How to Wash a Handkerchief

I wish I knew more about your wash habits–if your white handkerchiefs have yellowed over time that could indicate a long term cleaning issue.  Here are some factors that affect cleaning and whitening that you may be able to change and see better results.

1. Detergent choice— Make sure you are using a good detergent that contains brighteners and enzymes in addition to surfactants and builders.  Review the ingredient list—better detergents often list the purpose of the ingredients, too.

2. Use the correct amount of detergent— Under using detergent will result in poor performance, especially if you wash heavily soiled items or extra-large loads, or if you have hard water. That’s when you actually need to add extra!

3. Choose a “hot” wash temperature— The higher the wash temperature, the better the cleaning.

4. Don’t overload the washer—Clothes need to circulate/tumble freely through the wash water for optimum cleaning.

5. Use the correct amount of Clorox^® Disinfecting Bleach— ⅓ cup in a HE washer or a regular load in a standard washer, and ⅔ cup for an extra-large or heavily soiled load in a standard washer.  Perhaps your clothes washer has a bleach dispenser that limits the amount of bleach you can add to 1/3 cup.  In that case, you can experiment with smaller loads, and fill the dispenser to the “max fill” line.

It’s also important to note that there are also a few situations where using Clorox^® Disinfecting Bleach can cause whites to yellow:

• • Fabric not safe for bleach—You should never bleach garments made with wool, silk, mohair, leather, and spandex—they are damaged by exposure to bleach, which can include yellowing as well as fiber deterioration. I doubt your handkerchiefs include any of these, but it’s still good to note.

• • The fabric finish yellows—Sometimes a finish applied to the fabric/garment will react with bleach and turn yellow.  Hopefully these are garments labeled “non-chlorine bleach only”.

• • Concentrated bleach exposure—If cotton is exposed to undiluted or extremely concentrated bleach solutions, it can yellow.

• • Poor water quality—When the household water supply contains large amounts of metals (like iron and manganese), they react with the sodium hypochlorite active in bleach to form colored materials that can deposit onto clothes.  The best way to handle this problem is to install a water treatment/filtration system to remove the impurities.

Since your handkerchiefs have yellowed over time, there’s a good chance you can whiten them up again (as long as the yellowing wasn’t caused by metals or concentrated bleach exposure).  Here are some techniques you could try:

Soak the handkerchiefs in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox^® Disinfecting Bleach per gallon of water. Fully submerge them for 5 minutes, then rinse the soaking solution and finish up by machine washing in hot water using detergent and ⅓ cup Clorox^® Disinfecting Bleach (or fill the dispenser to the max-fill line). This is ideal for dingy yellow build-up from poor cleaning over time.

You can also try an overnight pre-soak with Clorox 2^® For Colors Powder. Add 1 scoopful to 2 gallons hot water, and stir to be sure the product dissolves.  Fully submerge the handkerchiefs for 8 hours or overnight.  Rinse the soaking solution, and then wash in hot water using detergent and additional Clorox 2^® For Colors Powder.  This is ideal for white items that contain a small amount of spandex, which should never be washed with Clorox^® Disinfecting Bleach.