How to Stop Red From Running on White Clothing

Launder red clothing separately from whites to prevent the dye from running.

Accidentally laundering a red item of clothing with your whites will inevitably cause them to turn pink. Laundering clothes together instead of separating them leads to color-bleeding. Colors run due to acid in the dye reacting with alkaline cleaning chemicals, defective dye or chemical changes in the dye, according to Access Cleaning Solutions. Stop red dyes from running onto your white clothing by laundering the clothes properly. If the red dye ruins your clothing, you can remove the dye before you place it into the dryer.

Things You'll Need

• White vinegar
• 5-gallon bucket
• Color safe bleach
• Laundry detergent

Instructions

1. Sort the laundry into separate piles by colors. Place white and lighter colors together, and put red and darker colors in another pile.

2. Launder the clothing piles separately. This helps protect the light colors from the dye that may run from the darker colors.

3. Pour 2 to 3 cups of white vinegar into the washing machine, and set the water temperature to the warm-water setting when laundering red fabrics. Place the dark load into the washing machine, and wash red fabrics at the end of a wash cycle to help prevent bleeding.

4. Inspect the clothing immediately after each load. Pull out the red fabric immediately if you noticed that the dye transferred to other fabrics. Launder the clothing again with 1 to 2 cups of white distilled vinegar.

5. Remove red stains from white fabrics by filling a 5-gallon bucket with warm water. Add 10 oz. of color-safe bleach to the water and half the recommended amount of detergent for a load of clothes. Allow the fabric to soak overnight, and then launder with one 1 of vinegar.

Tips & Warnings

• Apply a heavy-duty liquid detergent to the red dye stain and allow it to set for two to three minutes to pretreat the stain.

• Avoid drying white clothes stained with red dye because this will cause the dye to set in and become permanent.

References

• Textile Affairs: Stain Removal Answers to Common Care Questions
• Access Cleaning Solutions: Dye Bleeding Cleaning Articles
• Florida's Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches; Red Shirt Plus White Socks Equals Pink Laundry if Your're Careless; Dan Eisen; January 2008
• Ohio State University; Quick 'n Easy Stain Removal; Janis Stone