Denture Cleanser - A New Use

If you are like me you are constantly looking for ways to get items clean and stains out of fabric.  I have acquired a bag of vintage linens and have been going through the bag trying to decide what to do with each piece.  The bag contained several bread basket linens that were badly stained.  The stains were probably made from grease and were very large on one of the linens. 

The bread basket linens with the bad stains.

 

I decided that I would try a method I had heard about years before and always wondered if it really worked to remove stains and brighten up white linens.  The method calls for using Denture Cleanser tablets in a bowl of water.  Yes, you read that correctly - Denture Cleanser.  I thought I had nothing to lose since the linens were not in a usable condition.  So I began the process.

 

I used the Dollar General brand of cleanser.

 

I placed the tablets in a bowl of water and added the linens.  I let them sit overnight and every time I walked by the bowl before going to bed I did move them around a little.

 

I was concerned at first that they might turn green but them reminded

myself that the cleanser did not turn the teeth green so it was probably okay.

 

The next day I removed the linens from the cleanser, rinsed them and hung them up to air dry.  The cleanser did not remove the stains completely but they are far less noticeable than in the beginning.  I think if the stains were newer the cleanser would have removed them completely.  It did make the fabric brighten up really well. 

 

The smaller one the stains are barely noticeable.

If you look closely you can still see the faint outline of this stain.

 

I am not sure what I will do with these linens but at least now they are in better shape to use or cut down than before.  I am curious if this would work on regular clothing?  I might have to give it a try on some of my old shirts that I can't seem to brighten back up.  I will let you know how my experiment turns out.

 

Danna