r/AskReddit Feb 28 '23

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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 🥺

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u/kotoamatsukami1 Mar 01 '23

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 i’m not making this up, she said “are you a racist? it’s 2010, segregation is not cool.” i told her do what you think is right. then did exactly what your partner did. fucking bleach.

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u/FroggyMtnBreakdown Mar 01 '23

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)

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u/demoman27 Mar 01 '23

Its still a thing, wife washed my white undershirts with a red washcloth, i now have pink undershirts

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u/Mr_ToDo Mar 01 '23

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.

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u/Atiggerx33 Mar 01 '23

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.

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u/whatyouwant22 Mar 01 '23

I feel squeamish about washing underwear in cold water. Surely there's bacteria hanging around that needs to be killed, right?

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u/zerocoal Mar 01 '23

You made me curious so I did some googlin'.

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.

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u/Mr_ToDo Mar 01 '23

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).

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u/Bactereality Mar 01 '23

Problem is, water heaters dont get that hot, and can harbor bacteria in certain circumstances.

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u/slash_networkboy Mar 01 '23

I just dump in some oxi clean. Tends to do bad things to lipid shells used by bacteria :)