After wearing your clothes for a few months, it is really difficult to keep them bright, white, and looking new.

Due to oils and sweat, spilling food and drinks, and discoloration from other clothes, they can be easily covered in stains. 

In order to preserve the white clothes, we usually buy expensive laundry detergents, but these products can actually be dangerous to your health and your body.

These chemicals give the impression that they are safe but large amounts of benzene are contained in numerous optical brighteners which is an extremely dangerous substance.

Benzene is a natural constituent of crude oil, but it is usually synthesized from other compounds present in petroleum. The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) classifies benzene as a known human carcinogen. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit of 0.5 part of benzene per million parts of air (.5 ppm) in the workplace during an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek. The short term exposure limit for airborne benzene is 5 ppm for 15 minutes.

Benzene exposure may have serious health effects. The short term breathing of high levels of benzene may result in death, while low levels may cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Eating or drinking foods containing high levels of benzene may cause vomiting, irritation of the stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, and death.

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Before you use some harmful chemical cleaner, we suggest a few safer methods.

Baking Soda

Make a mixture between a cup of baking soda and 4 liters of water. Soak the white clothes in the resulting mixture and they will be totally clean and white, once finished. You can avoid all types of additives in the washing process in this way.

Dishwasher Detergent

You can effectively whiten your clothes with your eco-friendly dishwasher detergent. Wash your clothes as always with previously added cup of it in the laundry detergent. Try to use detergents which don’t contain phosphate and chlorine.

Distilled White Vinegar

Put one cup of this vinegar in your laundry detergent. For instance, you also directly spray vinegar on the stains. During the drying process, the unpleasant vinegar odor will disappear.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Due to its various uses and benefits, hydrogen peroxide (3%) is commonly used in a number of ways. Add a cup of this non chlorine bleach in the laundry detergent and wash as usually.

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Lemon Juice

Method 1

Add a cup of lemon juice while rinsing the white clothes in your washing machine.

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Method 2

Place the white clothes in a basin with hot water. Add some lemon juice in the basin and let the clothes soak in the mixture during the night. Take them out of the basin in the morning and then wash them as always

Another way to use lemons on underarm stains is to spray them armpits with lemon juice before washing.

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Aspirin

You can effectively dissolve down the gunk that has left yellow stains on the white clothes by using aspirin pills. In order not to leave their color on the clothes, be sure to avoid colored varieties of this pill. You have to do the following procedure: take 5 white aspirin pills, dissolve them in water and soak the clothes in the mixture. In the end, store them in the washing machine for a normal washing procedure.

See the video below to learn more about using vinegar in your wash!