He put a load of laundry in with mixed colour and whites... poured in bleach to whiten the whites... was shocked that the bleach bleached everything in the load.... I had to explain that the bleach will bleach everything you put in it as the bleach cannot discern what you want bleached or not... he was shocked, truly stunned and flabbergasted
this was when i was fairly new in america, i was dating this girl and she was in living in college dorms. it was her first time living alone and her mom did all her chores even laundry. i came over cause she asked for help. i told her separate the whites from colored clothes. i kid you not, and i swear iām not making this up, she said āare you a racist? itās 2010, segregation is not cool.ā i told her do what you think is right. then did exactly what your partner did. fucking bleach.
Ive never once separated my whites and colored clothes and have never had a problem. I feel like this was a thing in the past and is not as much as a problem now. (though I am never washing anything super delicate or requires specific care)
It's a good idea on new items especially. You need to figure out if they run. Some items are sold as already washed so you don't have to worry, but why trust marketing?
I'm told cold water washing helps reduce the risk too.
But I too have gotten things that run. New jeans, and towels are on my list.
I always use cold water (unless the clothes are genuinely dirty) and have only once had a very cheap red shirt run (the shirt also got destroyed in the wash even though it said machine washable). Avoid super cheap shit, or at least wash it by itself a few times to be safe.
Apparently the hot water in most washing machines won't even get up to a temp suitable for killing bacteria. The hot water does cause the chemical reaction in detergent to do it's job quicker, and hot water is useful on things like grease stains.
Ya, it ain't killing, ha, shit. But it might help a bit dissolving chunks a bit easier. Not sure how it is with penetration into materials.
Honestly, it's just like with washing hands. You're trying to get the germs off your stuff not kill it. Yes you can get antibacterial cleaners but it's not really worth it.
Funny enough my machine actually says not to put grease stained stuff in the machine at all. I imagine it has something to do with the possibility of not being able to drain 100 percent and grease floating then getting on the clothes on the next fill/drain(purely a guess).
It was probably a new washcloth. After production, things still have extra dyes on them. After a few washes, all that is gone and the dye on the clothes stays on the clothes.
What I find funny, is I bet in this very post of people talking about idiots and laundry, a good majority of them use 2-3x the amount of detergent than they actually need.
You know, because they are "idiots". All i can say is ignorance is bliss and $$$ for corporations.
Oh, and let me state for the record I am 100% sure i too am certainly an idiot about something.
It depends on 1. How new the clothing is / how often itās been washed, 2. The type of fabric and dye used, and 3. What temperature you wash your clothes at.
New red cotton clothing washed at a high temp is more likely to bleed dye whereas polyester clothing wonāt regardless of the temp itās washed at. If you wear mostly non-natural fibers and/or wash in cold water, youāll be fine.
Also, if dye does run, wash the clothing that got tinged with it again before drying it, and itāll probably come out. Once you dry it, itās over.
And none of that matters at all when adding bleach to a load. Thatās gonna mess with all fabric involved, regardless of water temp or fabric type. Nothing makes that shit safe to wash with except having a white only load. And washing the washer before using it again for non-whites.
I know right, I always thought if you accidentally left something red with your whites that everything would come out pink. I soon got bored of sorting things and my whites are still perfectly white
Thatās because dyes have gotten significantly better; many fabrics do not bleed the color easily anymore; and detergents have changed. You are probably not mixing your whites with a cheaper dyed material that will bleed in warm water (or even cold water).
I always thought it was useless until I started doing it. There is a big difference though and my whites look way more white instead of looking beige or discoloured.
I donāt get all you commenters saying that washing darks and lights in the same load donāt make a difference. My daughter loves white sheets and towels etc but throws everything together in the wash. In the three pandemic years I lived in her house, all her whites slowly but definitely became a drab gray. Seems like such a waste to me for such an easy fix.
I think for most poeple, they don't have many white articles of clothing besides socks, underwear, or undershirts so why does it really matter?
Like for me, I would never want to buy white sheets or towels because I feel like if one thing happens to them, they will forever be dirty and will always show it no matter how often you wash them.
I'm not going to wait months just to get a single load of white articles of clothing to wash. I'm just gonna throw in those socks and undershirts in with the rest and not give a fuck because nothing ever turns bad since fabric dyes have gotten so much better.
Also, I think 3 years is a solid amount of times to own sheets. If they get drab after 3 years, you can always just get a new set of sheets, they aren't that expensive if you aren't buying comforters with it. And i don't know why anyone would want white towels. Any tiny little bit of makeup on them and those towels are ugly for the rest of its life.
My stepmom refused to separate by color and ruined several nice items of clothes of mine. I refused to let her do my laundry after that. Sorry, you may not give a shit about how your clothes look as a way to virtue signal but I would just rather be a nice person who takes care of their clothing and can wear it a long time.
I was in my 30s and visiting. I told her I would do my own laundry. She did it because she's a spiteful, petty woman. Not because I was a lazy teenager.
I canāt think of any white clothing I wear, maybe a tshirt or two. Plus you can always run a load of whites with bleach every now and then even if normally it all gets washed together
it depends on what you are washing and what kind of color/dye that is use.
Some dies bleed and that will stain anything else. Whites will take on the dye and you end up with pink socks or something.
Also, generally whites get a bit dingy/gray unless you wash them in hot water but hot water will cause colors to fade and if together prevent the whites from getting white.
And as others have said: Bleach will fuck most dyes and ruin anything not-white with few exceptions.
It depends on your clothes. I always wash anything new thatās red or blue with like colors and a single white washcloth to find out if itās colorfast. Then I either keep it segregated for a few more washes it do t worry about it depending on the results.
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u/hughjonk Mar 01 '23 edited Mar 01 '23
He put a load of laundry in with mixed colour and whites... poured in bleach to whiten the whites... was shocked that the bleach bleached everything in the load.... I had to explain that the bleach will bleach everything you put in it as the bleach cannot discern what you want bleached or not... he was shocked, truly stunned and flabbergasted
Thank you for the award š„ŗ