My Thoughts On Washing Whites
posted by Andrea | 11/19/2011
I know it’s not necessarily the “greenest” thing to admit — but I love bleach! However, besides my use of bleach, I hardly use any chemicals to clean our house; mostly just natural stuff like vinegar, baking soda, etc.
I use Laundry Tree SoapNuts for the rest of our laundry detergent and vinegar for fabric softener… but anything white gets a healthy splash of bleach thrown in. I can’t help it… I just HAVE to know that our stuff is super clean, and bleach gives me that reassurance!
And for those of you who don’t know — I have a mini obsession with white.
We use white sheets, white/cream blankets, white comforters and duvet covers, white/cream towels, white washcloths, white rags, white napkins, white socks, white t-shirts… and even several white rugs!
I just love white, and with a little bleach, I really haven’t had a problem keeping our things white either.
Bedding:
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When we got married, everyone told us ‘don’t register for white sheets, they’ll show everything’. So I didn’t get white sheets… and every day when I made our bed I would think ‘I wish I had white sheets’.
After about a year, I decided that I could make my own decisions — and I went out and bought white sheets. It’s been over 4 years, we still have the same white sheets, and besides being a little wrinkly, they look almost brand new.
Since Dave and I always take showers right before we go to bed, I figure our sheets can’t get THAT dirty, so I only wash them every couple of weeks — however, I wash our pillowcases every week.
I wash our blankets every couple of months, and our comforter, duvet cover, and pillows once or twice a year {or as needed}.
Bathroom towels and washcloths:
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My towels are cream and Dave’s are tan {so we can tell them apart}. The washcloths we use are also various shades of cream and tan.
And while I was a bit hesitant to bleach these at first {since they weren’t actually white} I’ve been extremely happy with the results… and have been successfully bleaching our cream and tan towels for the past 5 years with no spots or bleach stains!
I love how the bleach eliminates any “musty” smells that can sometimes plague damp towels — they just smell so clean and fresh when they come out of the dryer!
Rugs:
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Obviously, I don’t use white rugs by any of our entry ways, but all of our bathrooms and our laundry room have white fluffy rugs… that are SOOOOO comfy to stand on!
Since we don’t usually wear shoes in the house, these rugs don’t get very dirty — I simply wash them with a little bleach every few weeks and they look brand new!
Kitchen rags, towels, and napkins:
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Yes, we use WHITE kitchen rags, towels and napkins… and they are not stained or super dirty looking!
Our laundry room is directly off from our kitchen, which makes it really easy and convenient to simply throw dirty kitchen linens in the laundry room each day until I have time to wash them.
I actually keep a small plastic bin in our laundry room and every day, I throw the old kitchen wash cloth and towel in that bin. I switch out our cloth napkins once or twice a week and throw those in the bin too, along with other various cleaning rags and towels that need to be bleached.
Once the bin is full, I add a few more white items to it and then do a load with bleach.
I know some of you might think it’s excessive to change our kitchen towels and washcloths every day, but we do a lot of cooking {especially now that our exchange students have been cooking more of their traditional foods} and I never know what our kitchen rags have been used for, so it just make me feel “safer” to get a new one out each day.
Socks and T-shirts:
:
Except for our dress socks, we wear all white socks and have almost all white t-shirts… which makes doing laundry that much easier. It’s also really easy to fold our clothes because we’re never searching for matching pairs of socks!
I know this might sound like an awful lot of laundry to do each week, but most of the items are really small {socks, rags, towels, washcloths, t-shirts, etc.} and we have an extra large, high efficiency washing machine. Plus, the bigger items don’t get washed nearly as much… so I usually only need to do 2 bleached loads each week.
I do know that there are a lot of people against using bleach… and I understand why. However, I still haven’t found anything that works AS WELL to wash whites. I’m totally open to trying new methods… so I’d love to know if you have something that works well for you!
How do you wash your whites?
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Filed under: Cleaning • Living Simply
Leigh
19/11/2011How do you find oxygen bleach compares? I do a 24 soak with anything dingy or stained monthly (a la Clean Mama) and it does the job very well.
And a hint for baby messes. Nothing gets poop stains out (before the dryer particularly) like putting them out in the sun. Even in winter. Works wonders on white onesies.
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Amanda Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Diaper wipes will also get most anything off clothes. If I spill something on myself or if my 2 year old spills something on herself (or me), I use a diaper wipe first.
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Thrifty Mom in Boise
19/11/2011I love bleach! I’ve tried all kinds of things but I always go back to bleach. Nothing works quite like it.
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Kristia
19/11/2011When do you put the bleach in?
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Andrea Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Kristia, I put the bleach in right at the beginning because my washing machine has a separate compartment for detergent, bleach, and fabric softener. If your washing machine doesn’t have those compartments, I would probably put it in the water with the detergent, let the washer fill up and THEN add your clothes. if you dump the bleach right on the clothes it might get “spotty”.
