What happens when you wash white clothes in cold water?

[Syringer]

Looking to minimize laundry loads here in apt since each cycle is $1..and I'm a starving kid here. What would happen if I were to mix my whites and colors and just wash with cold water? The whites just won't be as clean as they could be right? That's a risk I think I can live with.

 

[conjur]

Uhh....they get clean?

Well, only if you use detergent and maybe bleach, too.


Oh...mixing whites and colors? Bad idea....bad.

Unless you like pink underwear....hmmm...

 

They get clean ?

Quickdraw conjur

 

[conjur]

:beer:

 

All my clothes have been worn before, so I just dump them all into a cold-water wash. They get clean.

 

[Viper GTS]

Easy solution? Get rid of the whites.

Then you don't have to worry anymore.

You should be bleaching your whites though, that is one good reason to keep them separate.

Surely you have enough whites to constitute one load?

Viper GTS

 

[lowtech1]

An extra load per week is not going to kill you @ $52 per year.

Keep the colour away from your white....unless you like pink undies & bloched white tee shirts.

 

[rutchtkim]

just did that, the whites turn a darker color

 

[DT4K]

If all the colored clothes have been washed a few times and you use cold water, the whites will be fine.
It is usually only the first 1 or 2 times of washing a bright color that you have to worry about the color bleeding.
If you want them really really white then yeah, you should use hot water and bleach them.
If you don't care that much, it won't hurt you to do them together.

 

[ElFenix]

clothes don't bleed on cold if they've been washed before... otherwise all your colors would come out brown...

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: conjur
Uhh....they get clean?

Well, only if you use detergent and maybe bleach, too.


Oh...mixing whites and colors? Bad idea....bad.

Unless you like pink underwear....hmmm...

I mix whites and colors. I don't give a damn if my underwear is white or pink, but I use cold so it doesn't run anyway. Wait.. I only have one red shirt so it doesn't matter.

 

[poncherelli2]

I do it all the time if i dont have a full load, but just a small mix of colors and whites. Granted, if i have enough i like to do whites on hot (and sometimes with bleach), but theres nothing wrong with mixing on a cold cycle to save money or time.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Easy solution? Get rid of the whites.

Then you don't have to worry anymore.

You should be bleaching your whites though, that is one good reason to keep them separate.

Surely you have enough whites to constitute one load?

Viper GTS

You don't want to bleach ALL whites. Some will turn yellow when they get hit with bleach.

amish

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Easy solution? Get rid of the whites.

Then you don't have to worry anymore.

You should be bleaching your whites though, that is one good reason to keep them separate.

Surely you have enough whites to constitute one load?

Viper GTS

You don't want to bleach ALL whites. Some will turn yellow when they get hit with bleach.

amish

The ones that turn yellow tend to be wool.

 

[pulse8]

Fluff and fold rules.