Laundry shops can make white clothes very white and bright. What are their secrets?
I am tired of white clothes and towels going brownish eventhough we are using a lot of detergent and bleach!
Do we need any special detergent, water softener?
Please advise
I have been able to make my whites gray or brown or pink by washing them with colored clothes. That's OK. I'm thinking of wearing only black in support of our troops until W is voted out.
Too much bleach can damage all colors including white. Too much detergent can make whites dingy.
On the other hand, if you have hard water, you may need more detergent to keep residue from clinging to fabrics. Adding vinegar to the rinse can dissolve the residue. Drying whites in the sun can also help.
To keep white shirts white, wear a bib when eating barbecue. If you've been to Barbecue Bob's, you already know we have FREE BIBS.
Hi bob,
Looks like the only sure fire way is to stop eating at Barbecue Bob, or wear your free bibs for all occasions hehehe...
Anyway, thanks for your suggestions. We will buy a water softener just for the washer and add vinegar to rinse to see what happen!
Happy barbecuing!
I have very hard water, and adding a water softener is not an option, because I'm in a rental house, and there's no room for one in the existing closet where the waterheater and AC unit are.
I get much better results from OxiClean than I ever did from bleach, but I don't go by the instructions on the container -- I put 4 scoops of OxyClean in an extra-large load of whites along with detergent, and let it soak in hot water overnight after letting it agitate a few minutes and turning it off.
Our underwear almost glows in the dark. ;-)
My husband has work boots that for more than a year left dark brown leather dye stains on the toes and heels of his socks every day, and the OxiClean soak even got that almost completely out every week. Some dingy and food-stained blue and white kitchen towels that never came completely clean with bleach looked new again after a couple of rounds of soaking in the OxiClean.
I get the big 12 pound pail of OxyClean from Sam's Club for about $10. At one extra-large load of whites per week, it lasts me about a year. It also doesn't rot the fabric out like bleach does; socks and underwear are lasting a good 2 years instead of starting to fall apart in well under a year of weekly bleaching.
That sounds cheap. OxiClean is mostly washing soda, a water softener. That's what helps your detergent work and keeps residue from sticking to the cloth.
OxiClean can be too slow for a washing machine. You solved that by soaking overnight.
Some swimming pools use bleaching chemicals without chlorine, but bathing suits deteriorate as fast as they do in chlorine pools. In the laundry, I wonder why household bleach has a reputation for being harsher than oxygen bleach.
Household bleach whitens whites but too much will weaken the fabric. I use a simple detergent, a small amount of bleach, water softener and borax to whiten laundry. Always separate colors and whites. Hanging laundry in the sun to dry will help bleach them. I do not use any fabric softeners.
Dear all,
Thanks for your kind suggestions. It seems that combinations of various approaches will definitely solve this problem very well.
Are there any water softeners that can be added to the water that would work without long soaks? Brands? What stores?
I think I need softened water but would rather not having to add a bulky tub into the wash room.
Dear Phiserman,
What brands of water softener? Where to buy? What is Borax?
The sun is out of the question for us because the LA smog would just add more dirt to the clothes. You should see how dusty the cars are here! Besides we really have no time to hang clothes out!
Thanks for your suggestions. Please understand that I am only doing the research for my boss!
I always use washing soda to soften up my water - in the bath for me, in the washing machine for clothes, in the kitchen sink bowl for washing up and in the bucket for cleaning floors and walls.
Calgon makes a liquid (used to be powder) hard water softener which I found in the laundry section of my supermarket.
Thanks for your kind suggestions. It seems that combinations of various approaches will definitely solve this problem very well.
Are there any water softeners that can be added to the water that would work without long soaks? Brands? What stores?
I think I need softened water but would rather not having to add a bulky tub into the wash room.
"Calgon" is a popular brand of water softener. You can buy it at WalMart, Sam's Club, or probably Ralphs. Borax is soda ash--an excellent laundry booster and cleaning supply staple because it has many uses. Look for "Mule Team Borax" in the cardboard box. Another option is to take your whites to a service place. For busy people there are many places in LA that have drop-off laundry service and you pay by the pound.
Let me be the first to apologize on behalf of Phish. Sincere, on-topic questions should not be subjected to trolling.
Borax is sodium tetraborate decahydrate. Soda ash is sodium carbonate.
Borax can be used as a water softener. Washing soda is also used to soften water. Washing soda is soda ash that has absorbed some water. Maybe it's sold that way to prevent caking.
Not sure what I was thinking that day (maybe I'm just getting old), but I made a false statement. Borax is not soda ash and I did not have sex with that woman. Thanks for the correction BB.
Here's a trick I got from someone who deals in antique textiles: Mix 1 Cup liquid Cascade (yeah - the dishwaher stuff) and 1/4 Cup Clorox Ultra 2 to a gallon of water. Soak your garment(s). I multiplied this by the gallonage in my washer and did some old crocheted coverlets - they were brown and stained with age. 15 minutes later started seeing them go white.
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