If your wardrobe has got a lot of white in it, then you’ll probably notice how quickly ‘white’ can turn to ‘off white’, ‘egg shell’ and ’my cream coloured crop top I bought ages ago and have been wearing too often to wash regularly.’ Kidding about the last part. Or am I?
Regardless, when you want white to stay white, there are a couple of things you can do to make sure things look day-of-purchase fresh.
First thing, are you separating your laundry? Whites should only be washed with whites as other colours could leak through leaving your white clothes not as vibrant.
If you’ve got some stains happening, pretreat them with a pretreatment stain remover.
Whites wash best in hot water, so turn the washing machine up to hot, or use boiling water if you’re hand washing. Don’t touch the boiling water/clothes with your bare hands, but you already knew that.
Lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar are great natural ways to keep whites happy. Adding 100ml of lemon juice, a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and/or a 100ml of vinegar to your detergent should do the trick. After rinsing thoroughly, hang your clothes out to dry in the sun.
The lemon juice will react to the sun, brightening everything up, kind of in the same way lemon juice will lighten your hair while you’re sitting out in your backyard. This time, you don’t have to be afraid of everything going orange.
Bleach is also your friend when it comes to whites, however it can be damaging to delicate fabrics.
Using oxygen bleach, like OxiClean, is even better.
So there you have it, no more excuses for dingy looking t-shirts. May your stains be non-permanent and your whites shine the brightest.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.