Bleaching White Garments?

shell

I know Angie has mentioned in the past that whites are one of the easiest colors of garments for her to keep clean b/c they can be bleached. Well, I have a few white tops that are in need of some bleaching, but I'm not sure how to go about doing this!

Should I bleach them inside the washing machine? Do I need to do an empty cycle or two afterwards to cleanse the washing machine of the bleach?

Can I bleach them by hand? Any tips of how to do this?

How about spot treating? Or will that just create a super bright white stain instead?

Thanks in advance from a novice bleacher!

15 years ago

General

10 replies

Latest reply was from shell

taylor

Veteran

You know Shell I think the fabric content is vital to successful bleaching. Cotton bleaches quite well. Tee's undies, towels and such, but they too can yellow over time.

And of course never on colored items...only whites.

Finer fabrics ,,,probably best to leave to a pro:)

15 years ago

April

Veteran

Shell -- you should be able to add the bleach directly to the machine once it has filled with water (my machine has a dispenser for bleach so you don't have to stand around waiting for it to fill, but yours may not have this.) The main point is that you don't want to dump straight bleach onto dry fabric that it might damage -- you want to wait until all the fabric is under water so the bleach is diluted.

You should not have to run an empty load after bleaching, because your rinse cycle should get all the bleach out of the machine.

I generally use bleach in a hot water wash, because that's what works best on whites. If you're washing something that might shrink, you can add bleach to cold water as well, it just seems to be more effective in hot.

Over time, chlorine bleach will tend to yellow certain items. On the other hand, my son is now a teenager and I still wash his old cloth diapers (which I use for cleaning) in bleach, although the instructions said never never never to bleach them. Eleven years of bleaching and they've held up just fine.

15 years ago

Elizabeth

Active Member

I am not a pro, but I do use bleach to wash my white sheets. I have an older top loading washing machine, so I start the wash cycle and then as the machine fills with water, I add 1 cup of bleach and my detergent. Then I add my sheets and other whites as the washer continues to fill with water.

I never put bleach directly on sheets/clothing since I think that would be too harsh.

I'm curious what other people will have to say!

15 years ago

shana

Veteran

I use oxyclean to bleach my items (cotton) rather than clorox. It works like a charm, especially on heavy duty stains. For the bad stains I sprinkle in some oxy-clean and then pour boiling water over the stain so the bubbles really work on the spot. I leave it for an hour or so and then wash on the hottest setting allowed for the fabric. I wouldn't do this for anything delicate and don't leave it in too long. I have also used the clorox bleach pen for small blemishes in whites but you have to be extra careful because if the top is in any way dull, it will make the one spot super white so it really stands out.

15 years ago

Jenava

(website)

Veteran

Check the label for a triangle. If you see this then you can safely use chlorine bleach on the fabrics (techniques as noted by other posters). If it has two lines through it, then you'll need to get some non-chlorine bleach. If it's a black rectangle with an X through it then you can't bleach it without wrecking it.

15 years ago

shiny

Veteran

I would bleach as last resort. Here's my mom's advice (The Laundry Queen):

1) First, try laundering and then hanging out to dry in the direct sunlight. You'd be surprised. Direct sunlight can gently bleach out all kinds of stains. This is best for linens in particular.

2) If that doesn't work, then try ammonia next. It's gentler than bleach.

3) If ammonia fails, and it's not a dry-clean-only item, then attack with bleach. At this point, you're going to throw it out anyway, right?

The above is assuming regular old detergent and something like OxyClean isn't cutting it.

15 years ago

Megan

Active Member

For spot stain removal I mix up my own stain remover using two cups of water, one to two capfuls of wool wash and two tablespoons cloudy ammonia. It seems to work on everything!

15 years ago

Mae

Active Member

Ditto April. I pour bleach into my machine's dispenser for all whites (usually on the "warm" setting) and have had no problems- including with white denim. If you don't have a dispenser, wait for the machine to fill before adding it directly into the water.

15 years ago

Anonymous

I wash whites by themselves and swear by Tide with Bleach. The granular variety is what I've always used but recently saw an article in Consumer Reports I think saying the Tide with Bleach liquid got a top rating from them. If you add chlorine bleach to the wash, be sure that it's well diluted.

15 years ago

shell

Active Member

Thank you, all, for your advice!

We just moved into a new apartment that has a built in stacked washer/dryer combo (yay!) that does not have a bleach dispenser (boo!). So, I will have to wait til the machine fills with water. Oh well!

15 years ago

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