Late last year I tried laundry stripping for the first time and after seeing the nastiness it got out of our sheets & towels, I was hooked! It’s really simple to do (and honestly kind of addictive 🙈) so today I’m sharing the laundry stripping recipe and the step by step for getting the job done! (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})
What is Laundry Stripping?
While you might not be able to see it, over time your clothes and linens develop a build-up of residue from body oils, laundry detergent, and fabric softener. Laundry stripping is the deep cleaning process of stripping all of that residue away. The amount of nastiness that you can get out of your “clean” laundry through the laundry stripping process is both amazing and horrifying all at the same time 😂! It’s as simple as soaking your laundry for several hours and then throwing it in your washer and dryer – I’ll share the laundry stripping recipe along with the step by step of the laundry stripping process.
Laundry Stripping Recipe
The laundry strip recipe or formula is pretty simple. It’s a 1:1:2 ratio of Borax, washing soda, and powdered laundry detergent. For a standard bathtub that’s filled about ½ full with hot water, add:
How to Strip your Laundry Step by Step
1. Gather the Items You Want to Strip
Gather up the items that you want to strip – towels, sheets, and workout clothes are some of the most common items to strip but anything that’s machine washable in hot water is fair game! If it’s something that you’ve sweated in a lot or just worn or used the heck out of, chances are there’s a good bit of detergent build-up along with the build-up of oils and other human nastiness. You do laundry stripping on clean clothes (which makes it all the more crazy how much yuck you’ll see come out of them!).
I’m going to strip a set of sheets, some older towels that my sensitive nose thinks have a slight smell to them when wet, and my daughter’s duvet cover:
The duvet cover is a real test because my daughter is always kicking her top sheet off and using only her duvet. Over time it’s gotten discolored in spots and even bleach hasn’t been able to restore it to a whiter white.
Use common sense by sorting the laundry you’re stripping by color just like you would when using the washing machine. Since we’re using hot water, you obviously don’t want to put a red t-shirt in with your white sheets and you only want to strip non-delicate items that are ok to put in hot water.
2. Fill Your Tub
Fill your bathtub about ½ full (or only as full as you need to in order to fully submerge the items you’re stripping – I fill my large soaking tub about ⅓ full) with HOT water. If you have a large sink, you can also use that as long as you don’t have too many items (but beware that your sink will be out of commission for several hours!). You can also use a top-loading washing machine.
3. Add the Ingredients From the Laundry Stripping Recipe
Sprinkle the Borax, washing soda, and powdered detergent (plus the Calgon if you’re using it) into the tub using the laundry stripping recipe above. Stir the water to dissolve the powders and mix them together. Use gloves throughout the laundry stripping process for safety.
4. Submerge Your Laundry and Stir
Submerge your items in the water and stir them around the tub a bit. From this point out, you’ll want to come back every hour or so to stir (and become horrified at how gross the water is getting), allowing your items to soak for 5-6 hours. This is what my previously clean blue water looked like after an hour of soaking:
This is after three hours:
And this was at the end after 5 hours (I pulled the clothes back so you could see the nastiness in its full glory) – so gross!! And remember, this was CLEAN laundry!
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5. Remove Laundry & Wash
The last step is to drain your tub, squeeze excess water out of your laundry, and then run it through a wash cycle in your washing machine (don’t add any detergent). I then do an extra rinse cycle to make sure all of the gross stuff that was in the tub water is totally rinsed out of it.
Then throw everything in the dryer as usual and marvel at your super clean and white laundry!
So how did my batch of laundry look and smell after I stripped it? Everything definitely looked whiter – I could tell a noticeable difference especially with the set of sheets I washed. When my daughter comes home from college to visit, she’ll have a cleaner than clean bed to hop into:
Bedroom Sources: Pendant light | Bench | Duvet cover | Bed skirt | Blue fringe end pillows | White tassel pillows | Lumbar stripe pillow | Lamp | Grasscloth wallpaper (Powder Blue) | Headboard, nightstand, & art prints are no longer available
And my towels that had a funk to them passed my sensitive nose sniff test when wet. As far as my daughter’s duvet, it didn’t restore all of the discolored areas to the original super white white but it definitely whitened them up quite a bit which was a job even bleach hadn’t been able to do so I was happy with the results! If you guys try laundry stripping, let me know how it works out for you!
For any of you that are new around here, if you’re looking for more details or sources for anything in our bathroom, you can find those {here} in my master bathroom reveal post:
and you can get the details on our laundry room {here}:
And be sure to check out some of my other favorite cleaning posts:
How to Clean Your Washing Machine {here}
The Best Way to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances {here}
Shark vs. Dyson Cordless Vacuum Face-Off {here}
XO,
Rosemarie M Buchanan says
I stopped using any kind of fabric softener years ago, both liquid and dryer sheets. The ingredients are toxic and disgusting. I use only unscented detergent and dry my clothes outdoors on my clothesline, or on a wooden drying rack indoors, placing it right over the furnace floor duct (I have a heat pump). I did the laundry stripping thing with a couple of sets of sheets and had almost no yukky stuff coming out of them. I think it’s better to make healthier choices for our laundry than it is to have to strip our laundry. My towels are WAY more absorbent without all the toxic stuff from so-called fabric softeners, and I love the feeling of my clean sheets.
