How to whiten yellowed tea towels simply using natural products

In the kitchen, tea towels are also used to clean and dry dirty work surfaces and to remove traces of grease from the surface; it is therefore inevitable that with time and use, they will get stained and, if they are white, that they will turn yellow. The temptation is to throw them away and replace them with new tea towels: but how difficult it is to revive an old tea towel?

Before throwing them out, we recommend you try some simple, natural remedies that can restore your yellowed tea towels. Several natural products can effectively remove stains and the yellowing in white/light materials and fabrics. You can choose whether to pre-treat your fabrics before a regular wash or use these whitening products directly in the washing machine. Or, you can also choose to combine these two options. Why not give it a try?

1. Pre-treatment

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You can use natural whitening remedies before doing your regular machine wash as follows:

• Baking soda and lemon: Soak your tea towels in a mixture of baking soda (60 g for each dish towel) and lemon diluted in warm water. After about an hour, you can proceed to washing the in the washing machine.
• Milk: This is ideal for whitening cotton or linen tea towels; just moisten the fabrics with milk and rub them. Then proceed to washing them in the washing machine. You will see that your towels will be much whiter.
• Marseille soap: As with milk, use this with a little water to scrub your towels; let it act for an hour before putting them in the washing machine.

2. In the washing machine

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Use these natural remedies together with the detergent directly in the washing machine:

• Sodium percarbonate: by adding two tablespoons directly into the washing machine's drum, it will allow you to get very white laundry.
• Powdered yeast: if there is a sachet of yeast left at the bottom of the drawer and you can no longer use it for cooking, don't throw it away: pour it into the dispenser drawer together with the washing machine detergent and start a wash cycle with the your tea towels. They'll be white again in no time.
• Hydrogen peroxide: another excellent whitener, buy the 36-volume type at the pharmacy and pour it in the dispenser together with the detergent. Then proceed with a regular washing cycle, preferably at 60 or 90 degrees C.
• Lemon juice: pour the juice directly into the washing machine's drum before inserting the tea towels and wash at 60 or 90 degrees; the lemon juice will bring the fabrics back to their original white color and will help protect the washing machine from limescale.

What remedies do you use? Do you know any others?