and features of caring for anthurium at home.
Instructions for using Calgon for washing machines are described on this page.

Recommendations:

First, the solution is prepared. The selected product must be completely dissolved in water before placing the laundry there.
Sort things out. Separate white from colored and dark. You also need to boil products made from different types of fabric separately.
Things are completely immersed in the container. The solution must be initially warm. After boiling, the heat must be reduced. Be sure to stir the products during boiling to achieve maximum effect.
Boil the laundry for a certain amount of time, focusing on the degree of contamination. The time can vary from half an hour to 2 hours.
After turning off the fire, leave the products in the container to cool.
Rinse thoroughly in cool water. It is better to dry clothes in the fresh air.

READ ALSO: How to wash and bleach tulle at home quickly without damaging delicate fabric

How to properly boil things in a saucepan at home

How to properly carry out the boiling procedure:

Do not move away from the pan if you are covering it with a lid to allow it to boil quickly.
Turn on medium heat.
Pour water to about 2/3 of the container.
The water should completely cover the item; do not boil many items at once.
Be sure to stir the laundry with tongs so that it does not stick to the bottom and does not burn.
It is clear from the water when to complete the procedure. It should become noticeably cloudy.
Boil only white, do not boil things of different shades, even light ones, at the same time.

Advice If you really need to boil and bleach a product with decorative buttons, then peel off the elements before the procedure, and after drying, carefully sew them again.

Solutions for white and colored fabrics

First you need to prepare the necessary equipment and prepare a suitable solution.

For the procedure you will need:

Large basin or brew. It is better to choose a galvanized or enameled container that is rust-free.
Tongs for stirring laundry. You can buy special wooden tongs at a hardware store.

If you plan to boil white products, you can use several detergent compositions (per 10 liters of water):

Powder with bleach - add 100 g to the container.
Pour 0.5 liters of bleach with chlorine (Whiteness) into a basin of water. Add 0.5 kg of salt. This composition not only washes laundry, but also restores its shine.
Powder with potassium permanganate is effective for disinfecting linen. For 10 liters of water you need 100 g of powder and a couple of crystals of potassium permanganate.
Powder and hydrogen peroxide help get rid of coffee and berry stains. You need 200 g of powder and 100 ml of peroxide.
Baking soda and peroxide are used to get rid of gray tints and sweat stains from T-shirts. 100 g of soda and 100 ml of peroxide are diluted in water.
Pour 4 tablespoons of ammonia and the same amount of peroxide into the container.

READ ALSO: How to return the whiteness to lace and whiten a bra at home: effective ways to remove yellowness from underwear

For colored fabrics:

Dissolve 4 tablespoons of soda and 40 g of laundry soap in water. It is advisable to first soak the laundry in the solution for a while, only then boil it.
Pour a glass of baking soda and salt into a container of water. Boil only pre-washed laundry in this solution.

Whitening white bed linen in a machine

Over time, due to hard water containing a significant amount of salts, the laundry takes on an untidy grayish or yellowish tint. In addition, the fabric loses its attractiveness due to improper storage. Leaving the product in a damp room for a long time or drying the bedding in the sun for too long will result in damage to the material. Washing such large items is not easy; the most convenient way is to bleach the laundry in an automatic washing machine.

No boiling

Just a couple of decades ago, boiling was considered the only method of bleaching. This is a labor-intensive, lengthy, rather dangerous process that significantly reduces the service life of the laundry. Nowadays, a combination of innovative products and special washing modes allows things to be restored to their original purity. How to bleach white linen in an automatic washing machine:

choose the right product; pre-soak the product; pay attention to the washing mode and temperature; dry the product properly.

To clean a sheet or duvet cover automatically, proper selection of household chemicals is key. The use of optical brightener shows good results. It is suitable for creating a visual glow effect, but does not have a real brightening effect. In addition, such products are not able to remove intense stains. Optical brightener is worth purchasing for items that have lost their shine due to long-term storage. Oxygen formulations are suitable for delicate and intensive cleansing. They are used for any type of fabric, but are expensive.

It is strictly forbidden to use chlorine-containing bleaches to clean the machine. Products such as Whiteness can negatively affect the operation of equipment. In addition, regular use of chlorine causes thinning and yellowing of bedding. Whiteness should only be used when necessary, for example for disinfection.

If there is intense dirt or a pronounced gray color, you should first soak the laundry in warm water. Soaking time can range from 2 to 12 hours depending on the product used and the desired result. You can add ready-made bleach, soda, hydrogen peroxide, and citric acid to the water. On severe stains, it is additionally allowed to apply a stain remover. Soaking should not be neglected even if there is an unpleasant odor: prolonged exposure to water helps to get rid of mustiness.

