Share with Fairy Non Bio your tips and tricks for mixing colours and fabrics. £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

The rules on laundry and what to do with mixing colours and fabrics can sometimes get a bit confusing with different people saying different things. Therefore Fairy Non Bio would like to know what your tips and tricks are when it comes to mixing colours and fabrics?

Here’s what Fairy Non Bio have to say: “Everyone’s got their own way of doing things. We design our products so that you can get the most out of every load but would love to know how you divide and conquer your washing and what you use for it!”

Do you find that once colours have been washed once you can mix them with the lighter colours? Are there certain fabrics that you know can be easily washed together? Or have you figured out a laundry system that means your dark colours no longer bleed into lighter clothes? Maybe you’ve had a laundry disaster that forced you to change how you did things?

Whatever your tips are, share them on the thread below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Separate clothes into dark whites and colors

Our laudry basket has 3 compartments so you divide colours as you go.I do tend to find tho that once you've washed some darker colours a couple of times the chance of dye bleed is greatly reduced.Also don't leave wet washing on the machine as this allows dyes to transfer across

I mix all sorts of fabrics & colours once I know they will not bleed. Also wash the mixed ones at 30 degrees to avoid a colour run.

I do 60 degree whites wash with added oxyaction
Generally a pale and a darker wash depending on what's in my pile but some dark things I mentally class as pales as I know they've been washed so many times
Anything new with strong colour I put in kitchen half sink in water and leave it overnight or all day swooshing it about every so often to see what colour run like. Then I will put it in with dark wash so even if it runs a bit it won't matter (with black or navy socks pants t shirts etc)

I tend to use a lower heat quick wash for mixed colours and fabrics

Ive had a few bad experiences after throwing caution to the wind and chucking it all in together, white bras and beautiful baby grows ruined! So now I do whites separately with glow white, anything that hasn't been washed before gets done with similar colors if not it gets thrown in the machine together.

learn from your mistakes :)

Everything apart from towels and bedding gets done at 30, and then it's just whites and coloured

I am very careful about washing clothes according to colour. I do a whites, lights and dark wash. If I have several reds, they get washed separately also. Knits go on the woollen wash. Occasionally I soak the whites (cotton) in a diluted bleach solution before washing to bring back the whiteness.
Colour run sheets are also good if washing clothes that are mixed in colour, for example, a black dress with a white collar. I wash these clothes on maximum 30 degrees.

I keep my white wash totally separate and often use a whitener in addition to detergents

I mix colours together and use a colour protect liquid and put it on a quick wash at a low temperature setting which helps avoids colours running

Wash separately, sick of having to tell my partner to do the same!

I do everything on 30 , keep really dark clothes separate to lighter colours and handwash things that really run.

There are a few things like some of my pajamas and nighties that are silky that I know won't run at all.

Colour catchers work a treat. I use these unless I have a load I know everything has been washed multiple times already.

If I'm unsure if they're dark or white I have my own separate wash for the miscellaneous

I only ever wash whites with whites plus a good spoonful of vanish gold ( or whatever is on offer!).
Brights with brights, dark colours and jeans. Work uniform gets a hotter wash. Towels I bung in wherever there is space!.
I quite like washing.. it's the putting it away after that I hate!

I use a lot of colour catcher sheets but if I buy something new I usually hand wash it the first time just to be sure it won't run

I find washing at low temperatures helps and I always separate whites from lights and darks. I like my whites to be white rather than grubby grey!.

I have a 2 part laundry basket labelled whites and colours, although I always have a good check through everything before setting of the maching, following a disaster with a red sock which found it's way into the whites.

I rarely bother seperating whites from colours -they are always fine on a low temp. Only time I do is for bed linin or the like.

If the coloured fabrics are man made then it’s generally ok to mix them with the whites. I never mix coloured fabrics with anything pure cotton white or anything white I really care about no matter what the label states.
I also use a colour catche4 sheet in the wash when doing a mixed load.

just pop in a color catcher!

I do a whites only wash, and then mostly everything goes in together, though I do tend to do a reds wash as there are a couple of things that seem to leak dye still. But if theres only one thing, I'll happily put them in with all black clothes.
DHs rugby shirts get a colour catcher as they are mixed and the white bits soon look so grubby

So much washing to do each week that we do several white, light and darks, we do tend to be cautious washing new items of clothing for the first few washed though, just in case the colour runs.