the cleaning power of sodium hypochlorite to remove stains such as menstrual fluid or underarm perspiration stains from clothes and other soft fabric articles while significantly increasing the compatibility of sodium hypochlorite with soft fabric such as cotton fabric thereby preventing sodium hypochlorite from damaging the fabric the discovery of the hypochlorite salt containing composition as an effective cleaning composition is disclosed in co pending u s patent application ser nos 10 373 787 and 10 612 016 incorporated by reference herein the metallic salt of hypochlorous acid preferably is sodium hypochlorite the alkali metal hydroxide preferably is sodium hydroxide it should of course be understood that other hypochlorous salts and or alkali metal hydroxides can also be used in the present invention sodium hypochlorite naocl dissolves in water to sodium and hypochlorite ions the hypochlorite ion is a strong oxidant which can react with numerous materials the stability of the sodium hypochlorite composition is affected by the ph of the composition it has been reported that sodium hypochlorite is the most stable when the ph of the composition is between 11 to 13 such a high ph can be created by adding excess alkali metal hydroxide such as sodium hydroxide to the sodium hypochlorite composition thus the ph of the hypochlorite salt containing composition preferably is at least about 11 8 for instance the ph of the hypochlorite salt containing composition.