How to Whiten Gis & Laundry Without Chlorine Bleach
Some people choose to not use chlorine bleach when washing their clothes as it can irritate your eyes, skin, and lungs. Some greener folk worry about poisoning fish and insects as well as the release of carcinogenic dioxins during production (what?).
I used bleach when washing my Jiu-Jitsu Gi when I was a white belt, and while I had the sexiest Gi at the Academy, it didn’t last a year before someone ripped it when fighting for grips (or some such).
Do not use bleach when you wash your jiu-jitsu gi.
Using bleach when washing your jiu-jitsu gi will cause the fibers of the fabric to weaken, deteriorate, and, over time, tear. Jiu-Jitsu Gis can be expensive. So, I had to find an alternate way of keeping my Jiu-Jitsu Gis from becoming gray, dingy, and gross since it would drive me nuts (OCD, animal style please). This goes double for when I have to train while recovering from an illness.
If you happen to be part of the OCD community, fret not! I have found numerous ways to keep your Gis white without using bleach AND they work on your regular white clothes too. Just in case you ever start to worry about the fish. If your white gi is stained and you need help, you have stumbled on the right jiu-jitsu blog, my friend.
So, without further adieu, this is what I do when I need to get my white gis as white and fresh as possible.
Things You Can Use to Wash Your White Jiu-Jitsu Gis:
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- White Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Dishwasher Detergent
- Lemons
- Sunlight
- Washing Soda
- Borax
- Oxiclean
Vinegar
Vinegar whitens, freshens (yes, freshens), and softens fabrics. Add 1 cup (and not a drop more!) along with your regular laundry detergent. DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE VINEGARY SMELL! It dissipates after it evaporates and the fabric is dry. It can also be used with stains; spray a stained spot with 100% undiluted white vinegar before washing. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Baking Soda
Another awesome tool to whiten, freshen and soften your fabrics. Add 1/2 cup along with the other stuff. For a stain mix water and baking soda to make a paste and apply directly to the stain. This helps deodorize like a mofo. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Hydrogen Peroxide (3%)
This is a non-chlorine bleach to help whiten your white gis. Add 1/2 cup. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Dishwasher Detergent
Don’t buy this if you don’t already have some on hand, but this can actually be used to whiten your gis. Just make sure it is chlorine-free or else we are defeating the purpose altogether, obviously. 1/4 cup will do. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Lemon Juice
This stuff doesn’t just give you those goldy locks of your dreams, it can also be used to super freshen as well as whiten your beautiful white gis. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Sunlight
I always hang my gis facing the sun. The sun is another one of those things that naturally makes things white. Just look at anyone’s older car with black rubber trim. Yeah, not looking all that black anymore there buddy. One added bonus is that hanging it out in the sun also has a way of making your gi-less comfortable to grab. It’s a wee bit harder to hold on to someone’s sand paper laced gi especially if they are trying to rip it from your kung-fu judo jiu-jitsu grip. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Washing Soda
Two things about washing soda that are great: It has 2 sodium in its chemical formation so it’s very effective in softening water, and it’s very caustic so it’s great in removing grease and stains. Perfect for washing after rolling with those unruly bloodying bully brown belts. It facilitates removing stains from white gi.
Borax
Borax has great cleaning power. That’s why those green hippie folk commonly use Borax in their homemade detergent recipes. Its PH is 9.5, pretty base and can remove stains from your white gi. It also breaks down into Hydrogen Peroxide (the main ingredient in OxiClean), which behaves like, well, OxiClean. Which brings us to…
Oxiclean
To describe it in layman’s terms, it’s pretty much like Washing Soda mixed with Hydrogen Peroxide. Another commonality in homemade laundry detergent recipes call for Washing Soda + Borax (which turns some water molecules to Hydrogen Peroxide). When Hydrogen Peroxide meets water, it breaks down into Oxygen and Water, forming little bubbles (like your favorite carbonated drinks i.e. pepsi soda). Those little bubbles bleach, clean, and remove stains from your white gi.
The Best Detergent for Jiu-Jitsu Gis
In my opinion, the best detergent for Jiu-Jitsu is the Tide Sports Active. I only use this on my white gis, however, as I use a special detergent for washing my dark bjj gis to preserve their darkness/color.
Note: I am not suggesting that you use all of these tools at once. It can be incredibly cumbersome. Although, maybe once or twice a year, you may want to do so to stay fresh to death. I usually try to incorporate a bunch of these when I wash my white Gis and white clothes but only the ones that are convenient. Just using a couple of these strategies keeps my gis looking nice and not smelling swamp-assy.
