How to Strip your Laundry for a Deep Clean

April 22, 2022

How to Strip your Laundry

Home MamaSuds Blog How to Strip your Laundry

You may not be able to see it, but if you use conventional laundry detergent, overtime your laundry can develop residue. This can especially happen if you use too much detergent, have hard water, and/or if you use fabric softener. Overtime this residue collects sweat and dirt and learning how to strip your laundry can help you get rid of it.

Workout clothes, bedding, and towels are the biggest residue build-up culprits. If you suspect you need to deep clean by stripping them, or you're just curious, we recommend doing this once a year. It can help get those lingering odors out of your laundry and give you a fresh start before you start using a residue free laundry soap!

There are many different recipes and variations online. We've tried many of them and have two recipes that seemed to work the best in our tests.

Recipe #1:

1/2 cup of MamaSuds Extra Strength Oxygen Powder
1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 ounce of MamaSuds Laundry Soap

In this video, we used twice as much as the recipe above because we used a 90 gallon bathtub. A standard bathtub is half that size so the recipe above reflects that.

Recipe #2:

1/2 cup of Borax
1/4 cup of Washing Soda (sodium carbonate)
1/4 cup of MamaSuds Extra Strength Oxygen Powder
1/2 ounce of MamaSuds Castile Soap OR MamaSuds All-Purpose Cleaner Concentrate

About the ingredients:

Borax (sodium borate) removes hard water deposits and tough stains. If you have hard water, you won't get optimal results if you don't use Borax. In order for the soap to penetrate fibers the water has to be an ideal pH and water that is hard (full of minerals) makes it difficult for the soap to penetrate the fibers to clean them. Borate increases the effectiveness of the soap by making the water stable for the soap to work at its best. You can read more about Borax (sodium borate) here.

Washing Soda (sodium carbonate) softens water and helps the cleaning agent (in this case laundry soap) lift the soil from the fabrics. If you only have baking soda, you can use it, but washing soda is more alkaline and will work better.

Oxygen Powder (sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate) is a natural disinfectant and stain remover. When sodium percarbonate contacts water, it breaks down into sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. It is one of the most environmentally safe cleaners out there. Do no use it on wool or items with wood buttons.

Soap is needed as the cleaning agent of this recipe. A residue free castile soap or laundry soap, and our concentrate are all acceptable types to use for any laundry needs.

Step One:

Separate whites from colors. Place your laundry in your bathtub, or a large sink. HOT water is ideal for stripping but you definitely want to use what's appropriate for the fabric.

Step Two:

Put 1/2 ounce of MamaSuds Laundry Soap,1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of MamaSuds Oxygen Powder in the tub and fill will HOT water. Agitate the laundry with a broomstick or a random level you had laying around (see video LOL). You want all the laundry submerged. Soak for several hours or overnight.

Step Three:

Drain the tub and squeeze out the water (we suggest wearing gloves). Transport your laundry (we used a bin) to the washing machine and wash on HOT with an extra rinse cycle.

laundry stripping

We'd love to see your before and after pictures! Send them to us at info@mamasuds.com

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