How to Use Bleach Without Ruining Your Clothes
Bleach will help your clothes look fresh and vibrant. If you don’t know what you are doing, this could also be bad news for your favorite shirt. If you’re not used to it, using bleach can be a little intimidating, so here’s how to do it with confidence without ruining your laundry.
Different types of bleach
Bleach can be divided into two categories : chlorinated bleach and non-chlorinated bleach, sometimes called oxygen bleach or color-safe bleach. Chlorinated bleach is a really powerful disinfectant, but it is not suitable for many types of fabrics, so it is usually only used for white fabrics. Unchlorinated bleach or quick-stain bleach is safer to use on many more types of fabrics. Unlike chlorinated bleach, it will not damage colors or patterns on most fabrics.
Warning to all newcomers to the washing and disinfection: never, never mix bleach with ammonia , which can be found in many cleaning products , including many types of tools for washing windows and windows, Universal cleaners, Means for cleaning toilets, shining waxes or ovens. and drain cleaners. When bleach is mixed with ammonia, hazardous toxic fumes are generated that can seriously harm or kill you.
How to tell if bleach can be used on clothes
If you look at the tags on your clothes, you will notice a few small symbols. One of the symbols is a triangle, which indicates whether the garment can be bleached and what type. An open triangle means bleaching is safe with chlorinated bleach, a triangle with two lines running through it means bleaching is safe with non-chlorinated bleach, and a triangle with a through X means bleaching is unsafe.
If the tag is missing, you can test if the bleach is safe by mixing two teaspoons of bleach with ¼ cup water. Then apply a small drop to an inconspicuous area. Blot dry after a minute and look at the stain. If the color changes or the fabric looks damaged, do not wash it with bleach.
Sort the laundry into white, light and dark laundry.
When using bleach, you need to separate your laundry into three separate batches: white, light and dark. Whites can be bleached with chlorinated bleach. For colored garments, sort the garments into light and dark ones, as dye from darker garments can stain lighter garments. Wash light and dark garments on two separate loads using non-chlorinated or colored bleach. For all colors, fabrics are best washed at the warmest temperatures indicated on the labels, as bleach works best at higher temperatures.
How and when to add bleach
Mostwashing machines have a bleach dispenser that adds bleach at the right time during the wash cycle. On high-efficiency machines, a small bleach dispenser will be placed between the detergent dispenser and fabric softener dispenser. You need to fill the dispenser up to the line. For these types of washing machines, this is the only way to add bleach to the load as the door does not open in the middle of the cycle. For older top loading machines, the bleach dispenser is shaped like a small triangle. slot in the corner of the top of the machine where you will add ¾ cup of bleach for a medium load.
If you do not have a bleach dispenser, you can dilute ¾ cup of bleach in 1 liter of water and add it for 5 minutes per wash cycle to give the detergent a little time to take effect.
After finishing washing and drying, feel like bright and fresh clothes. This is definitely an improvement over your typical quarantine wardrobe of sweatpants and an old, tattered T-shirt.