Is it possible to wash white with colored, gray and black, what shades of linen can be combined when washing?

To prevent things from fading, it is recommended to sort them before washing, separating light-colored items from dark ones and those made of bright fabrics. This rule is known to all experienced housewives, and when asked whether it is possible to wash white clothes with colored and black ones, many will answer that no. In general, this is correct, but in some cases and under certain conditions it is acceptable to place light and dark/colored textiles in the drum together.

Why you can't wash white clothes with colored ones

Before moving on to the question of how to combine things when washing, it’s worth understanding why you can’t wash white with items of other shades. The fact is that when wet, the dyes with which the fabric is treated begin to “move away” from the fibers, and the material fades. Particles of the dye may get on other things and stain them. In some cases, items damaged during joint washing can be saved, while in others they can only be thrown away or thrown into rags.

It is strictly forbidden to place textiles of different shades in the drum if:

The item is new and has never been washed. It is during the first wash that most of the “excess” pigment that is not fixed in the fibers of the material is washed away.
The fabric is dyed with a low quality compound.In such cases, items will fade even when slightly wet (for example, the collar of a bright shirt may stain the neck if the skin is slightly damp from rain or sweat).
Soaking is required. It is known that the longer the material is in water, the higher the likelihood that it will shed.
Requires washing at high temperatures. When the water heats up by more than 30 degrees, the dyes are separated from the fibers and the item sheds. How much depends on the quality of the dye and the degree of heating of the liquid.
Bleach is used. If you put colored together with white and add a bleaching compound, the pigment from the dyed fabrics will be washed out, and in quite an impressive volume. As a result, colored products will noticeably fade, and light ones, on the contrary, will become stained and acquire an undesirable shade.
Things are too dark or bright. In such cases, concentrated compounds are used to dye the fabric, and the more intense the shade, the more the product fades.

On a note. You can find out whether an item sheds using a simple test. You need to wet a cotton pad, place it on a cloth, pressing it with something heavy on top, and leave it for 10-15 minutes. If the cotton wool becomes colored, it means that the clothes will fade when washed.

To avoid damage to things, you should sort them before placing them in the drum, dividing them into 3 parts:

white and light (except gray);
dark and black;
bright, painted in rich colors.

The last category will also need to be sorted, separating red, orange and yellow from blue, green, purple, brown, lilac. If you wash them together, the result can be the most unpredictable.You should also set aside items with difficult stains and heavy soiling - they are usually washed separately from the rest of the laundry.

How to combine white clothes when washing

You can wash white items with textiles of other shades if you choose the right washing mode. This applies not only to water temperature, but also to spin intensity, choice of detergents, etc. Below are the basic rules that should be followed when drumming or hand washing white textiles together with colored ones.

With gray

Even though white and gray colors are considered “close”/“related”, it is not recommended to wash them together. After such a procedure, stains and streaks may appear on the white, which will be very difficult to remove even with the help of bleach. In the best case, the item will be completely painted and take on a dirty, pale gray tint.

And also, when washing together, it will be difficult to choose a detergent. If you take powder/gel with a whitening effect, gray things will fade. And when using a product for colored laundry, whites will definitely suffer. After all, such compositions contain pigment fixatives, and if the gray does fade, the dye will firmly “stick” to the white.

Given these facts, it is obvious that it is better to separate white and gray. But there are situations when this is impossible to do for some reason. In this case, washing must be carried out adhering to the following rules:

Turn things inside out.
Separate the gray from the white and place the laundry in 2 different laundry bags. You can use an old pillowcase for these purposes, preferably white or very light.
Place the bags in the drum, set the delicate mode and the minimum water temperature (not higher than 30 degrees), turn off the spin.
Add a detergent suitable for this type of fabric and start the process.
Immediately after the end of the cycle, remove the laundry from the drum and hang it to dry. If this is not done, wet items lying close to each other may stain even through the bag/pillowcase.

On a note. When you plan to wash white and beige together, it is not necessary to put the laundry in different bags. The beige pigment is practically not washed out, and the likelihood of spoiling white things in this case is very low.

With colored

The main rule that must be followed when washing white laundry together with colored clothes is to never soak these items together. No matter how high-quality the dye is, if the material remains in water for a long time, it will begin to be washed out of the fibers, and pigment particles will color other linen.

