What are you supposed to put in your washing to stop the colours from running together?

Question

I saw this recently in a movie, but I can't remember which one. Does anyone know what to do, say if you have a brand new red and white top, or some black and white linen? What's the best way to stop the colours from running?

Answer 1

your supposed to hand wash them, or sometimes it works to just run the washer on cold.

Answer 2

Huh? Simply wash clothes of like colors ! Whites together, dark separate load. Never heard of anything to put in a load of clothes like you describe.

If you have  a brand new say, sweatshirt that's deep purple, never been washed before, wash it by itself or with black slacks a couple of times.

Answer 3

I wash things like that in cold water with a Shout Color Catcher sheet in the machine.  It grabs the colors that come out so they don't get on the whites.

Answer 4

I would wash those tops separately by hand - especially if they are brand new. For the washing machine  you usually separate colours and wash them individually! Good luck.

Answer 5

Before we had a whole supermarket isle of cleaning products, we used to stop colours from running by washing the garments separately for the first few washes using a cold wash with a handful of salt in the water.

Answer 6

What you're asking can't be done. Movies lie a lot: they exist to entertain, not to inform.

What you can do *sometimes* is wash an individual item by itself in the wash with a cup of vinegar. That *may* prevent it from running in the future, but it's not always successful.

Separate your laundry; wash the whites in one load, the darks in another, and bright colours separately or by hand. (Don't throw the red and the green in together, either: wash all the red together, then all the green.)