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Best Ways to Whiten and Brighten Your Laundry

No one wants to wear clothes that are dingy looking or dull colored. Whites should look like they are fresh and crisp but there are times when hard water and age turn whites into a cloudy color. Colored clothes should be bright and bold. Here are some ways to whiten and brighten your laundry.

Tips to Get Your Whites Whiter:

• Add ¼ cup of lemon juice and ¼ cup of baking soda along with your normal laundry soap to your load of whites.
• Add 1 ½ cups of vinegar to the rinse cycle of your normal wash load.
• For whites that are very dingy or yellowed, add water to a large stock pot with 1 cup of vinegar. Allow the water to boil and remove from heat. Add in the whites to the stock pot and let it set overnight. Then, just wash as you normally would.
• Add ½ cup of your favorite laundry soap to the washing machine. Fill the machine half way with water, add in your whites and allow to fill up the rest of the way. Do not run the cycle though but instead stop the machine, let the clothes set for 30 minutes to an hour and then turn the washer back on and allow cycle to complete.
• When you are doing a normal wash cycle of whites, add in your usual laundry soap along with ½ cup of Borax. Then, during the rinse cycle, add in ¼ cup of hydrogen peroxide.

Tips to Get Your Colors Brighter:

• When your clothes tumble around in the washer and then again in the dryer, this can cause fabric fibers to wear down. While this is not entirely preventable, you can minimize the damage but turning your clothes inside out when washing them so the worst of the fraying will be on the inside.
• Soaking your clothes in salt water is one way to keep them bright. Just add cold water to your washing machine and add in your clothes with ½ cup of salt. The next morning, just add in your laundry soap and wash as normal.
• Washing your colors in cold water will help to keep those colors bright.
• Soaking your colors in white vinegar will help to prevent the colors from fading. Soak your colors in a bucket filled with 1 quart of water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar for an hour.
• You can keep your colors bright by add a bluing agent to your wash cycle. Bluing agents are designed to get your clothes brighter.

These tips should have those old clothes looking almost like new and your whites brighter. Once you use the above tips, your family will definitely notice the difference in your laundry!