Hope this helps!
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Amanda
19/11/2011I love bleach. I have white sheets, towels, socks and mostly white panties. I do 1 or 2 WHITE loads each week with bleach. Not only do my whites stay white, but my house smells clean.
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Karen @ Abundance on a Dime
19/11/2011I use soapnuts for laundry, too. I add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Borax to each load and find that helps as a stain-removal booster and deodorizer. For stubborn stains on white/light coloured items, I pretreat with hydrogen peroxide, or if that doesn’t get it out I make my own “oxiclean” with hydrogen peroxide and washing soda. For really soiled items I’ll presoak in warm water with about 1/2 cup of the oxiclean solution added.
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Andrea Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Ok, good to know Karen! I’ll have to give some of those “recipes” a try some time!
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jerilyn
19/11/2011I might send you into labor with my comment, you can thank me if that happens.
I wash my whites along with everything else.
{gasp!}
Okay, we don’t have many whites. My husband changes oil for a living. If we had whites before he started that job I would have gotten rid of them. Every once in a while I will bleach all of his white undershirts in one load, but this is like less than once per year. Me and our kids don’t really wear white either. Once they’re in school, their uniforms will have more white and I’ll have to figure something out.
I’m also the type of person that isn’t bugged by the fact that our bath towels and rug don’t match. Our bedroom linens don’t really go with our room paint either… *shrug* 
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Andrea Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Actually… I don’t think that’s so bad!
I don’t sort any of my laundry… just the white stuff b/c I use bleach. Everything else {and I mean EVERYTHING} gets dumped in the washer together!!
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Leithing
19/11/2011I have a thing about white bedding and towels too. I use a mixture of Vanish for stains and Varnish for whites. It gets amazing results, much better than just using one of them. Don’t know if they are available in the US, I’m in Scotland.
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Andrea Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
hmmm…I’ve never heard of these products, so I’m thinking they aren’t available
I’ll have to look into them though!
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Ashley
19/11/2011I was curious why people tend to think that bleach is so terrible to use and that it’s not “green.” So I bing’ed it. LOL I remember my grandmother telling me that bleach was an all natural disinfectant (she was a science teacher) and yes, it’s harsh, but it does the job. I also remember my mother hanging our clothes in the sun to dry because the sun kills bateria and mold as well.
This is what I found on Bing: “Bleach is a chemical compound derived from natural sources used to whiten fabrics.”
Read more: How bleach is made – material, manufacture, making, history, used, components, steps, product, industry, machine, History, Types of Bleach, Raw Materials http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Bleach.html#ixzz1eCAkcJke
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KimH Reply:
November 19th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I think the biggest reason one would want to stay away from bleach is that it is poison. Very simply put, it kills LIFE. We use it to kill bacterias, but in reality its doing as much damage to us as it is bacterias.
Did you know that Splenda is chlorinated sugar? They take a chlorine molecule and attach it to a sugar molecule.. and whalah.. you have splenda.
I did a test one time.. I had been using Splenda quite freely but for some reason, my inner compass was telling me I shouldnt be. One day at work, I decided to pour my leftovers of about 1/8th of a cup of coffee w creamer & splenda in one of my potted plants & see what happened. I had heard that chlorine is the same thing as DDT, which is a horrid and toxic defoliant. (Agent Orange anybody?) I used to dump my coffee w sugar & creamer in my plants occasionally with no ill affects. I wondered if what I had been reading about splenda & chlorine was true. When I came into work the next morning, all 5 or 6 of my plants looked litterally DEAD! This had been a healthy vibrant mixed potted basket of beautiful plants.
I felt so bad, like i had killed my children. I immediately grabbed the basket and ran to a kitchenette, and ran water thru the soil for about 15 minutes, until I hoped I had gotten rid of any remaining splenda in the soil.. My poor babies.. Only 2 of the plants lived.. the rest died..
Toxic toxic toxic.. I decided right then & there, Splenda would never touch my lips again.. I drink my coffee black today because of that little experiment.
I dont drink chlorinated water either. I have water filters on my frig & my kitchen sink that removes chlorine, & fluoride too. Pure poison.
Heres a link to Dr Joseph Mercolas website & an article regarding chlorine & splenda too. There are many others, this is just one.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/06/23/chlorine-part-two.aspx
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KimH
19/11/2011I dont use bleach often myself. Occasionally I use it to clean the bathroom, and maybe once a year I’ll beach my white socks. Oh, I do use it in my white kitchen towels and wash clothes. Thats about it. Everyone else in my family are bleach happy like you…
For the most part, I use a household cleaner I make with lemon juice & vinegar to clean just about everything else, counters included.
My step mother though is a white fanatic, like you,
and she swears by Oxiclean & hydrogen peroxide. She leaves a bucket of Oxiclean solution in water in the laundry room & drops all her soiled whites into it, and then washes at the end of the day.
