Do you swear by any laundry product for getting ~super bright~ whites?

June 27, 2021 11:31 AM

If so please tell me about them!

Ordinarily I live without access to a washer dryer (love you, city living!)

Gonna be home for some days and want to use the opportunity to power wash my white garments.

I have 2 types of stuff:

1. plain white stuff- think tshirt material

2. Also interested in detergents or laundry additives that might be good for machine washable black & white items.
<3
thanks metafilter!

posted by wowenthusiast to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I just have greys and pinks, but my grandma used bluing to keep her whites white.
posted by aniola at 11:59 AM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you live in a place with hard water, a water softener in each wash can make a huge difference. Follow the instructions regarding how much detergent to use, otherwise it won't make any difference. This works for all colors.
posted by mumimor at 12:19 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lots of Pinterest-y folks are talking about Laundry Stripping, lots of recipes, but I do find my white cotton sheets and some tees can get yellow because of retained body oil. I use bleach and borax occasionally, with hot water. Borax is pretty great on stains and smells, not sure of environmental impact. Bleach is not great for the environment, effective on white, esp. mold/mildew, some stains, and I use it only once in a while.

Armpit stains may need separate treatment, but those tees are usually destined for painting or whatever.
posted by theora55 at 12:28 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Black always fades; I have had success with re-dyeing black cotton or linen. synthetics use different types of dye.
posted by theora55 at 12:29 PM on June 27, 2021

For bright whites, I add Oxi-clean to the wash and, if possible, dry the clothes outside in the sunshine.
posted by essexjan at 12:54 PM on June 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

Sunshine, sunshine after oxiclean, or sunshine and diluted lemon juice as a spot treatment (wouldn’t use that on anything dyed though).

I made bedsheets out of undyed unbleached cotton and was surprised after their first summer how white and glossy the sheets that had been steadily used and sundried were. They didn’t look like the same material as the one that spent the summer at the bottom of the closet. (I moved that one up so it got used more that winter, and the many washes and machine-dries made it softer but not whiter.)
posted by clew at 1:30 PM on June 27, 2021

The active ingredient in OxiClean is sodium percarbonate, which breaks down into hydrogen peroxide (an oxygen bleach) and washing soda when dissolved in water. It's pretty cheap in bulk.
posted by flabdablet at 2:19 PM on June 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

I received compliments for my husbands tshirt whiteness the other day and while my products are Australian (Dirt brand liquid and the Aldi sodium percarbonate product) the trick is that our everyday whites are now being processed along with cloth nappies.

Everything I have learnt about laundry stripping, two stage washes (40°c cottons followed by 60°c cotton cycles), laundry products and my washing machine of choice (Bosch series 8 front loader (German manufactured)) comes from the Clean Cloth Nappies website and FB group.
posted by pipstar at 10:15 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]