Getting whites clean and keep them white!

[MrsWarleggan]

A month back to school and my daughters pristine white shirts and socks are already grey and dirty looking. I've cleaned washing machine (Dr Beckenham stuff) and wash separately to colours with soda crystals but still grey 🙄 also stains don't appear to be coming out. I'm washing at 40c.

Tips, products to get my whites clean and keep them white please!! I hate sending her to school in them!!

Sorry when you say you separate do you mean whites go on with colours or are they on their own.

I wash whites completely on their own. At 60 degrees. That is the only way to keep them white, IMO.

@AuntImmortelle

On there own. One of two may have slipped in to colours with DH doing the wash!! 🙄 Will try a hotter wash. I have stopped short of doing it as I didn't want anything to shrink!!

Do you use biological washing products? Vanish?

Bio powder and a scoop of vanish type stuff. Powder will keep items whiter than liquids as they contain bleaches

I wash at 40⁰C with bio powder

I wash whites completely on their own at 40 degrees with ecover no -bio and half a scoop of vanish whites in the drum.

Everything comes out fine except for white socks. I figure that no one is going to judge the bottoms of my DD's feet, so don't let the grubby underneath bother me.

Wash at 30 with non bio scoop of Oct if really grim. Shirts are fine, socks not so much but no one can see the soles.

Both of mine are exczema prone so we don't really have a choice.

Hang them in the sun if you get a chance

Non bio liquid capsules at the moment. Will pick up some bio powder and vanish later!! Thanks for your tips 😊

All whites load, at least 40 degrees, bio powder and a scoop of vanish or the pink stuff powder. If anything is really bad will soak in vanish/pink stuff powder and water for 20 mins or so before chucking in the wash.

Non bio powder would have bleaches too if its non bio you prefer. Bio is better for food stains though as the enzymes break them down

If the school shirts are polycotton you should probably wash them only with other polycotton whites. They can grey if washed with pure cotton.

This page has some great advice: www.visionlinens.com/blog/laundry-advice

If you wash things on higher than 40 degrees with biological powder/tablets whatever the biological enzymes are destroyed and the “bio” part doesn’t work.

Bio up to 40, non bio for over 40.

It’s not that hard. Tips I’ve picked up and used off here are:

Colour catcher in every wash, even in all white washes.
1/3 more powder. Bio or non bio.

2 scoops astonish laundry bleach (vanish is tested on animals)
1 scoop washing soda.

I wash at 40 but I press the extra rinse button so all dirt is rinsed away and can’t settle back onto the clothes.

Laundry bleach is safe to soak in so you could soak them all in a bucket overnight.

I have a separate basket for whites, just whites...!
I put them on a hotter wash than everything else, with a colour catcher sheet and sometimes with a scoop of that oxy white powder. On the whole, everything still looks white