Can You Use Baking Soda to Remove Colour Run?

If your clothes have been plagued by the dreaded colour run monster, you need to act fast to tame and remove the beast!

But what’s a quick, easy and cheap way to remove colour run from clothes? Simple: Use baking soda. 

Baking soda, aka bicarbonate of soda, is a non-toxic odour neutraliser that can also brighten white laundry. So, it’s the ideal product to work with when trying to remove a colour run issue. 

So, how do you use baking soda to remove colour run? Keep on reading to find out what you need to do! 

 

How to Use Baking Soda to Remove Colour Run

Just before you dive into treating your clothes with baking soda, you should consider the following points:

• Act as quickly as you can to remove the colour run damage from your clothes – This will give you the best chance of succeeding with the task below. 
• Don’t even think about drying your garments before treating them – Tumble drying is a big no-no because it helps the stain to set in.
• Always do a patch test before you commit to any hardcore cleaning – This can prevent you from ruining your clothes even more.
• You should make a habit of checking the tags on your clothing tags to see how you should actually be treating and washing the items – This can stop you from causing more damage to your clothes.  
• Don’t forget to remove the troublesome item of clothing from the washing machine/pile of ruined laundry – The item will only go on to cause more trouble if it’s allowed to sit in the heart of your pile of wet laundry. 

So, let’s get stuck into the cleaning now. Here’s how you remove colour run from laundry with baking soda.

Method 1 – The washing machine

If you feel confident and you’re happy to add baking soda directly into your washing machine to treat your ruined items, you can do so, but you do this at your own risk. 

What you need:

• Ruined items of clothing
• Baking soda
• Water
• Detergent

Steps to follow:

1. Grab one ruined garment at a time. 
2. Test out the baking soda – Dab a little watered down baking soda onto each garment to see if the baking soda reacts badly/well with the material. 
3. Based on the results of Step 2, either continue with this method or stop completely. 
4. Put your damaged items back into the washing machine. 
5. Add half a cup of baking soda to the clothes inside your washing machine. 
6. Add your detergent as usual. 
7. Run a regular wash cycle. 
8. Add another half a cup of baking soda to your washing machine as the rinse cycle is being run. 
9. Allow the washing machine to complete its wash cycle.
10. Remove the clothes and dry them on the line preferably.

Method 2 – Hand washing

If you’d prefer to treat your clothes outside of the washing machine first, and then wash the items as normal later on, follow the method below.

What you need:

• Ruined items of clothing
• Baking soda
• Water
• Bucket
• Cup
• Washing machine 
• Detergent 

Steps to follow: 

1. Grab one ruined garment at a time. 
2. Test out the baking soda – Dab a little watered down baking soda onto each garment to see if the baking soda reacts badly/well with the material. 
3. Based on the results of Step 2, either continue with this method or stop completely. 
4. Fill a large bucket with four litres of warm water. 
5. Add half a cup to a cup of baking soda to the water in the bucket. 
6. Add one ruined item of clothing to the water at a time.
7. Submerge the item.
8. Leave the item in the water for around half an hour.
9. Go back to check on the item. 
10. If the item still looks the same, pop it back under the water.
11. Consider adding another half a cup of baking soda to the water. 
12. Remove the item from the water and rinse it under warm water. 
13. You will need to launder the item as normal.
14. Repeat the steps above for your other ruined items. 
15. Allow your items to dry naturally, if possible.

Note: While baking soda is a great way of treating colour runs, the methods above are not always suitable for all clothes and colour runs. In these cases, it may be best for you to try a stronger removal method. 

 

Can You Use Baking Soda to Treat Coloured Clothes?

It is possible to use baking soda to treat colour runs on coloured clothes. However, you should always do a patch test on a discreet section of clothing before starting the actual treatment process. 

And be aware that baking soda may cause discolouration on coloured clothes. It does, after all, have an uncanny ability to whiten greying clothes.  

So, if you’ve got some doubts, you’d be better off sticking to tried and tested products for this particular task.

 

How To Stop a Colour Run Incident in the Future

Colour runs causes needless hassle and worry, so it’s better to avoid such a problem to begin with. 

Here are some tips you can try out right now to avoid such an issue:

• Separate your laundry appropriately – colours and whites. 
• Double check your piles of laundry as you’re adding them to the drum. 
• Make use of Dylon Colour Catcher Sheets and such products. 
• If you think a coloured top could cause an issue, wash it on its own. 
• Re-check your cleaned laundry before drying it – Treating colour runs when the clothes are fresh out of the washing machine is essential. 
• Clean your washing machine out after a colour run drama – This will remove any dye residue, and will prevent future problems. 

 

How Else Can You Remove Colour Run from Laundry?

There are plenty of other ways you can treat clothes that have been soiled by colour run.

You do, however, need to keep in mind that some methods are better for coloured clothes, and others for white clothes only. We’ve written an in-depth guide on how to remove colour run from white clothes if you need some more tips.

Here’s a quick overview of other ways to remove colour run:

• A basic re-wash of your damaged clothes could do the job, if you’ve acted quick enough.
• Soaking clothes in a detergent mix, before washing items as normal, also works. 
• White vinegar is also an alternative option. 
• You could bleach your white clothes if you wanted to.
• Napisan can also be used to remove colour runs from clothes.
• Investing in an off-the-shelf colour run remover is a backup option.