OS way to brighter whites?

meritaten

I always use biological washing powder, the cheap one from aldi and find that my whites are really white!
If you dont want to use bio powder on a daily basis - try either biotex or napisan (not just for nappies but great for ANY white cottons) to soak the items. then pop them in the wash with other synthetics for a cool wash. just make sure your other items you KNOW to be colour fast!
shiny patches on clothes when you iron them are almost always because your iron is slightly too hot - turn the dial down a notch and see if that helps - otherwise keep a clean thin cloth handy and using steam press the items under that!

Justamum

My youngest daughter has white polo shirts for school. I only wash them with other whites/light-coloured clothes. I used to not bother sorting clothes, until I realised that my whites were getting distinctly grey looking! I do a whites wash twice a week and use laundry liquid, a scoop of soda crystals and a scoop of oxygen bleach. They come out fine. I did have a bit of a washing accident a few weeks before the end of term when I accidentally left a red felt hat in the washing machine just before doing the whites, so she ended up wearing pink ones for the last few weeks of term :rotfl:

Forgot to say that I've only got the cheapest M&S ones and they easily last the year (barring any washing accidents )

Newgirl_2

I can't use bio powder due to my skin but I never have a problem with whites until things are really old and worn, so I don't think it's necessarily what you're using. But I do agree with Vanish and other pep-up powders and liquids from time to time to brighten things and remove stains.

One thing I did wonder when you mentioned stains is, is your machine rinsing efficiently? I remember my mum having a problem with that years ago and it was a fault with the machine caused by using the first incarnation of laundry liquid (Radion I think it was, so that tells you how long ago!) and the engineer said it had clogged up the machine and residue was being left on the clothes. That will mark items and perhaps also show up when ironed. Just a thought.

I have a lot of white shirts and my other half wears a lot of pale blue and yes, you can wash them together. If you look at any brightening or 'super white' washing powder it has blue bits in - blue makes white brighter. Not navy of course :rotfl:

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Newgirl

quintwins

i do a light wash instead of a white wash, if your worried about colours runing colour catchers work well and wouldn't be too expensive if your only using them for that one wash

pocket_fluff

I've dug a pair of white linen/viscose trousers out of the back of the wardrobe to wear and noticed they've now got quite a yellowy tinge. I tried soaking them for 12 hours in a weak bleach solution, but that hasn't really made a difference.

I've looked online, but all I've been able to find is how to make greying whites white again or how to remove yellowy stains. Also, I can not dry them outside in the sunshine. Partly because we have no outside space and partly because there is no sunshine!

Any advice, or should I look at dying them a different colour?

Thanks!

seabright

I use the Vanish Crystal White powder, seems to work really well. I soak all my white stuff in it every few weeks, before washing and it seems to remove any grey or yellow tinges and keep stuff looking white & new for longer.

I've tried bleach & hanging outside and neither worked for me

adouglasmhor

Vanish as above or Acdo Glo-white.

pocket_fluff

Thank you! I'll add that to my shopping list.

bbjohnny

Thanks so much for all the fab replies!! I won't be trying the ideas out until term starts up again obviously, but as soon as I do, I'll come back and share my findings. I found the advice about blues and whites, vanish, colour catchers and bio over non-bio particularly helpful thank you ) I will also be thoroughly cleaning my machine over the weekend!!

seabright

When our street had to have our drains cleared a month or so ago Mr Dyno-Rod said we should all move to liquid washing detergents, as at the low temperatures the powders just didn't disolve properly, blocking up the machines and the drains, so maybe a couple of really hot washes (90c) then a switch to liquids would help?