How to wash your white jiu-jitsu gi:
When it’s time to wash my gis, I pick whatever methods I’ll be using for the day and I’ll soak the white Gis (or white clothes) for as long as possible in HOT water. For those of you with your own washer, this is quite simple, you can add your detergent and whatever else you will use then add your Gis and start the washing machine at the washing setting with hot water. Let the wash cycle go for a few minutes, but stop it before it reaches the rinse cycle. Then, soak it like it’s hot for as long as you can handle.
When you are ready to wash, bring the knob back to the beginning of the wash cycle and let it run all the way through. Then, hang to dry outside in the sun, or by a window that gets direct sunlight.
If you don’t have your own washing machine, do what I do; simply turn your shower tub into a soaking station.
- Make sure the water won’t drain
- Fill up the tub about an 1/8 full (this isn’t exact science just eye ball it) with hot water
- Add all of your washing tools including your detergent
- Swish the mixture around using the handle part of a broom, or what-have-you, until it’s dissolved,
- Add your white jiu-jitsu gis or white clothes
- Make sure there is enough water to barely cover all of the fabrics
- Use the broom to agitate everything as if you were washing by hand
- Soak for as long as you possibly can (a couple of hours is good, overnight is better)
- Transfer to a washing machine and wash as normal
There you have it folks. Use these methods to wash your white jiu-jitsu Gis or white clothes to a brilliantly white and super sexy look. You will be all the rage and submit more people as they get blinded by the whiteness of your gis.
This is the best way to wash your jiu-jitsu gi that I know of.
For tips and methods on washing your black and dark BJJ gis, click here.
It would be awesome if any of you took before and after pictures after using these methods and showed me.
Follow me: @rubeneavila
Great article. I thought vinegar is/was used for dark colored gis to set the color.
Also, I thought I read somewhere that vinegar can actually set stains. I’m assuming you have not had that experience? I’m a bit confused.
Thanks again for the article.
Hey Al,
Thanks for reading and taking your time to comment.
Vinegar is great for setting color on dark colored fabrics, gis, and clothes. It’s also a natural deodorizer. As far as stains go, no I have not had that effect. In fact, quite the opposite. I have even gone as far as starting to use vinegar for many household cleaning chores because it works so well and it’s crazy inexpensive.
In most of what I have read vinegar is often used to remove stains that are already set in.
I use vinegar to. Clean my house it works great although my husbands Gi hasn’t turned out bright White as of yet I’ll give it another go…
For me, soaking time makes a huge difference. Try adding one or two of the other things on the list to see if it helps.
Couple questions:
First one is just for clarification..
The vinegar will NOT mess with the contrast stitching/colored patches, correct?
Second.. my washer has a separate compartment in which I put my detergent in, do I put the vinegar in there WITH the detergent or do I put the vinegar directly onto the gi? The mild yellow stain around the neck on my white gi kills my OCD-ish-ness, so I would like to get rid of it, lol.
Hey Rob!
Thanks for commenting.
1. The vinegar will not mess with the contrast stitching at all. In fact, I use vinegar when washing my dark bjj stuff too. There’s another blog post on here about that where I explain that.
2. I would put the vinegar in there with the detergent as well.
Thanks for writing this out. I bought three blue gis in a row because I’m scared of the yellow stains. I finally got a white one but I’m worried about the hot water, won’t it shrink it?
Thanks.
Hey Corey, thanks for asking. In my experience, I have had negligible shrinking if any at all. So, my answer, is no. You do not have to worry about any EXTRA shrinking with hot water that you wouldn’t have already had with cold water.
Most Gi companies pre-shrink their stuff before you get it anyway. However, if you dry your Gis in a dryer, you may experience further shrinking. Funny, as we speak, all of my white Gis are hanging right now directly in front of a window facing the sun.
As for your blue gis, check out my guide on how to wash your dark bjj gear. I wash my blue Gis with my black Gis and it’s kept them looking good for years now.
Thanks James for taking the time to reply back.
I’m Ruben, but you are still welcome! Let me know how it works for you.
Great instructions. I have been mixing my own laundry detergent and using vinegar in place of fabric softener for about a year now. I am really interested to add the Hydrogen Peroxide and see if that helps. Our white Gis aren’t to bad right now, but we also only us cold water currently. I think if we switch to hot water, add Peroxide and hang dry, maybe we can get them to a whiter white 🙂
I haven’t add any issues with smell on our Gis but i can’t seem to get our rash guards clean without having a slight smell after they dry. We never put them in the dryer, always hang drying. Any thoughts?
