If you haven’t seen our last article, we wrote a comprehensive guide to washing your sheets, and we must say, that’s an important article to read. If you finished that article, welcome to another that centers around the same theme! If you can’t tell, we’ll be venturing into the world of caring for your bedsheets for the month of June and stay tuned for the last article!
For this week, we’ll be looking into an important part of washing your bedsheets: preventing color run on your bedsheets, a common issue that frequently occurs but is typically overlooked. In last week’s article, we’ve also announced the upcoming launch on our two new colors, Navy and Forest, so if you haven’t checked those colors out yet, check them out here now before reading on!
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, color run on bedsheet during its wash, especially when its new, is a fairly common issue and deserves some attention. Perhaps this is also why some choose to go with the safe color of white sheets, to prevent instances like these from happening.
But if you still love the idea of color coordinating your favorite sheets to your room or even using them as a statement piece to bring out a pop of color, then fret not, at least you’ll learn about it here, so you’re now woke.
Often times, the color on bedsheets can lighten as a result of long-term use or the type of dyes chosen during the manufacturing process. As a result, colors on bedsheets may fade or even end up looking uneven and in streaks after you take them out of the wash and dryer. This is because some dyes used in certain products have not been tested for colorfastness in laundry detergents and washing solvents, hence the colors will tend to fade over time. In addition, bed linen that come with prints have been found to fade no matter how much care is taken into washing them, hence ultimately, the best way to go about washing your sheets would be to religiously follow the washing label and stick to the guidelines.
Before we begin to provide you tips on preventing color run, it is important to know that these tips are for the generic bedsheets that you can find in the market, and if anything, do take our advice with caution and practice care when you wash your linens. With that, we’ll proceed on to share with you how to use some natural ingredients that you can find in your home to wash your bedsheets to prevent or minimize the risk of fading!
Table Salt
We know that salt is a commonly found ingredient in your dishes and makes everything yummy, but did you also know that using salt to wash your bedsheets also helps to seal and lock in the colors on your linens? If you are washing your bedsheets in the washing machine, you’ll find that adding a small tablespoon of salt into the washing mix will help with the prevention of color fading as well as helping to restore the brightness of some fabrics that have become dull over time. Furthermore, this tip is not limited to simply bedsheets, and extends to other washable items like your clothes, towels and even slippers.
Cold Water
No, not that popular song featuring Justin Bieber, but actual cold water. Like we mentioned in our last article, washing our bamboo sheets with cold water not only helps with the electricity bills, but also helps to prevent fading in any kind of fabric. But if you’re like me and wondering, what about the germs and bacteria that still lie within the fabric itself? Will they be truly gone if I don’t use cold water? Isn’t that the purpose of using hot water? Well, we have found that as long as you dry your linens under the sun or put them in a dryer, they should come out fresh and free of germs when you’re done. So, fret not!
Baking Soda
Another one of my favorite and must-have items at home, the use of baking soda is probably endless right now and we should all know it by then. But did you know that simply adding in half a cup of baking soda to your wash can actually not just help with the prevention of fading but also allowing your fabrics and linens to stay bright? If you’re looking to use an old bedsheet that you’ve found in the back of your cupboard and wish to give it a wash to make it look less vintage, then do give this tip a try!
Dye Fixatives
While the use of more natural ingredients like salt have been said to be ineffective, it is nevertheless much safer to use if the sheets belong to younger children or older adults. However, if you’re not that concerned about that and hope that above all else, your sheets remain that perfect shade of purple and orange, then store-bough dye fixatives may just do the trick! However, for this tip, it’ll best be safe to contact the store or refer to the back of the fixatives for washing instructions to determine if they are safe to use for the specific material that you have at home. However, as bamboo is a natural form of linen, we would thus not recommend for you to use these on your bamboo sheets but if you would like to, do take caution.
As such, we have come to the end of the article, and we hope you have learnt a thing or two from this week as well! While we approach the end of the month, we look forward to giving you one more article and finally, our newsletter for the month of June. We also look forward to seeing you guys again if there comes an opportunity for a second event. In the meantime, stay safe everyone!
With love,
The Bedtribe Team