Have tried soaking in vanish and washing at 60, but they come out of the machine as grubby as they went in
Any tips would be great, I'm no domestic goddess!
Does anyone know of a product sold in Coop or migros that will get my white clothes white?
You night need to change the washing product you use. Some gels, particularly, are known for greying whites (and quite challenging to ever get sparkling white again).
With the weather forecast for the coming weekend , 30c/sun it could help after washing with a borax type product (you can buy Ecover some places) to hang everything out in the sun for as long as possible... until it starts raining
bleach.
You could soak them in diluted Javelwasser or Eau de Javel. It is simple bleach.
Nasty stuff, don't mix with any other cleaner or chemical. Be careful personally, especially the eyes and mouth.
Is it better to use a powder then, rather than a liquid?
Feeling embarrassingly domestic here , but that is what I remember reading. I had some brand new white items that were grey after just a few washed so read some reviews in Which (UK equiv to K-tipp) consumer magazine. Mild comfort to know I was not alone. I switched to a powder (usually Ariel, but am fickle for a special offer). One other thing to check is the filters, just in case they have become gunged up with a dissolved tissue or similar.
I get my whites white by really working on softening water, then it doesn't matter what you wash it with, detergents work all similarly. Water is incredibly hard where I am, doesn't wash much. Laundry looks completely different if I threw two of the generic softening tablets in (I use Casino), you can use then 40deg setting and a normal amount of detergent (as opposed the increased dose they recommend for hard water, which is hard to rinse off sometimes).
In the pharmacy you can buy "Baby Blanc" it will restore anything to it's original white and what's good is that you can then put your clothes in the sun to dry (with bleach not of course). I always have some in case of an emergency.
SpeĢcial "lingettes" that stop the colors bleeding into each other let me put my whites with all sorts of colors - like Total Color Protect - you get 30 chiffons at the time. It workes perfectly if you don't forget to put them in, as I do quite often - then back to Baby Blanc
You can soften the water by adding baking soda and vinegar. This will help with the whites.
I used one of those packages that say they whiten whites and it turned everything blue! ggrrrr.
Don't use bleach if your whites are not all cotton. If they are polys or blends they will go yellow.
Yes. Liquids tend to turn white stuff greyish, no matter what their advertising says.
Buy Vanish Oxy Action Power Weiss (sorry, that's what it's called here, not my fault) at Coop or Denner. It comes as a powder. With a bit of good luck you can get 1.5 kg for about 15 CHF, and even if it's more expensive, it's worth the money.
I use it on my white practice clothes, besides a run every few months with Baby Blanc / Baby Weiss, as mentioned by Miostar. Plus Vanish Oxy Action Gel for really greasy white collars.