For 1 million people on Reddit, the science of clothes-washing is a regular topic of discussion. I tried out their tips and discovered some simple, sustainable answers
It started with a sunscreen stain – a yellowed collar on a white T-shirt that persisted wash after wash. A spray of stain remover did nothing; drying the shirt in the sun made it worse. An internet rabbit hole took me to the r/laundry subreddit, where I found my people: 995,000 of them, nerding out over the chemistry of clothes-washing.
“People want to take better care of their stuff, but don’t have the knowledge,” says Eric Thompson, a former management consultant based near Seattle who moderates the forum under the name KismaiAesthetics. He took on the mantle after seeing someone suggest white vinegar to treat a burrito stain on an anorak. “If you pour vinegar on a burrito grease stain on white nylon, you now have orange nylon for eternity,” he says. “Acids bind colour to dye sites on nylon.”