Tuesday, February 9, 2010

What to Do When Your Laundry Turns Pink

Carey Sookocheff

Carey Sookocheff

Laundry 911: When your clothes have picked up a new hue, the first step is to rewash the whites

First: Separate the whites and rewash them, using a nonchlorine bleach or a cup of white vinegar. If you put the clothes in the dryer before this second wash, the heat will set the stains. "It's always better to handle anything that has gone wrong while it's still wet," says Linda Cobb, host of the DIY Channel's Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean.

Then: Dry as usual. And next time, separate your loads. You might have washed that crimson shirt a dozen times with your husband's tighty whities, but "just because a shirt didn't run before, doesn't mean it won't ever happen in the future," says Ilene Fudim, director of marketing for PWS–The Laundry Company, which runs laundry chains across the country.

More from Real Simple:
Laundry 101
6 Stain-Busters That Really Work
Getting Out Tricky Kids' Stains

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Comments 1 of 1
  • CarolH's Avatar
    Posted by CarolH Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:52pm PDT

    What if the shirt has navy blue and a stripe of white, will the navy blue be left alone while the pink gets out of the white portion?

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