How to Clean and Get Stains Out of White Cloth Napkins

I use cloth napkins at home and on the go. Sometimes, I keep my apple cores wrapped in my napkins until I can get to my compost bin at home but it leaves a brown stain I can never get out. I also use cloth napkins to dry my strawberries after rinsing them, but they also leave a bright red stain. How can I get my cloth napkins back to white?

It’s nice to hear from a fellow cloth napkin user!  And I am very familiar with an apple core (or pear core or banana peel) wrapped in a white napkin to get it home for composting.  We’ve got a worm bin as well as curbside green waste pick-up so we are always bringing compostables home rather than sending them off to the landfill. I do have good news for you—you don’t have to be stuck with the stains on your napkins.

The following is very effective to remove stains from white cotton or poly/cotton napkins:

1. Rinse the stain in a little cool water.
2. Dilute bleach for pretreating: use ¼ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach added to ¾ cup water.
3. Apply the bleach and water solution to the stain and then immediately machine wash the item using detergent and ⅓ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach.
4. Air dry and check your progress.

You can also use the above method for strawberry stains. And it also yields good results if you prefer to wash in warm or even cold water to save energy (although the hotter the wash water, the better the cleaning).

To whiten napkins that have become dingy over time, try a one-time bleach soak:

1. Prepare the bleach soaking solution: in a plastic dishpan add ¼ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach
2. Add the napkins and fully submerge them in the bleach soaking solution.
3. Let them soak for 5 minutes.
4. Drain the soaking solution.
5. Finish by machine washing them in hot water using detergent and ⅓ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach.

If you are not a regular bleach user or are thinking you may not have enough bleachable items to make a full load (another good way to save water and energy is to always run a full load!) here’s what makes up my bleach load:  dishtowels, a tablecloth, cloth napkins, socks, t-shirts, boxer shorts, and usually a wash cloth or two.  I don’t mind washing them all together because I know that adding at least ¼ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach along with the detergent will sanitize the laundry (not to mention get it much much cleaner than washing with detergent alone).