The washing mode is selected depending on the type of material from which the laundry is made. The best results are achieved by high-temperature programs that involve intense movement of the machine drum. However, modes such as “cotton”, “bed linen”, “linen” are suitable only for natural fabrics that are not subject to shrinkage and shedding. To care for synthetic fabric or silk, it is better to choose a medium temperature and set a long wash cycle. In addition, the number of revolutions per minute should be minimized.

At the end of the procedure, the laundry should be hung out in the open air or in a clothes dryer. It is not recommended to place products in a humid room, near artificial heat sources, or keep them in the sun for a long time. In summer, it is best to do laundry in warm, clear weather in the early morning or before sunset. It is recommended to ensure that the laundry does not become damp or wet in the rain or snow.

Boiling methods

There are several ways to boil laundry. They are similar to each other with minor differences.

Method 1:

Pour ½ water into the prepared dishes.
Add the prepared detergent there.
Place a light towel or rag on the bottom.
Place the neatly straightened laundry down. The water should completely cover it.
You can’t compact things, otherwise they will boil unevenly.
Bring water to a boil.
Leave the laundry to boil over low heat, stirring it with tongs from time to time.
After the required boiling time has passed, turn off the stove and leave to cool.
Rinse the laundry.

The method described below is suitable for those who do not have enough time for long-term digestion:

Bring the water in the boiler to a boil (5-6 l).
Add 2 tablespoons of powder, bleach and vegetable oil.
Place laundry in boiling water for 2 minutes.
Turn off the stove and let the water cool.
Place items in the washing machine to rinse and spin.

What will you need?

Of course, if your washing machine has “Boiling” among the modes, then you don’t need to think about tools.

But in order to boil the laundry manually, you will need:

Large capacity. This could be a pan, bucket or basin. The container must hold at least 8-10 liters of water. Its volume depends on the size and number of things that need to be boiled. If you choose a basin, it is worth remembering the temperature limits that it can withstand. There should be no rust on the pan or bucket; it is better if the container is enameled. There are also boils that are designed specifically for boiling.
Tongs or a long stick. They must be wooden, and in no case iron, otherwise traces of rust may remain on the linen. With the help of tongs it is convenient to remove clothes and stir them during the process for even cooking.
Detergents. There are a huge variety of them; you can use both professional and folk methods. The first includes all kinds of bleaches and powders, the second includes acids, lemon juice, baking soda, peroxide, and laundry soap.

Boiling baby clothes

This procedure for children's things is very useful because it helps to disinfect them. In addition, washing powders are quite aggressive for children's skin, especially if the child is allergic. When digesting, you should completely avoid chlorine-containing products and chemical bleaches.

For newborns, only special detergents can be used. They do not contain aggressive components. This is baby powder, laundry soap. For bleaching, you can add baking soda to the water.

Children's underwear should be boiled separately from other things. If the purpose of boiling is disinfection, then 15-20 minutes is enough for the procedure. Removing diaper stains can take up to 2 hours.

Find out more useful information about how and with what to boil laundry after watching the following video:

Recommendations for implementation

During boiling, many housewives strive to ensure that at the end of this event the item is in perfect condition, while the structure of the fabric of the item is not damaged. Experienced housewives tell you how to achieve this in their recommendations.

Before immersing the item in a bucket or bowl of water, it is necessary to pre-wash it or simply soak it for several hours.

Linen needs to be sorted. White, blue, as well as dark and red wardrobe items should be placed in separate piles. It is also advisable to separate linen and cotton underwear.

The detergent must be stirred until completely dissolved. When this is done, the things prepared for boiling should be immersed in the container. At this moment, the temperature of the water in the bucket should be warm. Otherwise, the stains will simply “cook away.”

Things placed in the pan should not be cramped. It is best to load two or three sheets into a vessel that has a capacity of 10 liters, or place one and a half sets of bed linen there.

Linen that is planned to be boiled on the stove must be kept on fire in a bucket or basin for 40 minutes. If soaking was not carried out, then the duration of this procedure will be 2 hours. Digestion will take noticeably less time if washing powder is used.

A very convenient way is to spin clothes in the washing machine in the rinse mode after completing the event.

Facilities

Regular powders are not suitable, so a special mixture is prepared. Most often, one of 3 solutions is used:

to 1 liter of water add half a glass of grated laundry soap and a quarter glass of soda (baking or soda ash);
for 6 liters of water, 2 heaped tablespoons of oxygen bleach are enough;
a less gentle method - for 5 liters of water take 200 grams of chlorine and washing powder (used for white from durable fabrics);