Thanks again
Hey James, thanks for stopping by. Rashguards are made from materials that just hold on to stink much more than cotton does, unfortunately. So, what I do, is soak the hell out of them as long as I can in the mixture I use to wash them. If you have darker or colored rashguards, I suggest using the coffee method that I use for my dark bjj gear. You can find it, here.
What about gis with patches? Will any of these methods discolour them or cause the colours to run?
Hey Kyle, thanks for asking. I have used this method more times than I could count, and I have never had even the slightest discoloration or any other issue on my patches. That’s kind of the point of using these methods over something like bleach which will definitely ruin patches.
Hope that helps! Come back and let me know how this worked for you.
Great article. I found that soaking it in some really diluted bleach helped bring my white gi back to good as new.
Just be careful! Bleach is the enemy of cotton fiber lol.
I’d like to know a couple of things before I try this.
Number 1: You mention “I’ll soak the white gis (or white clothes) for as long as possible in HOT water.” After this is done do you start the cycle in HOT or COLD water? If you say HOT… wouldn’t that shrink the gi? I have not done any shrinking to most of my gis before, because they just happen to fit me perfectly when I have received them. Also, my gis are Prana, Origin, and CTRL and they really emphasize that their gis shrink a lot if washed in hot water. I’d like to know what you recommend is better and why as well.
Number 2: Out of all those products, which one do you think is best when it comes for the focus of really clearing out the dirt that accumulates inside the collars?
Thanks in Advance!
Hey Andres, I’d be happy to answer your questions as best I can, but it seems your post got cut off.
Sorry about that. Don’t seem to know why the post got cut off.
This is what I posted:
I’d like to know a couple of things before I try this.
Number 1: You mention “I’ll soak the white gis (or white clothes) for as long as possible in HOT water.” After this is done do you start the cycle in HOT or COLD water? If you say HOT… wouldn’t that shrink the gi? I have not done any shrinking to most of my gis before, because they just happen to fit me perfectly when I have received them. Also, my gis are Prana, Origin, and CTRL and they really emphasize that their gis shrink a lot if washed in hot water. I’d like to know what you recommend is better and why as well.
Number 2: Out of all those products, which one do you think is best when it comes for the focus of really clearing out the dirt that accumulates inside the collars?
Thanks in Advance!
P.S. Sorry for responding so late.
Not a problem, glad to be here to try to answer your questions! Here’s my opinion.. I haven’t had a gi that fit me SO perfectly that I was afraid it would shrink and ruin the fit for me. Also, I have found that it’s drying the Gis that make them shrink more so than washing in hot water. I have found that the act of hanging them prevents shrinkage probably because the fabric is weighed down by the moisture. Does that make sense? I would also be much less worried about Gis that have already been washed several times before too.
If you are very worried and have a perfect fit, just follow the same process but with cold water. It’ll work better than a normal wash, I promise.
If I had to guess which one gets the dirt out the most, it would probably be the oxi-clean. But, take my opinion with a grain of salt!
I know you posted this awhile ago, but I found it when I was looking for the best way to take care of my gi. I think you have some fantastic tips! I wanted to let you know that Rockin’ Green Soap makes something called Sport Rock that was actually formulated for gis! It is AWESOME! No special pretreating or soaking or adding anything to the wash except the Sport Rock and it gets all the funk out of my gis. There’s no optical brighteners to mess with the fabric and it even has tea tree oil in it to help knock out the bacteria funk. I hope that’s a helpful tip for you!
Thanks Melissa, would love to try some out if you guys want to send some over my way.
Do you wash your gi after every use? Can you wear under armor or something to buffer the sweat so you don’t wear it out with over washing? Also, red vinegar or white or does it matter?
I wash my gi after each use. I would never, and don’t suggest anyone else for that matter, reuse their gi after training even if they wore a rashguard under it. Your own germs aren’t the huge problem. It’s the commingling of germs from other people that begins to create problems.
DO NOT USE RED VINEGAR.
Hey Ruben, I just stumbled upon this, as I just got a Dobok for Taekwondo WTF that came with a cheap-o “string” obi, and since i’m not currently using my Aikidogi, nor the 2mts obi, I thought I’d use that one instead. Here’s the thing though:
The obi is near yellow with use, and I’ve found myself scrubbing it with dishwashing detergent (the closest thing I had at home) without much success, not to mention the fact that its price is something that makes me think about using it that way twice.
So, i’m looking for the quickest, most efficient way of leaving the Obi pristine white like my Dobok. The belt itself has never been washed (not out of tradition, but simply of lazyness back then, I’d just leave it breath outside), so I wouldn’t mind going a bit rough to get that “pure” white. Besides, it just feels wrong to see the nice white dobok paired up with the near yellow Obi.
