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Cotton, silk, linen—each of these gorgeous fabrics need their own type of laundry detergent. In this article we will look at which detergent is suitable for what—to help keep your clothes feeling soft and looking vibrant for longer.
Sort your laundry before washing—this is the first step of a good laundry routine. You probably know to sort your clothes by what color they are but, ideally, you’d sort your clothes by fabric, too. A quick look at the care label will tell you what the garment is made of. Silk is best washed separately from cotton, as the two textiles need very different treatments in the washing machine. The laundry detergents needed for cotton and silk are also different—cotton can handle powerful detergents such as Persil® Odor Fighter, while silk needs a gentler detergent and often needs to be dry cleaned.
Once you’ve sorted each pile by material, sort each pile of laundry again, but by color this time. Red socks in white laundry are a cliché, but unless you really want pink clothes, you’d be well advised to sort your clothes as best you can!
You can wash light-colored linen, cotton, rayon or jersey material with a universal detergent for white laundry. It is specially developed to get light-colored fabrics clean again and keep them shining even after washing many times. The above fabrics are robust enough for a universal detergent, but for colorful laundry things are different again. Let’s take a look.
Colorful textiles such as jeans, T-shirts and sweaters are best washed with a color detergent. Unlike detergents for white laundry, it ensures that the colors remain intensely bright for as long as possible. Any detergent with bleach will cause colors to bleed or fade, so a specially formulated detergent like Purex® plus Clorox 2® Original Fresh Liquid Laundry Detergent is ideal because it is tough on stains, but safe for colorful laundry.
Silk and wool are a bit more high maintenance when it comes to their care. If you want to keep garments made of these materials for a long time, it is good to use a mild detergent that is specially developed to wash wool, silk, and other delicates.
Is your skin sensitive? Then you can use detergents that have been developed precisely for this purpose. Here, too, there are products for different textiles and colors, but the main thing is that you ensure it is formulated for sensitive skin, such as all® free clear or Persil® ProClean® Sensitive Skin.
The question of which detergent is suitable for what laundry is also dependent on if you have a washing machine with an appropriate washing program for each fabric type. When you buy a new washing machine, make sure it has wash programs for the fabrics you wear often. For example, if you have a lot of silk tops, a delicate wash program is great so you know you can wear your favorite tops without having to worry about washing them later.
Hope you found these tips helpful. We have lots more laundry tips for you, too! Check them out and explore the rest of Ask Team Clean.
