During our laundry process, we face certain difficulties, like knowing what kind of clothes and what color to wash at the same time. While this might not sound like something to worry about, how to sort clothes can be a bit challenging.
This article will discuss “if it is safe to wash whites with colors” and “how to wash whites with colors.”
Should You Wash Whites With Other Colors?
There are often exceptions, and there will be times when it is okay to add a single colored item to a white load; however, adding a white item to a colorful load is most definitely not advisable due to color transfer potential.
If you have no choice but to wash them together, the safest way to wash your whites with colors is to mix them with pale colors only, such as greys and tans, and to wash them in cold water. You can wash your clothes together in several cases without any negative outcomes.
This is because modern fabrics mostly use a refined dye-setting practice on synthetic materials that produce a colorfast garment.
On the flip side, many factors make up for the color fastness of clothing, including the kind of fabric, type of dye used, and the kind of cleaning products. Plus, new clothes almost all the time need about three to four washes to remove excess dye before settling into color fastness completely.
So, the opportunity needed for adding a colored item to a load of whites will show up once you have determined the item’s colorfast to bleach. An easy way to determine if a material is colorfast is to turn it inside out to find a seam allowance.
Pour laundry detergent onto the area, and allow it to sit for at least four minutes. Then use a clean rag to blot the detergent and inspect if any dye should come away with the detergent.
Note: If the colors you want to attempt to wash with whites are still new, do not, as they will bleed into the whites.
How To Wash White With Colors
You can attempt washing white and colors simultaneously only if it is in cold water and if the dye has faded. Now, the kind of item you want to wash determines the best protocol for washing whites with colors. If you wash a load of colorfast items with whites, you can continue as you normally would with any other white load.
Hand Washing White With Colors
Whites and colors do just fine together with hand washing as it is physical contact. It helps you monitor changes and easily notice any possible damage as you wash.
Hand washing is a less assertive method for cleaning clothes. This reduces the chances of dye from colored clothes leaking into your whites. Here’s a step-by-step guide for hand washing whites with colored:
Step 1: Pour cold water into a large container (bathtub, basin, or sink). Ensure that the water is cold because lukewarm or hot water will cause colored clothes to leak dye.
Step 2: Add some detergent. Wash the clothes gently, slowly working your way up and down the cloth (If the clothes are really dirty, you can pretreat before beginning this procedure)
Step 3: Rinse the soap with cold water and leave it to dry.
Machine Washing White With Colors
If you don’t have the time to hand wash whites and colors, you can go ahead and wash with your machine. Here’s a step-by-step guide for washing whites with colored clothes in a machine:
Step 1: pretreat the clothes before placing them in your machine to be washed. You could use a stain solution to get rid of heavy stains.
Step 2: Place the clothes in the machine and set it to a delicate or gentle cycle or however specified on your washing machine.
Step 3: Select the machine’s shortest spin cycle possible and set it to cold water temperature to prevent dye from bleeding out of the colored clothes.
Can You Wash Colors With Other Colors?
It is human nature to search for shortcuts to everything, which is why most people would want to mix colored clothes in a wash to preserve time without tarnishing the colors.
One of the most popular issues in fabric maintenance and care is color bleeding which is the main reason colors are separated; certain dyes like reds and blues are ever constantly bleeding, even when they are not new.
It won’t be a problem if whites are washed with the same kind of colors—whites. However, the dye could damage the cloth if red or blue are washed with light-colored clothes or whites.
So, to safeguard other clothes and their colors, it is reasonable to wash similar colored items together.
How To Sort Colored Clothing
When washing colored clothing, it is important to separate them into their color groups; separate oranges, reds, and yellows from green or blues and wash pastels in a single group.
If your bright-colored clothes are new, wash them separately for the first four washes to prevent them from bleeding onto other clothes. For dark clothes, secure zippers, hooks, and buttons and turn them inside out.
The shortest wash cycle should be selected based on the level of soiling and ensure cold water is used. If one of the bright-colored cloths bleeds into another, do not move on to place the soiled garment in the dryer, as heat will cause the stain to set into the fabric more. Rather, wash the garment separately in cold water until the dye fades out.