Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert and advice columnist. She'll be here every week helping to answer your filthiest questions. Are you dirty? Email her. Are you still dirty? Subscribe to Ask a Clean Person: The Podcast on Acast, iTunes or Stitcher, and like Ask a Clean Person on Facebook.

I'm reaching out after binge-reading 12 of your columns on Esquire. I noticed white vinegar is a common factor in your articles, for wiping out discoloration and odors. I'm trying to get the yellow/stank out of my sheets (fitted and flat) and pillowcases and I was wondering if this would work with my sheets? The ones I truly care about are normal, lightweight sheets (not flannel, though my flannel sheets also kind of smell...).

What do you recommend? I've loved reading your articles and look forward to listening to your podcast. Keep up the good work and thanks in advance!

Usually I edit out the accolades in the emails you guys send me for the sake of not turning this column into a Jolie Kerr tonguebath (though I do love the tonguebaths! I appreciate every kind word so, so, so much, you guys.) But I left the comments about binge-reading Ask a Clean Person so I could tell you about a funny thing my editor said to me when we were in the initial talks about bringing the column to Esquire: He goes, "It's the weirdest thing, I'll start reading a column to figure out how to deal with ring-around-the-collar and then, like, two hours later I realize that I'm in a rabbithole learning about how to remove a pound of butter from a car seat. I don't even have a car."

All of which is to say you're in great company—and it's really very, very normal to find yourself in an AaCP hole. And I'll let you in on a secret: The thing about these columns that's so addictive has very little to do with me. (Don't tell my editor that, though!) The thing that's so compelling is you guys, your great questions and, more importantly, the stories behind how the messes got made. There's a relatability to a Q&A-style column that works so well, and I'm forever grateful that you all trust me with your problems. Got more? Email me any time !

Okay, now let's get on with the business of saving your sheets, which is actually a pretty easy thing to do. You just need to learn about a few products beyond our old pal, white vinegar.

Reversing Yellowing and Dinginess in Sheets

There are a number of good ways to reverse the effect our bodily excretions have on our sheets, but for today we'll stick with the three that I think are best. I'm gonna go ahead and say that, in my own life, I've not had much luck with white vinegar as a brightening agent. As a deodorizer? It's aces. But for stain removal or to use to remove dinge, I just don't think it's the best choice. Here are the things I like, in the order I would try them.

Oxygen Bleach

Oxygen bleach is really great stuff, and it's what you should use in the wash to keep whites from turning yellow in the first place, or at least stave off yellowing for longer than just washing with detergent alone will. It's used in two ways: 1. In the wash as a "booster" in addition to regular detergent and/or 2. As a soaking agent to help brighten up whites that have developed a stubborn yellow or dingy cast. To use for soaking, dissolve a scoop in hot water and soak the sheets for at least an hour, up to overnight. The longer the better! Then launder as usual.

Bluing

Longtime readers know that this weird and kind of old-fashioned product makes my clean heart sing like an oriole. (The songbird, not the ballplayer. I'm a Red Sox fan, anyway.) Bluing turns laundry blue, which is oddly a thing you definitely want when it comes to white stuff that's turned yellow, because yellow and blue oppose each other on the color perception wheel. That's a fancy way of saying that if you add blue to yellow, you'll end up with white. Cool, right? One thing to note: Bluing isn't a cleaning agent, so, like oxygen bleach, it's used in the wash in addition to laundry detergent. You should also check the usage instructions on the brand you buy because they do vary quite significantly from product to product. In closing, is what I use; is also quite popular and easy to find.

SHOP Bluette: $7,

SHOP Mrs. Stewarts: $6,

The Cascade Method

By , I literally mean Cascade the stuff you put in your dishwasher. I know! It's an old caterer's trick that they use to keep their white jackets and table linens, well, white. And it does indeed work like a charm. The idea is to soak the whites (sheets, in the case of our Letter Writer) in hot, hot, hot water and a big scoop of Cascade powder, after which you'll launder them as usual. It must be the powder stuff. The soaking should take place for at least an hour, and can go longer, though remember that Cascade is harsh, so you don't want to leave the fibers in there too long. The harshness factor is also why I put it last on the list—this technique is what's known in the business as The Big Guns. Save it for when all else fails.

SHOP Cascade: $6,

Eliminating Lingering Malodor

Okay, now here's where the white vinegar comes in: It's SO good at eliminating lingering odors, even ones that hang on stubbornly to otherwise clean laundry.

To use white vinegar in the wash, add a ½-1 cup of the stuff (less if you have an HE machine) to the rinse cycle—you can do that manually when the rinse cycle indicator comes on, our you can put the vinegar into the liquid fabric softener compartment, which will automatically release at the right point in the festivities. You may get a bit of a whiff of vinegar when the sheets come out of the washer, but as they dry the smell will dissipate. Don't worry about being haunted by dreams of pickled vegetables.

I think white vinegar is the best choice here because it's cheap and it works. But, some people hate the smell of vinegar so much that I want them to have options. is a laundry booster, akin to oxygen bleach and bluing, that's good for both brightening and deodorizing; is exactly what it sounds like; or a sports detergent, like The Sweethome's pick for odor elimination, are all great choices for the vinegar-averse.

SHOP Borax: $10,

SHOP Zero Odor: $14,

SHOP Tide: $14,

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