Get ready to be grossed out. In kind of a good way…
I’ve stripped almost everything textile in the house! And here to tell you how it went.
Here’s what you need:
- Clean Clothes
- Powdered Laundry Detergent
- Borax
- Washing Soda

Here’s what I used for Laundry Stripping.
1 cup powdered Detergent, 1/2 cup Borax, 1/2 cup Washing Soda.
For a Soaker tub use
- 1 CUP – Powdered Laundry Detergent
- 1/2 CUP Borax
- 1/2 CUP Washing Soda
For Standard Bath or Laundry Tub
- 1/2 CUP – Powdered Laundry Detergent
- 1/4 CUP Borax
- 1/4 CUP Washing Soda
Steps & Tips:
- Fill tub with Hot tap water and add all detergents
- use back end of broom to stir it up
- submerge clothes – (I sorted them by colour.
- Soak for min 4 hours. Check and stir every hour
- After 4 hours, ring out the clothes and wash in washing machine NO SOAP.
- Stare at the disgusting water that’s left!
Observations
- Water turns grey almost immediately after clothes are submerged
- Your hands will feel very sticky after handling the clothes (even after washing them, for a few days)
- Dark clothes water seemed to get very black, perhaps from dye seeping out, however any dark clothing that had white trim or ties didn’t get ruined.
- Grimiest was jeans, leggings and cotton T-Shirts.
- 2nd grimiest was dish cloths, towels & oven mitts.
- There is a bit of a smell. (ya, it’s gross, not super bad, but we opened the windows)
Before/After Photos
The tubs started out like this each time:
After 4 hours light towels
After 4 hours of soaking Darks – Leggings, T-Shirts, Sweat Shirts
Outcome
- softer clothes
- darks appear darker
- some whites appeared whiter
- didn’t remove stains
- clothes felt lighter
- less stiff when wearing (especially jeans)
- all laundry smelled SUPER fresh, even though no soap was used in the final wash.
Laundry stripping while technically time consuming, it will take you a few days to get through everything. However, you really can just set it and forget it, stirring it up a few times throughout the process. You will have a giant mound of folding to do after. I could see doing this once a year.
I’ll let you know next year if the water is less disgusting!
Jen
My questions: is it okay to put washing soda in a front loader washing machine? If you can how much would you put in?
Would you put it in the machine itself or in the dish that you put the liquid softener or the soap in?
Thanks a bunch for your help
Carol
Yes it’s ok as far as I know to put in front loaders. I’d put it directly into the tub, not the dish, as I would want it to be able to completely dissolve!