White laundry will be stain-free with simple two-ingredient natural solution - not vinegar

Keeping your white-washing looking fresh, sparkling and with a fantastic bright shine can be much easier said than done. Whether it's spilling some tomato sauce on a new white t-shirt or the dark build-up of dirt on white socks, sometimes the washing machine doesn't quite do the job.

Several extra-strength detergents and stain removers can be found lining supermarket shelves but while they do often do the trick, they can be expensive. But one age-old technique has seen a resurgence and it doesn't call for any fancy chemicals or even the at-home remedies of baking soda and vinegar. What's better, it will only set you back around 40p as all you need is one lemon, a good pinch of salt and some time basking in the sun.

The environmentally friendly and sustainable solution was tested out by Robin Shreeves from TreeHugger, she said: "I didn't notice that there was a stain on one of my favourite white gauze blouses, and when I pulled it out this spring, there it was - big, yellow, front and centre."

Despite giving her usual techniques a go, nothing good quite lifted the yellow stain that had set in over months, that was until she was reminded of the lemon juice trick.

The writer added: "This past weekend, I decided I was going to tackle that stain. This time, I used a natural combination of lemon juice, Kosher salt, and nine hours in the sun. I'm excited to say that my shirt is now wearable again."

The method has some science behind it too, working in several different ways to try and lift over any smudges.

First, the salt acts as an abrasive, helping to scrub the stain loose and get into the fibres of the clothes.

Second, the citric acid in the lemon juice helps to react with whatever has stained your clothes, lifting them and returning them back to their original white shine.

Finally, the time in the sun helps make it truly sparkle as when lemon juice comes into contact with the sun it starts to take on a mild bleaching quality, with the sunlight further enhancing this effect the longer it stays outside.

For the technique start by lightly wetting the stain. Then give a good dowsing in lemon juice, around a quarter of a lemon should do the trick. Give a generous pour of salt - the finer the better - and give a good scrub.

Next, give it another rinse under water before patting it dry. Finally, squeeze on some more lemon juice and leave out in direct sun for as long as possible.