How to wash white socks

White socks look great paired with sports­wear or casu­al wear. Their dis­ad­van­tage is rapid con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, due to which they have to be washed dai­ly. And if the stains are already old and stub­born, you will have to use addi­tion­al meth­ods to clean the prod­ucts.

We have pre­pared a num­ber of rec­om­men­da­tions for the dai­ly care of socks, as well as for wash­ing them if they are heav­i­ly soiled — includ­ing using folk meth­ods.

General recommendations

1. Wash your socks as often as pos­si­ble — prefer­ably every day, right after you take them off. Thus, pol­lu­tion will be eas­i­ly elim­i­nat­ed;
2. Place socks in spe­cial laun­dry bags that pro­tect prod­ucts from fric­tion in the drum with­out affect­ing the qual­i­ty of the wash;
3. For heavy soil­ing, a stain remover can be used. The main thing is to wear gloves so as not to harm the skin of the hands when hand wash­ing;
4. White cot­ton socks should be washed up to 60°C, woolen up to 35°C.

If the socks have glit­ter or a col­ored print, then hard bleach­es are not suit­able. Their use risks lead­ing to ugly stains that are caused by a chem­i­cal reac­tion.

Read the man­u­fac­tur­er’s label before wash­ing. It tells you how to wash cot­ton, syn­thet­ic, vis­cose or linen items. If any method is suit­able for cot­ton prod­ucts, then for syn­thet­ic prod­ucts it will be use­less, if not harm­ful.

Hand wash white socks

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Wet your socks;
2. Rub them with soap;
3. Leave prod­ucts up to 30 min­utes;
4. Wipe your socks with your hands;
5. Rinse the linen under run­ning warm water.

If there are stains or oth­er dirt on the socks, wash them again in the same way.

It is not nec­es­sary to rub your socks too styl­ish­ly when wash­ing, oth­er­wise the fab­ric may stretch and tear.

Washing white socks in the washing machine

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Soak your socks;
2. Turn the laun­dry inside out and place it in the drum;
3. Add pow­der, and if nec­es­sary, stain remover;
4. Select the “Del­i­cate wash” mode, set the water tem­per­a­ture to 40 ° C.

Addi­tion­al­ly, it is worth plac­ing ten­nis balls in the drum of the machine. Increased fric­tion will pro­vide bet­ter wash­ing of soiled laun­dry.

Atten­tion! In order not to look for socks among a pile of oth­er washed laun­dry in the future, place them in the drum in a spe­cial cov­er.

Wash white socks only with light-col­ored linen. If you do not sort clothes by col­or, then the socks may be washed off, but they will no longer be white. It is also advis­able to place white socks in the drum along with dense fab­rics — like bed linen, tow­els. Socks should not be washed with silk or chif­fon prod­ucts.

Folk methods for washing socks

If the dai­ly quick wash does not com­plete­ly clean the socks, folk meth­ods will come to the res­cue:

1. Lemon juice/acid. The tool will not only clean the socks from dirt, but also whiten them. Add to a bowl of warm water 2–3 tbsp. l. juice or cit­ric acid, leave the laun­dry to soak for 1–2 hours and rinse it well;
2. table vine­gar effec­tive for heavy soil­ing. Add 1 tsp to a bowl with 1 liter of warm water. vine­gar and let the socks soak for 60 min­utes. After that, rinse the linen and wash it by hand or in a type­writer;
3. Dis­solve 1 s. l. crushed aspirin tablets in 1 liter of water and leave the socks to soak for 2–4 hours. Rinse the linen and wash it by hand or in a type­writer;
4. Dilute 1 tbsp. l. phar­ma­cy boric acid in 1 liter of water. Soak the socks in the solu­tion for 2–3 hours if they are light­ly soiled. If the laun­dry is com­plete­ly soiled, the soak time is increased to 6 hours. When wash­ing, be sure to wear rub­ber gloves so as not to harm the skin of your hands;
5. Use­ful for old stains mus­tard pow­der. Wash socks with soap, leave for 40 min­utes in soapy water, put them in the wash­ing machine and add 2–3 tbsp. l. mus­tard pow­der. After that, wash the laun­dry in the “Quick” or “Del­i­cate wash” mode with a max­i­mum water tem­per­a­ture of up to 40 ° C;
6. Suit­able for heav­i­ly soiled evap­o­ra­tion. The method is used for cot­ton and oth­er nat­ur­al mate­ri­als. Half fill a con­tain­er with heat­ed water, add some pow­der and lemon juice/acid. Place the socks in the pot and boil them for 5–15 min­utes, depend­ing on the degree of soil­ing. After that, wash the socks by hand and rinse them well;
7. If the once white socks have lost their white­ness, add 2 tbsp to a con­tain­er with 5 liters of water. l. wash­ing pow­der and 1 tbsp. l. tur­pen­tine. Mix the solu­tion, soak the socks for 3–4 hours and wash them — by hand or in a type­writer;
8. If a dark sole has formed on white socks, use Domestos chlo­rine. Dilute it in water in a ratio of 1: 1, apply the prod­uct on the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed sole and wash the linen in any way. Chlo­rine-con­tain­ing prod­ucts can only be used for cot­ton prod­ucts;
9. Heat water in a con­tain­er to 90 ° C, add 50 ml of bleach, wash­ing pow­der, soda (1 table­spoon) and veg­etable oil (2 table­spoons). Place the socks in the mix­ture for 30 min­utes, while the fire remains on. Next, rinse your socks in cool water.

How to care for your socks

Fol­low these 2 tips to keep your socks look­ing their best for a long time:

1. Dry your socks away from heaters and direct sun­light. Oth­er­wise, yel­low stains may appear on them;
2. Don’t wear socks with black shoes as it stains them. Also, do not wear white socks with dark insoles, oth­er­wise they will have a hard-to-wash dark sole;
3. Rinse thor­ough­ly each time. If even a lit­tle deter­gent remains on the fab­ric, this risks lead­ing to aller­gic reac­tions. When wash­ing chil­dren’s socks in the machine, rinse 2 times.

If none of the pro­posed meth­ods helped you return your socks to their white­ness and clean­li­ness, they may have already served their pur­pose and now need to be replaced.