Cleaning Up: Tip for brightening whites with a clothes line
Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts
Posted - Jul 30 2008 : 12:58:04 PM
We all know that lemon juice and sunlight are great for brightening whites. What if you are like me and haven't had a clothes line for so long that all your whites are rather dingy looking? What you will need: Washing Machine or large wash basin and lots of arm muscles! Clothes line on a sunny day 10 gallon bucket *optional for multiple loads* 1 Quart lemon juice per load or if using the optional instructions, you will only need one quart.
Go to the grocery store and buy a quart of the concentrated lemon juice. It'll cost around $2. Wash your whites as you normally would do. Let it go all the way through it's cycle. Then set your washer to rinse only. *Optional instructions for more than one load* Get your bucket and carefully pull your washer drain hose from it's resting place- usually it is behind the washer in the wall. Put the drain pipe in the bucket. When the washer drains, you will have lemon juice water. Just pour this water back into the machine when you are ready to juice your next load! Let it drain down the drain pipe after your last load of the day- don't keep around or it could mold in a couple of days.
As the water fills the machine, pour in the whole lemon juice container. Let it run through it's rinse cycle and spin. If your washer adds extra water in the rinse cycle as it spins, stop the washer before it gets to this point in the cycle or it will wash away some of the lemon juice. Hang clothes out to dry in the sun. The residual lemon juice will activate with the sun to brighten dingy whites!
Alee: I do believe you are one of the busy persons I know. Gee weez! I wish I had half of your energy. Somebody would have to help me do all that clothes line stuff! LOL I sure enjoy readying your post. Marly
Alee--this is excellent! We've just switched to line drying. Your towel post is super-helpful also--I'll try both. Thanks for posting!
Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts
Posted - Jul 30 2008 : 8:56:48 PM
Thanks Marly and Karin! Sometimes these things just occur to me and I think- How come no one ever told me this? And then I realize that maybe someone either hadn't thought of doing it that way- or they assumed everyone did it that way! LOL
Tip for brightening whites with a clothes line
Posted - Jul 30 2008 : 12:58:04 PM
