ENJOY your time with friends and family this Easter!
Do you ever wonder what to do when it is all over? The grass and dirt stains from the Easter egg hunt are a mess. What about those juice spills? Then of course there are the table linens!!!
Keeping your white linens WHITE!
Despite what you think, the use of chlorine bleach is NOT the answer. Yes, chlorine can be an amazing whitening product, but only when used under the right conditions.
If you’ve ever wondered why your freshly washed and bleached cotton table linens yellowed or became dingy looking during storage, chances are the reason is you added chlorine bleach to the wash. If you’re distressed by a brown stain in a spot where you ‘pre-treated’ a food stain with chlorine bleach, the likely culprit is the dab of chlorine you thought would solve the problem!
Unfortunately, no amount of hot, cool or cold water rinsing will completely remove all the residual chlorine from a fabric. A chlorine free condition can only be achieved through the use of an ‘anti-chlor’; a product that is not routinely available to consumers and can ONLY be purchased by professional cleaners.
In addition, chlorine should never be used on silk or woolen fabrics, or any synthetic fabrics such as polyester or nylon, since it will chemically degenerate the fabric, causing brown or yellow discolorations. If a white cotton fabric contains a fluorescent-based optical brightener, the chlorine will often break down the optical brightener, causing the fabric to develop a yellow or pink hue.
So, the safest way to care for your table linens, or those holiday clothes at home is to avoid the use of chlorine bleach, or better yet, if you want them to look their pristine best, bring them in for professional care. Not only will they be clean, white and chlorine free after processing, you won’t have to stand at the ironing board and iron them!
