Keep Your Whites Vibrant And Bright For Longer With A Little-Known Laundry Tip

Keeping white clothes bright maybe one of the biggest challenges in everybody's laundry room. With all the tips on how to brighten your whites without using bleach and other harsh chemicals, there are so many solutions out there just waiting for you to give them a try. But when you're trying in vain to keep your whites white, the problem may actually be coming from the drying process. It's easy to assume the cleaner you can get your clothes in the washing machine, the more vibrant they'll be. However, the high heat from your dryer could actually be the culprit causing your white clothes to lose their brightness. There are plenty of mistakes everyone gets wrong when doing laundry — and when it comes to your dryer, throwing any clothes in on a high heat setting should always be used with caution.

It's no secret that high temperatures can cause damage to any clothes in the dryer, like fading and shrinking. This applies to your whites clothes as well because the fabric is actually more sensitive than you might think. Prolonged exposure to too-high temperatures may singe the fabric causing it to turn dull and yellow. In addition, high heat can suck up vibrancy or cause color to transfer from other garments in the same dryer. Overdrying can also have an impact on stains, causing them to turn yellow and making them harder to remove. So what's the alternative? The solution is actually quite simple — air drying your clothes in the sunlight.

It might seem a little bit old fashioned, but drying your white clothes in direct sunlight instead of popping them into a dryer has a number of benefits. How, you ask? It works because sunlight's ultraviolet rays have a natural bleaching power that helps remove stains and return your whites to their original brightness. And the best part is you don't need to add any harsh chemicals or bleach to help. And if you want your clothes last a long time, air drying will also reduce stress on fabrics caused by high temperatures from your dryer, meaning your whites won't shrink, fade, or become brittle with continuous tumbling.

In addition, the sun acts as a natural deodorizer, making it one of the best hacks that will leave your clothes smelling fresh. You just have to find a sunny spot by a window or hang them on a line outside (with even sun exposure) and let the UV rays work their magic. However, just make sure you don't leave your whites in the sun for too long. Prolonged exposure can backfire on you and cause more yellowing due to the intense UV rays. In order to avoid this, it's best to air dry your white clothes in the sunlight for a couple hours and then bring them in to finish drying in the shade. This will give you all the benefits of the sun's bleaching power without the risk of overdoing it.