Rachel says
We have super-hard water here. I wonder if adding baking soda (as a water softener) or vinegar (to dissolve the hard water) would be a viable alternative to the Calgon.
Karen says
I was wondering.I don’t use powder laundry soap. Cani use the liquid soap instead?
Marina says
I would like to know if there’s a way to get out a funky smell on darks? My husband is a gym person and his dark shirts he leaves them sweat wet, over time, they have this funky smell even when I wash them and dry them.
Paulette says
Can you substitute baking soda for washing soda! I’m trying the stripping using baking soda.
Kris Jarrett says
Hi Paulette – Baking and washing soda are definitely different and you won’t have the same results with laundry stripping using baking soda. I have seen info on how you can turn baking soda into washing soda by heating it in the oven! I’ve never tried this but might be worth Googling for details!
Laundry Dude Keeping Wife Happy says
Okay I was kind of dubious about this, but was shocked at how well it went! I’ve been irritated by how my whites have become dingier and kind of gave up hope. Thank you for this post! I still don’t have Calgon, but will be getting some delivered quite soon.
Mary Jo says
Will this work on a down comforter?
Kris Jarrett says
I haven’t personally tried it on a down comforter so am not sure if it could damage the feathers or not. If you give it a try, definitely use lukewarm water instead of hot water because hot water isn’t recommended when washing down.
Kathy R says
Try adding a few drops of Bluing to the final rinse!!! It brightens whites so much, works well on light fabrics too. I use homemade laundry powder (fels naptha, borax, washing soda and purex ultra 2) and it is amazing how soft and fresh they come out of the laundry now. Mrs.Stewart’s Liquid Bluing i add to rinse and my white sheets and towels look like new! Never use fabric softener! Wool dryer balls in the dryer and a cup of white vinegar in the rinse water about once a month keeps everything soft, fluffy and very absorbent, unlike with waxy fabric softeners.
Tricia Lyons says
I wish this would let me post a picture! I followed your advice because my husbands T-Shirts because deodorant had been sticking in the pit area.
My mind is BLOWN!! Thank you for this post!!
Jen J says
Wow…just wow. I just did this per your directions and what I saw is disgusting. I wash my sheets every week and could not stand the smell of them, almost smelt like crayons. I decided to do this and boy am I ever thankful that I found your website. Can you tell me how often you recommend doing this? Thank you again!
R says
Hello! Thanks for this, I have been looking for a way to deal with work clothes. One question – I feel like we all need to acknowledge what we know about the damage that a lot of cleaning products do. It’s easier to pretend we don’t know and just carry on, but… we do know. Have you read Nancy Birtwhistle’s tips on thorough cleaning without environment damaging chemicals? She’s very good, and makes it feel very possible to do right by one another and still clean stuff well. Thanks!
Stacey says
Can this be done in a wash cycle of a washing machine? I live in a tiny house and don’t have a bathtub or washing machine, I have to go to the laundromat which for obvious reasons won’t let me soak my clothes for 5 hours.
Myra says
I make my own laundry soap using fels naphtha bar soap washing soda and borax. I never use fabric softer. I always wash on hot and always do a 15 min soak. So I’m thinking I should be good . I do know fabric softer does build up on fibers especially dryer sheets.
I have thought about boiling my kitchen towels and dish rags mainly because I abuse them. 🤔
Jeneanne Busche says
Thank you for posting this! I work so hard trying to get my dishrags fresh and clean! This really helped!
Paula Roper says
My husband’s towel has faded drastically and the fibers are all crusty even after being washed. I have tried vinegar and then baking soda in the wash but it didn’t fix the problem. We do not use fabric softener, so that cannot be it. I am also not sure why my towel doesn’t have the same problem. Any ideas?
Christine says
I totally agree! I soak my workout clothes, towels, and bedsheets that aren’t changed often enough with Borax and Washing Soda (no detergent) in my large laundry room sink before machine washing sometimes. It definitely gets the body odor/stains out of shirt armpits and sheets, the ground-in deodorant out of sports bras, the ring-around-the-collar from my hubby’s dress shirts, and the mildew out of towels (we live in the 6-9-months-of-wet Pacific NW). It does leach colors out a bit, though, so be careful. The discard water always is grey/yellowy-brown, and smells bad, so it’s obvious it’s doing good! Soak a minimum of 1 hour with occasional swishing, as mentioned, 2-4 is better.