Should I just soak it in bleach and let it drown?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Hey Luciano, thanks for dropping by. I tried googling “obi” but could not get a definitive answer. Is an obi a belt? At any rate, I do not recommend soaking in bleach. Soaking in bleach will greatly deteriorate the integrity of the fabric and will decrease its life span. Instead, I recommend agitating it with a combination of the items listed in this article and letting it soak overnight and then running it through a full wash cycle. I also encourage you to let it dry in the sun as that is another good way to whiten all fabrics. Let me know how it goes!
Great article. I am going to wash my Gi for first time. I am so glad that I have found your tips. I am planning to use lemon juice. Greetings!
Thanks reading and leaving a comment, Candice. Let me know how it goes!
Nice article Ruben. Good info. Thanks for posting & responding to questions. I don’t suppose you know of a good way to get the funk out of boxing gloves, do you?
Our gym-gloves smell like fresh dog sh… well, let’s just say they could smell better. But you can’t really soak them, you know what I mean? Any ideas?
Hey Mike, thanks for dropping by and for the kind words. Try filling up a sock with cedar wood chips and putting that in the gloves. I’m sure you can get cheap cedar wood chips from a home depot or some such. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks Ruben for the awesome article!
Hey Mike, I mixed up a half cup of apple cider vinegar, a half cup of borax and 2 cups of water and put it in a spray bottle for my daughter’s shoes. I had to spray the inside of her shoes every night and let them dry overnight to combat stinky shoe odor. It worked, but if I missed a night they stunk to high heaven again!
Hi Amy,
I am glad it was of some use and glad you have found a way to combat stinky shoes!
Hi, Ruben! Thanks for this article! I want to get a white gi but have been terrified of it getting dingy. I have finally decided to go ahead and get one so I googled how to properly wash it.
I have one question, do you ever combine 2 or 3 or 4 of these methods in the same wash cycle? If so, what have you found to be the best combos?
Thanks!
Hi Heidi,
I have gone as far as combining all methods at once on several occasions. My favorites are the vinegar, baking soda, and lemon!
Awesome! Thank you so much! I am actually excited now about getting a white gi. 🙂
Nice! Come back and let me know how it goes. ?
Hello,
My son is in Karate and has a white belt with a colored stripe and they use colored tape as their skill stripes as visual markers for the younger kids to earn their next belts. Do you have any tips on how to keep his belt clean?
Hi Cynthia, are you adverse to washing the belt?
It’s not that I don’t want to wash the belt, it’s that it has tape on it. If I throw the belt in the washer with his GI, then the tape will come off. I was hoping you had a trick or idea to avoid doung that.
What type of tape do they use? Do you know?
I’m pretty sure it’s electrical tape. I guess I could really just go buy all the colors, wash his belt and replace them. But I almost feel as though I’m not supposed to do that. Because they were put there by his Sensi. If I’m really just over thinking it, you can tell me. But his belt gets so dirty.
Electrical tape stays on longer than athletic tape, so you’ll probably be fine. If it falls off, it’s okay to put them back on. Health is more important.
Can I soak the white Gi over night in cold water, vinegar and Borax. Then normal cold water wash with Tide Sport detergent ?
You absolutely can, Jo. Let me know how it goes.
which method do you think is the most effective for getting out smells? i have a second hand gi and washed it with detergent, but the smell of ammonia (from the original owner) is still very strong. any suggestions on which method/combos to attempt first?
Hi Su, I like vinegar, lemon, and baking soda for smells. But, if I were you, I would do every single possible method listed here. The smell is bacteria that isn’t getting killed properly.
Thanks for your tips! And funny coincidence, my brother-in-law is Team Yemaso too.
Really? Where does he train!?
I can see this is a pretty old post but I’m hoping you’re still active! My partner recently started a BJJ class and has a lot of old gis for his students. Most of the white ones are going pretty grey so I thought I would try soaking some in the bath with some stain remover stuff and managed to make them worse as the colour on his black patch ran! He says he’s going to buy a new one as he needed one anyway but I’m wondering if there is anything that can fix this? I’m relunctant to try any soaking with his other gis incase the same happens, but I’m definitely going to try some of your tips to keep his new one white.
Hi Beth!
Still around, haven’t written anything new in a while. Comments like these make me want to write again, although I wish more people would hit me up on social.
ANYWAY lol
Try some of these tips without the soak. In particular, lemon, vinegar, and baking soda will be worth your while.
Then dry in the sun.