Yellow stains on a shirt can be unsightly, but this hack makes them easy to remove.
If you’ve got a collection of white T-shirts and tops, then you may have noticed that over time they can start to turn yellow, particularly under where your armpits sit.
This yellowing is caused by the chemical reaction that occurs in the underarm area when sweat mixes with the aluminium which can be found in some deodorants, and might stain your shirts and make them look pretty gross.
But if you find your clothes have started to turn yellow, you don’t need to throw them away. One cleaning fan shared her “holy grail” mixture that should save your white tops in no time.
All you need is three common items which you should be able to find in your kitchen cupboards – washing up liquid, bicarbonate of soda, and distilled white vinegar.
Author and home hack guru Laura de Barra shared a video on TikTok in which she explained the three ingredients form her “holy trinity” of cleaning items, and can be mixed together to make the perfect stain-busting tonic.
She said: “Turn the T-shirt inside out, and then you want cold water – never use hot water when working on stains as it can actually set some stains into the fabric.”
Laura started by squeezing some washing up liquid onto the stained area and rubbing it in so that it foams. She explained this step removes any products like body lotion and deodorant from the T-shirt. Then, Laura rinsed the washing up liquid off under a running tap before mixing two parts water and one part vinegar in a bowl.
Placing the armpit of the T-shirt in the bowl, Laura let it sit for “about an hour” before taking it out and giving it another good rinse – making sure to keep the vinegar for later. Next up, the woman mixed her bicarb with some water to make a “face mask consistency” and then loaded the thick mixture onto the stain.
She said: “Bicarb is actually brilliant to stain remove as it literally draws it off. The worse the stain, the longer you leave it. I left this on for an hour and a half.”
For her final step, Laura put the bicarb-soaked armpits of her T-shirt back into the vinegar mixture to create a “wonderful fizzing reaction”, which she claimed would “help release anything that’s trapped in the fibres” of the T-shirt without being “too harsh on the fabric itself”.
Most of the stain should now be removed, although you may find that the stitch line still has some discolouration as it’s a thicker piece of material. In this case, Laura recommended repeating the process again and “massage the stain out”.
All that’s left to do is rinse the T-shirt once more. Once you’re sure the stain is gone, you can wash the shirt as normal.
Commenters on the post were blown away by Laura’s “divine” trick, with many saying they plan on trying it on their whites as soon as possible.
One person said: “This is amazing!” And another added: “Never seen this in my life!”
