So so dull!! But......keeping shirts white!

[Tinkers]

A cacher was trampled by cows a few months ago. Thankfully survived. Happens more often than you think. Usually when there's calves and the person has a dog.

My two penny worth on shirts.

We are not really a white wearing family. (We don't do white in general tbh)
DDs white shirts go in with anything pale, maybe her bedding (she is the only one with white ish bedding) or a couple of the cream towels we have or her white PE kit. She has enough shirts that I can save up to wash in one go.

Washed at at 30 deg C with a scoop of sainsburys stain remove powder for whites (exactly the same ingredients as the vanish one but cheaper).

John Lewis shirts, a full year and still looking pretty good. Apart from orange woodstain. That refuses to come out. Bleach faded it a bit.

[ToadMum]

Usually very definitely a Lidl / Aldi own brand family - and quite clean enough for general social purposes, thank you - but last year I bought some secondhand blouses for DD from the PA at school, and found I had tyo get a little more creative. Personally, I think they had had a lifetime of sharing a washing machine with some interesting shades

Anyway...

Yes, pretreat collars with something, then bung into a bucket with a nice strong solution of ordinary detergent and one of those Ariel add-to-wash thingies that I had previously turned my nose up at. Squish up and down a bit then leave to soak. I have to say that a, this is probably contrary to the instructions on the packet and b, I do have very tough hide on my hands, but it works.

I then either give the items a pretty brutal wring by hand or spin them, then use the 'rinse and spin only' programme on the washing machine.

As a child, I was always sent to the front when we were herding my uncle's escaped cattle

[Snowdrops]

Anyone needing to get stains out AND whiten shirts - one word, Napisan.

Those of us *cough cough* who are old enough to have children pre disposable nappies, know what wondrous effects this wonderful tub of magic can have. It used to get all my nappies sparkling (and I mean all - imagine the yuckiest and that was clean too).

A scoop full of that in a bucket, which you could start on the Monday night and add the shirts as you go along so they all get a really good soak, wash on Saturday and Bob's your uncle.

[southbucks3]

As a child, I was always sent to the front when we were herding my uncle's escaped cattle

That is just horrible!

As a child we always knew we had to be back on the right side of the fields before 5 o'clock because that is when the farmer moved his dairy cattle across the first field and his bull was allowed in the second. My bruv discovered this the hard way one evening rescuing his fishing float that had gone all the way across the river into bank of the second field... he arrived home wet from the river as he fled across and terrified.
I am sure the farmer was in cahoots with our mums..."get them home for tea"

This forum often triggers childhood memories...including the soaking bucket that lived in the downstairs loo. (Probably contained my bruvs pants after that eventful day )

[Yamin151]

Anyone needing to get stains out AND whiten shirts - one word, Napisan.

Those of us *cough cough* who are old enough to have children pre disposable nappies, know what wondrous effects this wonderful tub of magic can have. It used to get all my nappies sparkling (and I mean all - imagine the yuckiest and that was clean too).

A scoop full of that in a bucket, which you could start on the Monday night and add the shirts as you go along so they all get a really good soak, wash on Saturday and Bob's your uncle.

I remember Napisan! We used terry nappies for our twins and napisan was so good, I'd forgotten about that!

[fairyelephant]

M and s do a 100% cotton school shirt which can withstand a very hot wash..... If there's a stain fairy luquid and some just boiled water poured through the stained area can help.

I have 4 or five different categories that I spend an inordinate amount of time sorting dirty laundry into before commiting it to the washing machine. My washing machine is in the cellar, next to the boiler and it's my favourite part of the house .... Cosy and peaceful. Perhaps because of course no one else ever goes there! I do rather enjoy washing, I have to admit, I see it as creating order (piles of clean, folded laundered washing) out of chaos (heaps of dirty clothes chucked down said cellar steps by my family) or a line full of washing blowing in the wind - so lovely - am I mad?

[pheasantchick]

I have been known to chuck dc's white pe shorts in with a coloured wash when said child demands them to be washed for the next day

However, on the basis that today's washing powder is far superior to the washing powder of my youth, then it should be okay.

Does Biotex still exist? My mum always had a box of that, plus a hard washing powder soap bar.

No cow stories. Sorry.

[Yamin151]

Good grief, we really do have some washing bunnies here don't we? I wonder if anyone would notice my relatively crumpled and washed altogether laundry next to the sorted stuff. Having said that, I can certainly empathise with the pleasure of creating order out of chaos, I am like that with they garden, and yes, very peaceful.

[doodles]

Another candidate for queen of the whites here

15 white shirts a week for the men in my life plus all my (not so small) smalls! White PE kit for both children, judo kit and remember I'm the user of swarfiga on cricket whites too

Got to be a separate wash with some sort of stain removal powder and at least 40° for a minimum but then there's all those other lovely pre-soakey/brighteners/colour enhancer thingies brat sing to me from the shelves of domestic goddessness in the supermarket. My current favourite is ACE laundry bleach - getting excited just thinking about it!

My advice is to get yourself a bigger whites wash and experience the joys...........

[Yamin151]

I remember the heady days of smoking Marlboro lights, swigging more bottles of beer than I care to admit to, and dancing half consciously to 'Insomnia' with other cool young things, when 'doing laundry' was probably a euphemism for something rude or illegal and the only bleaching I was interested in was on my hair.........
I used to 'be' someone, now I'm worried about stains on shirts...........where's my ohone, must book for Glastonbury next year........

You have thrown down the gauntlet for white whites

Swarfega??? Does that work??