How to Get Whiter T-shirts

A color specific laundry products help get t-shirts whiter.

White t-shirts, sometimes, turn a dingy grey or yellow . Washing white t-shirts with colored or heavily soiled clothes often causes the discoloring. Getting white t-shirts whiter is easy because these shirts can handle bleaching. However, use only a non-chlorine bleach if the white t-shirt has a colored design, or if you plan to bleach the shirts each time you wash them. An alternative to bleach is to use a product called bluing.

Things You'll Need

• Detergent
• Bleach
• Bluing
• Water pitcher

Instructions

Using Bleach

1. Fill your washing machine with hot water. Add the normal amount of detergent for a load your size, then add 1 cup of chlorine bleach or oxygen bleach, if using a top-loading machine. For front loading machines use ½ cup of bleach, and pour it into the proper receptacle, because front loading machines do not have a pre-fill option.

2. Place your white t-shirts in the washing machine and let the machine agitate for 5 minutes to mix the detergent and bleach through the t-shirts.

3. Stop the machine and let the t-shirts soak for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, restart the machine and let the shirts go through a full wash and rinse cycle. For front loading machines you will want to stop the machine for 7 minutes, agitate again, then stop for another 7 minutes.

4. Remove the t-shirts from the washing machine. Machine dry them, or hang them in direct sunlight for even more brightening.

Using Bluing

1. Place the t-shirts in your washing machine. Add the normal amount of detergent for a load your size, and start the load.

2. Pour ¼ teaspoon of bluing into a gallon-sized water pitcher. Fill the pitcher with cold water, and stir to dilute the bluing.

3. Pour the diluted bluing into a top loading machine when the wash cycle has started. Finish washing and drying the t-shirts as normal.

References

• New Mexico State University: Getting Clothes Clean: Susan Wright: April 2001
• What's Up With The Laundry?: How to Keep Whites White
• Mrs. Stewart Bluing: Instructions For Using Mrs. Stewart's Bluing