Everything white in her house is BRIGHT WHITE! Its quite beautiful.
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jane casey
19/11/2011I love the post. I like bleach too but feel a bit guilty because it is so harmful. Hydrogen Peroxide and baking soda are what I use most of the time.
Jane
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Dorothy
19/11/2011We’re a no-bleach household. I don’t even OWN bleach. I guess having 3 boys has meant that I have to let some things go. I don’t have white sheets. Or white kitchen towels. Or white napkins. Or white bath rugs. Mostly because I won’t use bleach–but also because I don’t want to be a slave to my linens. My boys would have a bloody nose on the sheets. THey would wipe up mud with a white dish towel. They would use white napkins to clean up marker. And bath rugs? YEah, those get dirty too–even after my kids bathe.
But my kids’ socks are clean without bleach. Get this–you can buy socks with grey (or colored) bottoms. SO the socks never look dirty. My boys’ white undershirts are very white. And when they have a nosebleed on navy blue sheets, I wash them in very hot water so they are CLEAN but if there’s any remnant of a stain we can’t see it.
I hope this doesn’t sound mean, because I’m not trying to be mean. But maybe you might have to let some things slide a bit when you have that sweet little baby. Spit up happens. Puke happens. Poop gets EVERYWHERE. And you’ll have stains. And you won’t care!! =) Because you won’t want bleach near your little baby’s skin.
Just my .02.
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Lovemybusybuzzybees Reply:
December 28th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Thank you for posting this. I thought I was the only one! Maybe its the fact that I have 3 rambunctious boys and an equally rambunctious husband who works in the autmotive field, but we do not own many purely white items. No bleach in our household either…If something is really needing a good treatment, I Oxyclean the spot and throw it in the Santize cycle – voila! Problem solved. It was a bad moment when some bottled bleach I had bought at the store leaked all over my trunk and the smell still lingers from time to time. No thanks!
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Susanne
20/11/2011We are definitely a NO BLEACH family.. Bleach IS toxic. It is extremely difficult to rinse out of anything in the washing machine. We use white vinegar in the rinse cycle for laundry. For stains, I use “Zout” which is an enzymatic cleaner. Enzymes break up the stain without bleach. It can be a skin irritant so I just use it on the spot itself. I have used bleach in the past for the food disposal to sanitize it, but I find that using baking soda pour in first and then pour white vinegar into it…. It just bubbles for about 30 seconds, then I rinse well. It works for us. I use homemade cleaning products most of the time. By the way, I collect dishes as well. I just love to mix and match solid colors of the same pattern. Organizing them is my next project. Hope this helps.
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Mae @ WoFin Blog
20/11/2011Andrea,
Here is a couple quick links listing eco-friendly, but effective bleach alternatives. I did not want to list just 1 or 2 b/c I figured you would want to research which ones you could find cheapest near your home in MI, or online.
http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/10/02/consider-these-environmentally-friendly-alternatives-to-bleach/
This link has an at home recipe with only 3 ingredients
http://betsywild.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/greener-alternatives-to-chlorine-bleach/
Hope this helps
Mae @ WoFin.wordpress.com
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Firesparx
21/11/2011We too use minimal chemicals in our house. We wash everything in cold water….except whites. I get a secret pleasure washing those in hot water with bleach. It’s like my one little bit of environmental rebellion. We only do a load of white every other week and it’s a high efficiency washer so I try not to feel too bad.
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Sue
21/11/2011Sorry everyone.. I am with Andrea.. I love bleach.. I also use it to clean my front loader washer.. I got a front loader about 2 years ago.. and I really hate it.. one thing I hate about it is if you close the door when not in use and then keep it closed for a day or so.. it smells.. So about once a month I run a cycle on the hottest setting and put in about a cup of bleach.. seems to keep the smell down or out of the washer.
Honestly, I think there is nothing that smells better than clean, bleach cleaned sheets hanging on the clothes line.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I am a bit strange !
sue in NJ
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Jen @ BigBinder
21/11/2011Bleach lover; right here. I have tried to give it up. I can’t. And whites get washed in hot water. And bleach. When my kids were little and used cloth diapers, we soaked the diapers and wipes (home made re-usable ones) in vinegar and then washed them – I bleached them like once a month and it worked great!
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Tina
23/11/2011I have a septic tank and bleach harms your bacteria balance! So bleach alternative suggestions are wonderful!
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Crystal H
09/03/2012We use bleach….lots of it in fact. We have a child with several medical problems and urine, blood, and feces is a common occurance. We have all white towels, washcloths, bedpads, and sheets. I know that might sound odd but we have those BECAUSE we have to bleach everything…call me lazy (although believe me I am not) but with all the medical challenges we struggle with everyday, tossing all of these items in the washer with some bleach and having the sense of security that it is clean and bacteria free is a small relief to me in my chaos I call everyday life.
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