If you ignore the care labels on your clothing, or mix all the colours and materials together, wonder why your clothes never look as good as the day you bought them, but call it a day - then you’re in the right place for a little how-to.
If your clothes are coming out pink or grey, or any shade they’re not supposed to, it’s because the fabric wasn’t colour-fasted, aka the dye is not fully fixed onto the fabric.
There are a few things that can affect colour fastness; the quality of dye or method of dyeing used.
Often, new items of clothing, especially the cheaper ones, won’t be completely colourfast, so it’s best to wash bright clothes on their own first, effectively doing a little colour fasting of your own.
Then, use these tips to keep those brights bright for as long as possible.
-
Three washes. Darks, light and whites.
Same shade? Same cycle. Simple. If the shades match, they go together.
-
Make an effort to take land your dirty clothes in the washing basket, inside out (a favourite for our lazy customers).
To get clothes clean, they need friction. Friction also speeds up the fading process. To prevent some of that colour loss, pull your clothes off, inside out and throw them into the machine that way. It also reduces pilling, bonus. -
Don’t overload the machine
Overloading the machine increases the amount of friction your clothes will have to endure. As already mentioned, friction is a prime suspect in clothes fading faster than necessary.
Side note: overloaded machines also mean the detergent isn’t distributed properly which means that clothes don’t come out as clean as they should.
-
Wash your clothes less.
It’s a no-brainer, but one we struggle with too.
We’ve covered this one in more depth here: what to do with your not quite dirty, not quite clean clothes.
Easy as pie.