Chlorine bleach can be a lifesaver for your laundry. I can’t count the number of times that it saved a hand-me down dress from being tossed out or rescued dingy socks after being used on the dingy garage floor.
How do you use chlorine bleach? Here are five tips that will help you make the most of bleach without weakening or ruining your clothes.
1. Check to make sure that your fabrics can withstand bleach. Just because they are white does not mean that they should be bleached. In general, the following fabrics can often be bleached: acrylic, cotton, linen, ramie or polyester. Don’t bleach the following fabrics: cashmere, leather, nylon, mohair, spandex, silk, wool or anything drip dry.
2. Never combine different kinds of bleaches together in one wash. This can have a bad effect on your clothes and may even be dangerous. Make sure that you aren’t using a detergent that contains bleach and then adding more bleach.
3. For the best results, dilute the bleach in water before you pour it into the washing machine. I do this by adding the bleach to plastic pitcher and then filling the pitcher the rest of the way with water from the washer as it is filling. Ideally, there should be a quart of water for every cup of bleach.
4. Use the hottest water in the wash when using bleach. This makes the bleach the most effective.
5. You can soak items in a bleach and water solution before washing for effective stain removal. See the amounts of bleach and water above. But don’t let the fabrics soak for more than five minutes or it can eat away or at least severely weaken the fabric. Never soak anything that is old and valuable in bleach for this reason. And for the same reason, if you spot treat a stain with bleach, be sure to wash it right away. You could return days later and find that after washing there is a hole in your garment.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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