L I F E / Garment Care: Keeping White Clothes White

Under the guise of 'garment care' here is a little post about how I keep my white clothes crispy white and bright.
I rather spend as little time of my life as possible working on household chores, so let's not call this a laundry routine shall we? Oops, too late for that now.

/ washing
-Separate your laundry. Incorrect laundry sorting will make your clothes look dingy. So make sure you fill your washing machine with whites only, even light grey and
pastel garments will lose some of their dye in the washing process, and these dyes will cling on to your white fabrics.
-Make sure you read the labels, wash delicate fabrics like silk and wool separately by hand.
-The non delicate fabrics, specially cottons and linens can be washed in high temperatures (unlike colorful garments, that will lose their color in too hot water).
-A few minutes into the washing cycle, add some diluted bleach with water. I just use a little splash of about 50ml with 3 times as much water.
Don't throw in the bleach directly, it is a strong chemical that can damage the fabric or cause uneven stains. A less toxic alternative is to add baking soda and vinegar instead.

/ wearing
-What I do to keep my sweatshirts stain free is turn them inside out before I dig into that bowl of spaghetti. It works! And keeps the eventual splatters of tomato sauce on the inside and out of sight!
-It can be hard to wear long floor sweeping wide trousers in autumn or fall. At the end of the day the bottom can look quite disgusting. Best is to save these styles for dryer seasons.
-Besides stains, white garments tend to get dingy on for example the cuffs of the sleeves. To keep your clothes looking crisp and clean, one must take a bit more drastic measures;
Touch less. It may seem like an impossible task, but it is just a little change of habits. I stopped leaning against the glass walls at the tram stop, don't rest my wrists on the shop
counters anymore and don't open doors in public spaces by leaning against them with my whole body arms and elbows. All these places rub off a tiny bit of dirt,
which will make your clothes grimy at the end of the day. This specially helps for items like coats and jackets that don't get washed often, it can even save you an extra trip to the dry cleaners.