In addition, before starting washing, you will need to soak colored textiles in a 9% vinegar solution (1 tbsp per 1 liter of water) for 1 hour. The acid will help fix the dye, and the likelihood that the laundry will fade will decrease significantly. But you need to keep in mind that colored items can only be soaked in cold water, the temperature of which does not exceed 30 degrees.

Otherwise, washing white and colored items together is carried out in the same way as in the case of gray items. You need to put the items turned inside out into different bags and wash them on a delicate cycle without spinning at a temperature not exceeding 30 degrees, adding a neutral detergent suitable for all types of laundry.

It’s worth mentioning separately about the powder/gel. For colored items, products marked Color are recommended - they allow fabrics to retain their original color, fixing the pigment. But if you wash white things with this powder, they will acquire a yellowish or dirty gray tint.And if you choose a neutral composition or powder for white (which contains bleaching components), colored textiles will suffer - its shade will noticeably fade. Therefore, you should wash light-colored items together with brightly colored ones only when absolutely necessary; in other cases, it is better to separate them.

On a note. To reduce the risk of white items staining from colored items, you can use special napkins that absorb pigment. During washing, it “attracts” dye particles washed out of the fabric fibers, preventing them from settling on other things. When the drum is fully loaded, you will need 2-3 napkins, and if it is half full or less, one is enough.

With blacks

It is strictly not recommended to wash white items together with black ones (they can only be placed in the drum together with gray textiles, then the risk of staining is almost zero and the shade will not be affected). But it happens that these colors are combined in one product. In such cases, the washing procedure is as follows:

Turn the product inside out and place it in the drum.
Add a detergent suitable for this type of fabric (without bleach particles, otherwise the black material will become faded or lightened stains/drips will appear on it).
Turn on hand wash mode (if such a function is not in the menu, select an option where the water temperature does not exceed 30 degrees and the processing time is minimal).
Disable spinning and start the process.
When the cycle is completed, remove the product and rinse by hand in a 9% vinegar solution (1 tbsp per 1 liter of cold water).
Gently wring out the item and hang it to dry.

On a note. If there are difficult stains on clothes, it is better to remove them before washing.It is necessary to apply a stain remover suitable for this type of fabric to the stain, wash the stain, and then rinse the treated area and wash the item according to the instructions described above.

Suitable washing mode for different types of laundry

To avoid accidental staining and other problems that lead to damage to items, you should adhere to the following rules when washing:

Choose only neutral powders if there are both white and colored laundry in the drum. As mentioned above, using products with bleach will fade the color, and products with the Color mark will turn whites yellowish or dirty gray.
When washing colored and dark-colored laundry, sort it by shade and put only items that are similar in color into the drum at a time. So, black can be combined with gray, blue, dark purple and brown, yellow with orange, blue with green. It is better to wash bright materials, painted in rich colors, separately from other textiles.
When washing, you should not mix white laundry with gray, and red with yellow and black. Actually, it’s better to wash red clothes separately from other things; in extreme cases, you can put them in the drum along with orange or purple ones.
It is not recommended to wash items of contrasting colors together. So, you don’t need to put yellow and blue, green and red/orange/pink, orange and purple or gray, black and white into the drum at the same time.
You can only wash items made from the same or matching fabrics together (this will make it easier to choose a mode). So, you can put cotton, linen, chintz, calico into the drum together, combine cashmere with wool, and silk with synthetics. But you shouldn’t combine cotton and linen with synthetic items, just like combining wool with cotton or linen.
The temperature when washing black and colored items is 30-40 degrees.

We should also talk about washing things in contrasting shades together. Sometimes it is permissible to combine them, but only if they have been washed more than once and are definitely not capable of fading much. During the process, the following rules must be observed:

Start washing immediately, without soaking.
It is advisable to wash colored items by hand, and if this is not possible or desired, choose the fastest mode without spinning.
Use only cold water, no higher than 30 degrees, for washing. If items are washed in a machine, do not spin.
Use powders without bleaching particles.
During the final rinse, add vinegar to the water in a proportion of 1 tbsp. l. for 1 l.

If you follow these rules, things will retain their original shade for a long time and will not fade much.