What's Your Secret for Long Lasting colors.....laundry !!!!!

All good suggestions....here is a money saver.... Buy a box of Borax and use that as a laundry booster. It is the same stuff as the Tide Laundry booster but cheaper...a lot cheaper. One tablespoon of borax per load is enough. Good luck.

I use Kirkland "free & clear" liquid HE laundry soap. I put white vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. I wash everything in cold except for bed sheets and towels which I wash on hot or sometimes the steam sanitize setting. In the dryer I throw in several tennis balls and dry everything in low heat except again the towels and bed sheets.
Fabric softeners leave a residue in your clothes which can leave them dingy.
Also, don't use a ton of soap. I use about half the amount it says you should use (so 1/2 cap full instead of 1 cup). It is enough to wash your clothes. Consumer Reports did something on it a while ago. It's better for the company if you use it faster by using more ;) Again it can leave a build up of the soap making your clothes dingy.
Make sure you don't have anything traped inside the rubber gasket in the front of the washer. I have socks get in there all the time! There might be something stuck in there that is bleeding on the rest of your clothes.
A suggestion I remember reading somewhere if you have to have that perfume smell on your clothes is to spray something nice smelling on a washcloth and toss it into your dryer with the load. Or something very similar. Personally because of allergies I can't have all the "froof" smell on my family's laundry.

What detergent do you use?
I think that has something to do with it, we use All and have had no problems with colors fading we do use fabric softener
we also wash everything in cold water

My laundry doesn't fade and we don't use laundry softener...I don't know if that's a direct result or not. We wash everything on cold (except diapers) and run it on hot just every so often. I've noticed that REALLY helps colors stay vibrant. Also, I noticed a really huge difference when we started using a "green" detergent. When we used a detergent with lots of chemicals (Tide, ALL...those kinds) our colors faded so quickly. We use Country Save and it says it's HE compatible.

use dryer sheets to give you better smell. I have heard to use white vinegar to keep clothes brighter longer, also there are dryer sheets to keep the colors from fading or bleeding, you throw them in with the wash. use cold water and don't dry if you don't have too. Wash colors that are alike if you can, like black with black. I have heard NOT to use laudnry softener with HE too, so be careful. It has a build up that is not good for your washer.

I use liquid Oxyclean in all my loads. I used to use it only in light loads, but then I read an article in Good Housekeeping that said it helps keep darks dark. They say it keeps that top layer of fuzz off the clothes. It also says not to use softener. I still do, but opt for the second rinse and sometimes have a no softener week to let my clothes "rest"

You may want to check the Good Housekeeping website & see if you can find more info.

Good luck!

OOOH! THANK YOU for reminding me about my laundry question!!! LOL! I don't have any advice for you though...

I use BioKleen laundry detergent. It can be used for HE machines and is safe for the environment and super-concentrated. I never have used a fabric softener, because it's just adding perfume to your clothes, and I'm more likely to break out in a rash. Our clothes haven't faded noticably, either.

I dont use liquid fabric softener, only the sheets and have no problem.

I taught people with developmental disabilities to do laundry for years. Everyones laundry turns dingy and gray if they don't sort their colors out.

You must make different piles/baskets of clothes.

Light colored clothing, hubby's light gray briefs, light tee shirts, white shirts, light colored underwear...all get a bit of bleach in the water and if nothing shrinks then they get hot water too. If something might shrink then it all goes on warm.

Medium colors, pinks, yellows, lilac, pastels that you don't want bleached. All get washed on warm with good soap. Don't use too much.

Jeans and mostly denim/heavy material clothes. Khaki's, Dockers, etc...heavy material load. Warm water. Dry on a higher setting since it's all heavier.

Sheets and bed linens. Bleach and hot water for lighter colors and warm for other colors.

Fleece blankets, fuzzy blankets, etc...warm water and medium heat in dryer. The heat can melt the fabric surface and make them scratchy.

Darks, blacks, navy blues, dark browns, reds, all dark colors. I wash them in warm but some use only cold on them. I dry them on medium. If you have enough red stuff wash them together on cold or warm. They fade very often and make the clothes odd colors.

I use fabric softener in every load except towels. I use the Downy with the green lid and just plain original Gain powder soap. I use the recommended amount of softener in the dispenser and add water to it. If you are not careful the fabric softener can leave spots on your clothes if they get globs dripped on them.

I have never had laundry that looks grey or dingy. Everyone always notices how white my whites are and how vibrant my colors are. My darks do not have white lint on them from mixing them with lighter colors. The dyes in the reds and darks will always fade some and if other colors are mixed in the absorb some of that dye and it stays forever. If the darks are washed together then they fade onto each other and stay looking nice.

Sometimes it's the dryer that fades the clothes.

I wash brand new things with regular soap and white vinegar instead of fabric softener the first time. I think the vinegar is supposed to help set the color.

I usually wash my brites in cool water with laundry detergent and fabric softener. Then I put them in the dryer for a few minutes to warm them up and knock off the wrinkes. Then I hang them to dry on one of those wooden racks. We rarely have faded clothes, and our pinks stay bright, our reds stay red and our blacks stay black!

Hot water can rob clothes of their color and can also make whites turn dingy depending on the mineral make up of your tap water. I've never head of liquid fab softener doing that but who knows. I know on experience that the soap you use can make a difference too. I used to use All free and clear with no problem in IN but that all changed when I moved to SC and the water dept changed something in how they processed our water because my whites started to look horrible!! I switched to Tide which seems to work well. Don't fall for the cold water or fabric extender types because they don't perform any different to justify the hype. I'm also using Method right now and it seems to work well too. I've tried the Tide stain release and had to rewash all of my husbands clothes because he had a reaction to it. It's also expensive and I didn't feel that it did anything for my clothes either. I have recently changed to using Borax powder in my was as a booster an it seems to work great on getting out the stains ( I missed dried blood on my son's sheets for a nose bleed and it came out!) and I think it keeps my whites looking better too.

Keep using the HE in your front loader and play around with different brands of soap and see what works best for you!

Good luck
S.

I use Method detergent with my front-loader, with a Tide booster pack thrown in there, no softener, and it works great. The colors don't seem to fade. I use the Bounce dryer bar in the dryer for softening - maybe try that?

Cold water and Clorox II....my mom used cold water and Tide....I have tried and liked cold water and Gain (because it smells good even w/o fabric softener)

NO HOT WATER w/colors.

Blessings.....