The Mistake That's Ruining Your White Clothes

During a season that’s known for bundling up in darker hues, an outfit filled with winter whites couldn’t be any chicer. But there’s one catch: Knowing how to properly wash your white clothes. After all, with dirty snow flying and hot drinks abound, you're always at risk of ruining your winter whites. With that, we enlisted the ladies of The Laundress—Gwen Whiting and Lindsey Boyd—to guide you on the right steps to keeping your favorite cotton and linen pieces in pristine collection. Whether you’ve been wearing your favorite tee on the regular and you’re working to remove some unfavorable deodorant marks, or you want to remove that insanely tough oil stain, we’ve got you covered. Make sure you’re doing these simple steps and you’ll be wearing bright whites all year long.

Pretreat your clothes.

Whiting and Boyd recommend their Stain Solution and All-Purpose Bleach Alternative directly to affected areas of your clothes.

Use hot water, and scrub at the stains.

Using hot water to activate the solution, scrub at the stain. This way you’re working the solution into the fabric.

Presoak your clothes.

In a bath of hot water and the aforementioned All-Purpose Bleach Alternative, soak your items for at least one hour. Whiting and Boyd say it can sometimes take more than one try. “If the stain isn’t fully removed once the soaking is completed, don’t sweat it! It often it takes two to three tries before complete removal.”

Wash your clothes as normal.

Once you’ve gotten the stain out to your liking, wash your clothes as you normally would with detergent.