my children's school shirts are embarrassingly grey.............

[zizou]

I thought I didn't care about this, but now they are REALLY REALLY Grey. I have been using Ecover at 40 degrees and topping it up with ecover bleach where necessary, but they are still right grubby. Any eco-friendly suggestions, or should I post on environment?

buy some new ones???

hang out on line if not raining?or stick in window

also maybe one wash at 60 every now and then.thats what i do with ds nappies.

i always biotex whiutes tbh

keep an evil un-green stash of normal biologicla powder with optical brighetners etc and do them in that occasionally.
Ecover doesn't get things white - clean yes, but not white.

I take it you never ever mix whites and colours?

i felt like an advert the other day when a frien's child arrived on the doorstep for me to take him to school with a bright white shirt, making my ds look like a grey copy. I asked the classic 'how do you get your whites so white?' hot wash and bio detergents, it's the only answer, its what they were made for but not very enviro friendly i'm afraid - i guess you've justgot to choose between green and white.

My first golden rule is to have whites-only washes - but I don't want to insult you by assuming you don't already do this!

Otherwise, I just use soapnuts on a 40 degree wash, with about a tablespoon of Ecover laundry bleach. Every now and then when the collars are looking a bit grubby (especially in summer), I rub on a bit of Ecover stain remover.

That works for us - I bought new school shirts for my 3 last August and they are washed every week like above and all are still lovely and white.

Ohhhh get some of the Vanish Oxyaction super white...or whatever it is called. It is fantastic!!!!

yes, I recommend an occasional hotter wash too.

Also hanging clothes out in the sun can work wonders, as can washing blue and white clothes together: the blue acts as an optical brightener.

Ecover does not contain optical brightners like other powders etc (which is good as their is debate about whether they permenantly bind to your skin)... anyway optical brighteners (aka bleach) are what makes whites white (and fade colours) therefor by using ecover alone you will not get white whites.

(this is another reason why its important to use a different detergent for white clothes and coloured clothes)

you should sue ecover whitner every time to keep whites white... not sure it would whiten them though.

maybe as a one off you could buy a whitener (or just use bleach) which will get them back to bright white again.

also sunlight is Very good at getting whites white and stubborn stains to just go away too!

Soda crystals in the wash work well too.

Did someone else already say this - SUNLIGHT. If you can hang shirts in the sun it instantly whitens them (fades stains too, apparently)

sunshine.... if we ever get any. otherwise vanish oxyaction whitener whatever it is.

I'd give up, send them to the charity shop and buy new white ones for the summer term. You're really not being enviromentally unfriendly by doing this as they are being re-cycled.
And please nobody say, 'Oooo, they're not good enough for you, but they're good enough for some one else...'
Lame argument.

Thank you
I do wash seperately, honest....
these are all good suggestions
shade your eyes
watch out as zizou's dds swan around xxxxxxxxham in their BRIGHT WHITE SHIRTS FROM NOW ON.
CHEEEEEEEARS.