Washing Coloured Laundry: Tips & Tricks for Vibrant Colours

The key points

• Before washing your coloured laundry, it is important to sort your clothes by colour and separate them according to the sensitivity of the materials.

• With the right wash cycle and a mild liquid detergent or colour detergent powder, you can help protect the colours and reduce fading.

• Home remedies such as vinegar or salt can help maintain the vibrancy of your laundry and, when used on new garments, may help reduce colour bleeding.

Step by step to thoroughly clean, vibrant coloured laundry

You might think that coloured laundry is easy to wash – after all, it tends to discolour less quickly than white clothing and fades more slowly than black laundry. So far, so good. Nevertheless, there are a few cleaning basics you should know to help preserve and maintain the vibrancy of colours. Even though pastel yellow and burgundy garments technically belong to the same category of coloured laundry, washing them together can still have consequences.

Step 1: Sort coloured laundry correctly

This brings us to the first and most important tip: sorting your laundry before washing. You probably already know that coloured clothing should not be washed together with white or black laundry. However, you should also divide your coloured laundry into different categories to help prevent colour transfer. Sort your clothes into the following groups:

• Light colours (pastel shades, beige, light grey, black and white stripes, etc.)

• Medium colours (sky blue, grass green, yellow, orange, pink, etc.)

• Dark colours (purple, dark green, dark blue, red, etc.)

You should also wash new clothing separately the first time or only together with darker laundry, as new garments can release a particularly large amount of colour. Also make sure to wash materials with similar properties together. More on this in the next tip.

Step 2: Load the washing machine correctly & choose the right programme

How should you wash coloured laundry correctly? For most garments, the answer is straightforward: use the coloured-laundry programme, which gently removes dirt at a temperature of 30 to 40 °C without unnecessarily affecting the colours. A gentle spin cycle at 800 to 1,000 revolutions per minute is usually sufficient to remove excess moisture from your clothes without putting unnecessary strain on the fibres.

However, when sorting coloured laundry, you should consider not only the colour but also the material. Towels, bed linen and underwear can often also be washed at 60 °C, while delicate materials such as TENCEL™, wool-silk blends and similar fabrics should be washed using a delicate cycle or by hand. To help retain the shape and colour for as long as possible, you will always find the most important washing information on the care label of your clothing.

Step 3: The best detergents for coloured clothing

If you want to preserve the colours of your laundry for as long as possible, choosing the right detergent is also important. Ideally, use a liquid colour detergent, which distributes evenly throughout the drum. The advantage: unlike most powder detergents, this type of detergent contains no bleach and can therefore help protect colours from fading.

If possible, also avoid using fabric softener with coloured laundry – depending on the material, it can affect the fibres and reduce their breathability. This is particularly relevant for functional materials such as TENCEL™ or ECONYL® fibre made from recycled nylon.

Tip: CALIDA uses materials such as cotton or wool-silk blends for many garments. These fabrics can be cared for with a mild detergent without harsh additives. Depending on the material, fabric softener is neither necessary nor recommended.

Step 4: Laundry additives & home remedies to help preserve colours

Would you like to keep your coloured laundry vibrant for as long as possible? In addition to special colour-refreshing products from drugstores, there are also several tried-and-tested home remedies for coloured laundry. Here is an overview:

• A small glass of vinegar in the fabric softener compartment can neutralise odours and clean your clothes without a bleaching effect.

• Salt can help support colour retention during the first wash. Simply add one teaspoon of table salt to your laundry.

• Baking soda acts as a gentle cleaner without bleach and can help keep fibres soft. Add around 1 to 2 tablespoons to the detergent compartment (please note: do not use with wool-silk).

Even though these additives are common household remedies, they can have a strong effect. To avoid putting unnecessary strain on the fibres, you should therefore use them sparingly and only with robust materials such as cotton.

Step 5: Dry coloured laundry without fading

One of the biggest risks for coloured clothing is fading caused by sunlight or UV rays. Therefore, never hang your laundry in direct midday sunlight. Instead, choose a shaded place with good air circulation. If you want to dry your clothes indoors, make sure to air the room regularly to reduce humidity.

A tumble dryer is also only suitable for drying coloured clothing to a limited extent. While it dries clothes quickly, the colours can fade more quickly due to the heat, while delicate fabrics may be exposed to greater strain. Therefore, always check the care symbols on the care label of your coloured laundry. If the square symbol with a circle in the centre is crossed out, you should not put the garment in the tumble dryer.

Dyeing faded laundry? Here is what you should know

Despite taking every precaution, the colours of your laundry may appear dull or fade unevenly after extended use. In this case, you can refresh your clothes with textile dye from a drugstore – it is easy to use in the washing machine.

However, keep in mind that you cannot make your laundry lighter, but only darker. In addition, not all fibres absorb dye evenly. While cotton and linen can usually be dyed without much difficulty, synthetic fibres such as polyester or microfibre are difficult to dye.

But don't worry: with appropriate care, CALIDA basics can retain their colour and shape for as long as possible and should therefore preferably be cared for gently rather than dyed again.

Conclusion

Washing coloured laundry is not complicated. Nevertheless, you should follow a few basic rules to help your clothes stay vibrant for as long as possible: First, sort your laundry carefully by colour and material, use the right washing programme and choose a colour detergent without optical brighteners or harsh additives. A gentle spin cycle and air-drying in the shade can help your garments retain their shape, colour and properties. With these washing tips, you can also care for your CALIDA laundry in delicate colours according to the care instructions and enjoy wearing your favourite pieces for as long as possible.