Simple 2-ingredient concoction 'gets white socks fresh as new again'

Daily Record

02-05-2025

Jess Eatonn has shared her simple two-ingredient hack to get white socks looking 'fresh as new' again - and her video showing the cleaning tip has received thousands of views
There's a simple method to restore the whiteness of grubby socks using just two common ingredients. Anyone who wears white socks knows the struggle of maintaining their pristine appearance.
White garments, in general, pose a cleaning challenge once they've been tarnished by stains, mud or other substances. Jess Eatonn has shared her clever cleaning hack for white socks on TikTok. Her secret weapons are Milton Sterilising Fluid and Formil Oxi Action Fabric Stain Remover. In her video, Jess demonstrates the transformation of her white socks before and after the cleaning process. She explained: "Anyone who wears white socks will know that keeping them white is the hardest thing in the world. I'm going to show you how to take them from the first clip to this and it's really easy.
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"All you're going to need is this Milton Sterilising Fluid and some form of Vanish. It can be a cheap version like I've got and then you're going to want to put them in a bath."
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Since Jess doesn't have a bathtub in her house, she used her toddler's bath. She submerged the white socks and any other clothes she wanted to whiten in the bath filled with water, recommending the use of hot water if possible.
Next, the mum added two spoonfuls of the stain remover and two cup fulls of the sterilising fluid before mixing the clothes around with her hand and then leaving everything in the bath to soak "for a good few hours."
She left hers in four hours and after this she took the socks and clothes from the bath and put them in the washing machine on a normal 30 degrees wash cycle.
The result was bright white clean socks. Sockshop has given some guidance on its website on how to get white socks fresh again.
It shared a few things you can do to care for your white socks to help them stay white for longer, including not wearing them for more than one day and washing them regularly, being careful not to rub socks too vigorously as this can damage their shape and Sockshop claims that soaking your socks before washing is often the "most effective way to banish stubborn dirt."
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Also, it says to remember to always wash your white socks separately from coloured clothing and points out that the material of your socks should inform which cleaning method you use.
Sockshop suggests using household ingredients like baking soda, lemon juice, laundry soap, water or vinegar to clean white socks.
One method it shared is soaking the socks in a warm sink filled with a "liberal sprinkling of baking soda for several hours" and after wringing them dry, putting them in your washing machine by adding 150 200 ml of baking soda to the detergent drawer, along with your normal powder or liquid.
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Jess's TikTok video unveiling her clever trick for cleaning white socks has attracted a whopping 146,800 views, received 2,162 likes, and prompted numerous comments so far.
One viewer expressed their appreciation, stating: "This is in the information I came to the internet for today, tortured with my teenagers wearing those white Nike socks everywhere, thank you my love."
Another person expressed enthusiasm to test out the method themselves, saying: "Need to try this. I've used vanish but the Milton is a good shout."
Various other comments included praise like "oh wow what a good hack!", "definitely going to try this!" and acknowledgments such as "oh I needed to know this, ours are awful."