Just to add to the answers here, remember to strip your towels once a year. That funky smell when they’re dry may be your delicious human oils penetrating deep and impregnating the fibers. Sebum rots and goes rancid, producing that musty closet smell.
“Laundry stripping is a soaking process where you’re removing the built-up residue: excess laundry detergent, fabric softener, body oils, hard-water minerals… It’s something you do on towels that are already clean, not dirty.”
“Fill a bathtub with hot water and add a quarter-cup of borax, a quarter-cup of washing soda (a.k.a. sodium carbonate) and a half-cup of detergent. Soak clean towels until the water cools (at least an hour), stirring occasionally. Then run the linens through the rinse cycle in your washing machine and dry them. Make sure to do this separately for lights and darks.”
“Add an optional one to two small boxes of baking soda (especially if you have hard water) to soften and deodorize fabrics. You can also add more borax — up to a cup — if the laundry is moldy or musty.”
I’d generally heard ‘laundry stripping’ used to refer to a vinegar soak/rinse, followed by a baking soda cycle to further neutralize. The idea being laundry soap/detergent is basic and some things build up and don’t dissolve. Added borax was an alternative ‘laundry booster’ that made this unnecessary, as I’d heard it.
But, it sounds like there’s some variability to how the terms are used and for some a borax rinse is a stripping process. Understandable, as the end result is pretty much the same.
3/4 c Stain Solver per load for the most cost effective solution. Has the most borax percent by weight. We order the 50lb tub and it lasts months. I’m not a shill, I promise! If we don’t use it for every load, our hard Colorado River water makes the laundry smell like ass.
Just to add to the answers here, remember to strip your towels once a year. That funky smell when they’re dry may be your delicious human oils penetrating deep and impregnating the fibers. Sebum rots and goes rancid, producing that musty closet smell.
What does ‘strip’ mean in this context? (not a native speaker)
I’m a native speaker and I don’t know either.
“Laundry stripping is a soaking process where you’re removing the built-up residue: excess laundry detergent, fabric softener, body oils, hard-water minerals… It’s something you do on towels that are already clean, not dirty.”
“Fill a bathtub with hot water and add a quarter-cup of borax, a quarter-cup of washing soda (a.k.a. sodium carbonate) and a half-cup of detergent. Soak clean towels until the water cools (at least an hour), stirring occasionally. Then run the linens through the rinse cycle in your washing machine and dry them. Make sure to do this separately for lights and darks.”
“Add an optional one to two small boxes of baking soda (especially if you have hard water) to soften and deodorize fabrics. You can also add more borax — up to a cup — if the laundry is moldy or musty.”
Just put in a scoop of oxyclean.
I didn’t know either but I just looked it up. It says to soak towels in a borax solution in a bathtub or a bucket
I’d generally heard ‘laundry stripping’ used to refer to a vinegar soak/rinse, followed by a baking soda cycle to further neutralize. The idea being laundry soap/detergent is basic and some things build up and don’t dissolve. Added borax was an alternative ‘laundry booster’ that made this unnecessary, as I’d heard it.
But, it sounds like there’s some variability to how the terms are used and for some a borax rinse is a stripping process. Understandable, as the end result is pretty much the same.
You can also avoid this problem by adding a little borax to your laundry, particularly if you have hard water.
3/4 c Stain Solver per load for the most cost effective solution. Has the most borax percent by weight. We order the 50lb tub and it lasts months. I’m not a shill, I promise! If we don’t use it for every load, our hard Colorado River water makes the laundry smell like ass.