Recently, a controversial laundry hack has been making its rounds on social media.

A TikTok user claimed that squirting blue dish soap on a tea towel and popping it in the washing machine can result in making their white sheets sparkling bright again.

However, a dry cleaner from New York begs to differ.

Zachary Pozniak, a third-generation dry cleaner from the US, said that the viral "blue detergent" hack is not totally bad, but there are more effective treatments out there for getting white sheets and linens to look brand new again.

"If you actually want to solve the root of this problem you need to use oxygenating bleaches," Zachary said on his own TikTok video. "This is actually going to fix the colours of those areas and it's way easier to use."

Using oxygenating bleaches is much better than dish soap or bluing detergents. Credit: TikTok/@jeeves_ny.​

He went on to explain that the "blue" in the bluing detergent is what makes the yellowed fabric look "whiter", demonstrating this effect using an old white teddy bear.

"This teddy bear is yellow and old but if we add a blue filter to it it's going to look much brighter and whiter," said Zachary in the video.

Apparently, using a lot of blue dishwashing detergent on your laundry is only going to temporarily mask the yellowish stains, not remove them completely. Meaning, your "whites" are not totally white.

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If you want to get your whites to look as bright as new again, you can try an oxygen bleach product like OxiClean.

Or, you can also go for the more eco-friendly route and use sodium percarbonate, also known as "natural bleach".

According to Kate, the mind behind @my_plastic_free_home on TikTok, using natural bleach on her yellowed linens gave her amazing results.

"It is an eco-friendly product that's active for just a few hours whilst it's doing its work, and then breaks down to oxygen, water and sodium carbonate with no environmental impact," she said in one of her videos.

Simply add about 60 grams or roughly a half cup of natural bleach to about 5 litres of hot water, then leave your washing to soak for a few hours.

Then, put them on a quick rinse cycle and hang them out to dry in the sun.

Sodium percarbonate can be a little hard to get a hold of in supermarkets nationwide, but you can purchase them from eco-friendly stores online, such as The Little Organic Co.

 

[Ricci]

With all the colours and patterns available these days does anyone still use plain white sheets? I know I don't.

 

[Val]

I love white sheets as they go with any colour doona cover that I put on the bed. I keep any white lovely and bright by using Vanish Christal White, it is a fantastic product.

 

[AM]

I love white sheets and they're very easy to keep bright and clean, but I definitely do NOT love my very expensive, white mulberry silk pillowcases which, at just three months old and very, very careful, regular hand washing (following directions) are yellowy beige and ugly. An expert on the radio suggested I should try drycleaning, which is obviously not a solution. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep white silk pillowcases bright and clean?

 

[Gaena]

I love white sheets and they're very easy to keep bright and clean, but I definitely do NOT love my very expensive, white mulberry silk pillowcases which, at just three months old and very, very careful, regular hand washing (following directions) are yellowy beige and ugly. An expert on the radio suggested I should try drycleaning, which is obviously not a solution. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep white silk pillowcases bright and clean?

I have the same problem Silk pillowcases are impossible to keep looking the same as the lovely bright white when first purchased, I am keenly waiting for someone in the forum to offer advice !