The laundry is a household task that can test even the most domesticated among us: from stains to fading to bleeding to shrinkage, there's plenty of trials and tribulations to be had in that darned laundry room.
But a handy hack might just put an end to one of the most common washing woes: getting your whites as bright as they were on the day you brought them home.
Taking to the popular Facebook page 'Mums Who Clean', one mum shared her top tips for restoring whites to their former glory, claiming the ultimate hack can transform even the most badly stained items to seemingly brand-new condition.
Sharing before-and-after images to the online group, the simple method impressed hundreds of fellow members, with many applauding the mum for sharing her wisdom.
Taking a badly stained pillow slip, the mum explained she first boiled the item in a large pot of hot water with ¼ cup bicarbonate of soda and ¼ cup of Lectric Washing Soda for 15 minutes. After allowing it to cool, she then laundered the slip as usual with the rest of her linen in the washing machine, with her usual powder detergent and Napisan or Vanish Oxi, before drying it on the line.
"Someone recently posted how they'd boiled their cleaning cloths in a pot of water with bicarb for 15 minutes and had great results," she captioned the images.
"Inspired, I tried this with a very gross pillow cover… and added some Lectric [Washing] Soda in too.
"I then machine-washed [the pillow slip] in my usual linen load with powder and Napisan/Vanish Oxi, [then] line dried. I'm really happy with the results."
The images showcased the yellowing, discoloured pillow case before being boiled, as well as the filthiness of the water throughout the process.
She added: "[I] want people to know this cover was washed many times in [the] machine with detergent and Napisan on our regular 40 deg wash. It was the boiling, then washing, that made it white again."
Lectric Washing Soda is a popular Australian all-purpose cleaning product that acts as a water softener and heavy-duty cleaner, but any other brand of washing soda should do the trick.
In the 'after' snap, the pillow case is bright white and as good as new, attracting plenty of praise from impressed viewers.
"What an awesome result," one wrote, as another added: "OMG, I need to try this."
One woman said she uses the same method to sanitise her bed sheets, while another claimed hotels will often boil their linen to retain the whiteness.
Others said the hack harked back to cleaning methods of yesteryear, with one calling the technique "brilliant".
"This is a trick from the grandma generation and earlier! Brilliant hack!" they continued, with another weighing in: "Back to basics like our grandparents and great grandparents did."
