My best friend has two children who were born seven years apart. Her youngest is just three months old, and remarkably, is wearing some of the same clothes my friend’s oldest child wore at the same age.
How is this possible? Two reasons: My friend doesn’t throw away ANYTHING. Also, she is one heck of a laundress.
If you have ever held on to baby clothes hoping that one day they can be put to good use, then you are likely familiar with yellow stains. They fester on white garments that are exposed to air, heat, left to age, or are not stored properly.
Instead of using OxiClean, Spray and Wash, Shout or another type of commercial stain remover, my frugal friend simply used items that were in her cleaning supply closet. There are a number of common household products that remove yellow stains from clothes, including:
Hydrogen Peroxide: Fill your washing machine with cold water and add cup of hydrogen peroxide. Soak the clothes about 10 to 15 minutes, then wash.
Baking Soda: Mix some baking soda and hydrogen peroxide with water and apply it directly to the yellow stains. Next, use a small toothbrush to rub in the mixture. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then wash as normal.
Toothpaste: Some yellow stains disappear when treated with traditional white toothpaste. Just apply a dab onto the stain and rub it in with a toothbrush, then launder the garment as usual.
Lemon Juice: Lemon juice works well to eliminate yellow stains from white or light-colored cotton clothing. However, you must use pure lemon juice, preferably fresh squeezed. Saturate the entire stain with the juice and place the garment in the sun for a couple of hours. The stain should disappear, and then you can wash the item as normal.