Please help me get my whites white again!

[AngryBadger]

Hello all!

I am a terrible house keeper but now I am on maternity leave I am trying to change my ways (have signed up to Flylady, let's hope it helps!).

For those are you who are more organised than me, I have some washing questions... 1) How can I get White clothes that have turned grey, white again? My DS has White school polo shirts that have a really grey tinge, the shirts have some red stitching on... Can I bleach them?


2) does a White wash have to be JUST white? At the moment I throw all the pale things on together (pale pink, pale grey etc). Is this wrong?

I have two DC's, a DH with dirty work/sports clothes, I seem to be constantly washing and often throwing clothes away because I can't get stains out. What am I doing wrong? Any tips appreciated on organising laundry in general, sorry for stupid questions, I don't know how others manage to cope so well domestically when it's such a challenge to me...

Thank you in advance :-)

P.S- I wash at 60, normally use persil and do not have a utility room (space to store laundry is limited).

[Mspontipine]

IME once your whites have gone grey there's no return. Yes a white wash means a white wash. If you put pale pinks, greys you end up with aforementioned grey tinged white I wash all whites together with half a scoop of oxi stain remover/whitener and they stay white.

I use a Vanish bar for the odd stain - food / choc etc but can't help with dirty sports.work clothes. 60s a lot hotter than I wash stuff and you'd have thought persil would do the job! Is it non-bio as think bio's more effective.

[Mspontipine]

IMO I think I meant!

[LordOfTheFlies]

I sort my laundry into :
whites- shirts, towels, DC school shirts, DH works shirts

white tunics (work) for DH and me + my Tshirts which I wash seperately at 60

light colours
dark colours

Black

Whites can be revived by soaking overnight with Vanish? Ariel stain remover then wash and hang out in sunlight.
I like Daz for whites.
Dylon Ultra Whitener sachets (even worked on white pants- not mine BTW)

[Pedicuri]

I do whites, pale pinks and pale blue together.
I have to say, I have only just started hanging out my washing in the sunshine and it has made a HUGE difference to my whites.