Before you throw out that stained pillowcase or dusty couch cover you think can't be salvaged, it's worth trying to 'strip wash' them.

The three-ingredient soaking system is taking the internet by storm after a mother boasted about the results she'd seen in a post on Facebook - complete with some eye-opening before and after photographs. 

'I'm in the middle of strip soaking my "clean" bed sheets... to say I'm repulsed by the colour of the water is an understatement,' she wrote. 

The before snap shows a bath filled with the 'strip washing' solution - made up of Borax, or sodium borate, and soda crystals dissolved in water with ordinary washing powder - while the after shot reveals the murky coloured liquid left behind when the sheets were removed.