Do you hate sorting, washing, and drying your white and colored clothes every week? Are you not sure how to separate your laundry?
Even though it might not make sense, your moms have probably taught you never to wash white and colored clothes together. But why? What would happen if you did? Can you really stain your clothes?
Well, that’s what we’re here to find out. Let’s jump right in and see which colors you can wash with your white laundry.
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Mixing Whites and Colors
Mixing your white and colorful laundry is usually a bad idea. For starters, you need to wash your white clothes at a higher temperature to ensure they get clean and stay bright.
But if you wash your colorful clothes at the same temperature, their colors might bleed and transfer onto your whites. The risk of color bleeding is especially high if your clothes are new. For example, if you put a new pair of black pants or jeans in the same load as your whites, it actually might turn all of your white clothes gray.
Also, I would avoid washing white T-shirts with brightly colored prints on them at a high temperature. The colors will easily bleed and you’ll ruin a perfectly good shirt.
The only time I’d recommend combining white and colored clothes is if you have extremely light or pastel-colored clothes. Again, it would be better if you separated them. But if you need to wash your clothes and don’t have enough for a full load, you can mix pastels and whites at your own risk.
Washing White Laundry
There are two main reasons why your white laundry has to be washed in hot water. To start, most white clothes include underwear or sheets that you need to sanitize and you simply can’t do that in cold water. Also, if you’re using bleach to make your white clothes brighter, you have to do it in hot water.
What’s more, dirt tends to easily redeposit on clothes that haven’t been washed at high temperatures. So, if you want to get tough stains out on your first go, you have to do it in hot water.
The two most common mistakes I see people making are over-stuffing their washing machines and putting too much laundry detergent in. First, when you’re packing your machine, never go over the recommended weight limit because the clothes won’t come out completely clean.
Also, make sure to put the exact right amount of laundry detergent in. Otherwise, your beautiful white clothes might come out looking muddy or gray.
Sorting White Laundry
When sorting white laundry, you need to make two piles that I like to call sturdy and delicate. In your sturdy pile, you’ll put all of your white cotton shirts, linens, socks, and cotton underwear. Your delicate pile should have any clothes made from silk or Spandex, for example.
Of course, before you put anything in the machine, make sure to check the labels on the clothes. All of them should have a recommended washing temperature, so you don’t have to rack your brain.
Bleaching White Laundry
Using bleach on white clothes will keep them looking bright for a long time. However, you have to be careful when buying bleach, as not all bottles were created equal. First, check the labels on your clothes to see if you can even use it.
If you see an empty triangle on the labels, you can safely use bleach. What’s more, if the triangle has two lines inside of it, you’re good to go as long as you use a non-chlorine solution.
But if the triangle is crossed out with an ex or is black, stay away from the bleach. If you put bleach on clothes with this label, you’ll probably end up destroying them.
Drying White and Colorful Laundry Together
When it comes to drying white and colorful laundry, I say keep them separate. Your colorful clothes might stain your white ones because of all the tumbling and turning in the dryer.
The same goes for your light and dark clothes. If you want to be on the safe side, put everything in separate loads.
In Conclusion
As you can see, washing your white and colorful clothes is a bad idea more often than not. If you absolutely have to mix these loads, only do it with extremely light or pastel colors. Also, always keep them separate in the dryer to avoid color staining or bleeding.
And if all else fails and you’ve colored your white clothes, go in with some bleach and try to fix it as soon as possible. Just make sure you’ve checked what kind of triangle is on the label.
