After spending a large chunk of your fortune, you finally gifted yourself with a pair of jeans you’ve always wanted to be a game-changer for your wardrobe collection. But guess what? Your favorite pair of jeans is decorated with unwanted and unforgiving stains of bleach.
Bummer!
No matter how strongly the stains will stick to your jeans, you will outweigh them by sticking to your decision to not give up on them. The question is how to get bleach out of clothes?
Well, let us have the honor to save your heart from breaking into pieces by putting forward some methods that you can follow to get rid of those bleach stains.
And the best part is you don’t have to run from one shop to another. You can ace this task from the comfort of your home. So settle in, and let’s go!
What is Bleach?
Before unraveling the methods, here’s a thing: why don’t we go through the definition of bleach.
We promise it’s going to be real quick.
Bleach is a chemical that, when it comes into contact with natural pigments, turns them into colorless ones.
The stains we are discussing are these colorless patches that bleach leaves on the clothes.
Scientific Insights
Now that your innate scientist is somewhat back to life. Let’s not restrain ourselves from delving into the scientific Insights of bleach.
- It’s a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite.
- Most bleaches are oxidizing agents, while some act as reducing agents.
- Bleaches are put to use to maintain the sanitation of swimming pools.
Isn’t it fascinating that it acts as a boon for the upkeep of pools, whereas it leaves no opportunity to ruin our clothes in another place?
It’s okay. Without further ado, let’s get started.
How to get bleach out of your clothes?
Let’s face the harsh truth! Once the bleach has made contact with your clothes, getting rid of it completely is off the table. Don’t panic. There’s still room for a solution.
Here comes the good news, restoring the color of your clothes is achievable by neutralization.
Neutralization
Before jumping on the bleach removal methods, the first and foremost step is to neutralize the effect of bleach to prevent it from doing further damage. Here’s how you can pull off this task to get the desired results:
- As soon as your clothes come in contact with bleach, rinse them with cold water to remove the excess bleach.
- If you can’t smell bleach on the cloth anymore, it’s time to move on.
- Summon your scientific powers and prepare a paste by mixing baking soda and water.
- Now, apply this paste to the affected area and let it dry.
- After the cloth is completely dry, wash it off.
This sums up the neutralizing process. Now let’s move towards the methods.
Method No.1 – Rubbing Alcohol
With a plethora of applications in different industries, Alcohol has carved its way to being a part of the ‘how to get bleach out of clothes?’ list.
Here goes how you can say bye-bye to the bleach stains.
- Follow the neutralizing process as mentioned earlier.
- Take a cotton ball in your hand and dip it in the rubbing alcohol.
- Now rub this cotton swab on the bleach-affected area.
- Allow it to dry completely.
- This will help restore the natural pigment of the fabric.
Mission accomplished. Good job!
Method No.2 – Distilled White Vinegar
This is considered to be an environmentally-friendly method. Nature lovers are going to feel a connection with it. Let’s see how it works.
- tablespoon of distilled white vinegar with two cups of warm water.
- Take a clean cloth and soak it in the above-prepared mixture.
- The vinegar will lift and dissolve the bleach as you rub the affected area with this cloth.
- Then take another cloth, soak it in cold water, and rub it on the affected area.
- Wait until you can no longer smell the vinegar.
And that winds up the second method. But the list has more to offer.
Method No.3 – Fabric Dye
This method can be worth its weight in gold if you’ve skipped the initial process of neutralization. And the damage is getting out of your control.
It’s time you put your money to good use and buy a good quality fabric dye. The color of the dye should fall in the spectrum of the stained cloth.
When you have the fabric dye in your hands, follow these steps to get the job done:
- Firstly, remove the natural color of the affected wardrobe item with the help of a color remover.
- Secondly, re-dye it with the fabric dye you got your hands on.
- Wait for the results.
Meticulously read the instructions mentioned on the bottle or packet of the color remover and the fabric dye before jumping into action.
Method No. 4 – Diluted Sodium Thiosulphate
The next one on the list is this method. Come along to see how it unfolds.
- Prepare a mixture of one tablespoon of Sodium Thiosulphate with a cup of water.
- Dip a clean white cloth or cotton swab into this mixture. Make sure you’re wearing gloves while doing so.
- Blot the affected area until the garment begins to absorb the diluted Sodium Thiosulphate.
- Finally, wash the garment and let it dry completely.
If you cannot see the desired results, rinse the garment with cold water and repeat the step which involves blotting of the affected area. Then, rinse it alternatively and repeat the above step until the stain lifts.
This brings us to the end of our methods that answer a simple yet annoying question, ‘how to get bleach out of clothes?’
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve drawn our focus on a problem that people come across in their day-to-day life. How to get bleach out of clothes? We’ve delved into the definition of bleach and some scientific insights.
Talking about the removal methods, we’ve discussed the methods of rubbing alcohol and fabric dye. In addition to these two, we’ve listed the methods of Diluted Sodium Thiosulphate and Distilled white vinegar.
Hope this helps!
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