By Zach Pozniak, VP of Operations at Jeeves of Belgravia New York and fourth-generation dry cleaner · @jeeves_ny
Last reviewed October 2026 · based on my videos on laundry stripping, towels and fabric softener, 2021 to 2025
Quick answer: Laundry stripping means soaking clothes or linens in a bathtub with boosters like borax and washing soda, plus detergent, and watching the water turn murky. It technically works, but it's slower and less effective than a normal wash, and the dirty water mostly shows you what water from a washing machine looks like anyway. Instead, pretreat, wash, then use oxygen bleach, and repeat if you need to.
Laundry stripping is a social media trend. You fill a bathtub with water, add powdered boosters such as borax, washing soda and baking soda along with detergent, soak your laundry, and watch the water go murky. The trend got big enough that BuzzFeed asked me for tips on it back in 2021.
My view has hardened since then. In 2022 I called stripping useful but unnecessary if you use good laundry products. In 2025 I said that laundry stripping should be banished, because it's a time-consuming and less effective way to clean your clothes, and at the end of that year it made my list of least favorite laundry tips. I called it the best of the worst, because it technically works, but it turns a simple job into a weekend project you never needed.
That murky water is what water from your washing machine looks like after cleaning. Soil comes out of fabric every time you wash it. You just don't usually see it, because it drains away inside the machine. The dirty bathtub is the main reason the trend is popular, because it makes great clickbait.
A couple of other things show up in that water too:
Detergent works best with mechanical action, the same way soap works on your hands when you rub them together. Surfactants, the main cleaning ingredient in detergent, have to be moved around so they can surround a stain and let it rinse away. A bathtub soak gives them almost none of that movement, so it doesn't get the full potential out of the soap.
It also costs more than it looks. A tub takes about 40 gallons of water, where a top-loading washer uses about 15 to 20. And it takes far more time and effort than a wash, for a worse result.
Most of what people put in a stripping tub is useful. It's just being used the wrong way.
Oxygen bleach is also the one reason to use a bathtub at all. The only time a tub should be part of your laundry routine is soaking items in hot water and powdered oxygen bleach. My oxygen bleach rankings cover which products to use for it.
If your clothes have residue buildup, switch to a good detergent and stop using fabric softener, which is designed to be single use and to come off in the wash. To clear old softener residue, use a rinse product: white vinegar works, and I've used Downy Rinse & Refresh in the fabric softener slot, where a quarter cup is roughly equal to five cups of vinegar. More on that in the guides to fabric softener and vinegar in laundry.
If it's towels or white bedding you want to strip, there's a simpler routine. For regular washes, add powdered boosters, powdered oxygen bleach and a rinse product like vinegar or Downy Rinse. A few times a year, do a deep clean: soak them overnight in hot water and powdered oxygen bleach, then wash on a high temperature. Washing white towels and sheets often removes body oil before it can oxidize and turn yellow. The full routine is in the guides to washing towels and washing sheets.
It's a trend where you soak laundry in a bathtub with boosters like borax, washing soda and baking soda plus detergent, then watch the water turn dirty. The dirty water is mostly what water from a washing machine looks like after any wash, plus dye and old product buildup.
Technically, yes. But it's less effective than a normal wash, because detergent needs mechanical action to work and a soak doesn't give it any. It also takes far more time and water.
Because that's what wash water looks like. Soil leaves your clothes in every wash, and normally it drains away inside the machine where you can't see it. Dye from darker garments and old buildup from fabric softener and cheap detergent add to the color.
You don't need to. Wash them often with boosters, powdered oxygen bleach and a rinse product, and a few times a year soak them overnight in hot water and powdered oxygen bleach before washing them on a high temperature.
Pretreat your items, wash them, then use oxygen bleach, and repeat as needed. Put borax and washing soda in the drum of the washer rather than a bathtub. If you want to soak something, make it hot water with powdered oxygen bleach.
Wash with a good detergent and stop using softener. If that isn't enough, add white vinegar or an acidic rinse product such as Downy Rinse & Refresh to the fabric softener slot to help strip away the residue.
Or ask about any laundry or garment care question
Zach Pozniak is VP of Operations and co-owner of Jeeves of Belgravia New York, the Madison Avenue dry cleaner serving New York since 1979, and the fourth generation of his family in the trade. Zach posts garment care techniques as @jeeves_ny on TikTok to over 900,000 followers, and his book The Laundry Book, co-written with his father Jerry Pozniak, was featured on Good Morning America in October 2024. Jeeves NY's clients include the Metropolitan Opera, the Met Museum, and FIT, and the business has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine.