What's your secret for getting whites REALLY white?

10 responses total.

Straight bleach for a week or a can of your favorite spray-paint.

I've heard that soaking them in a bleach-water solution for an hour or
so before washing them does a lot.

  A little vinegar added to the water can make things whiter.

phosphates, but duller is better  

Do not add vinegar (acetic acid) to chlorine (hypochlorite) bleach. An
acid added to hypochlorite causes the formation and release of
hypochlorous acid (HClO), chlorine (Cl2), and possibly chlorine monoxide
(Cl2O). These are poisonous and irritating. A *little* vinegar added to
hypochlorite bleach will enhance the bleaching power because of the
formation of free chlorine - but do it outdoors, and stand upwind 8*x. The
mixture is also more destructive to fabrics than bleach alone. 

 Thanks, Rane.
/

Don't walk around all day wearing white socks and no shoes.  The socks will
never get sparkling white.  And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

It makes a difference if it's cotton, nylon, or polyester.  Cotton can 
take the harshest treatment, but with home laundry, it's all the same.

re vinegar: I have heard that vinegar in the rinse water helps
remove all traces of detergent -- so that if some non-whiteness
were in fact detergent residue, vinegar would be a suitable remedy.

I found this in my e-mail box as one of the winners in a "bad analogies"
contest.  thought it was appropriate:
"You made my day, even a day as gray as white cotton sheets washed for
decades in cold water without bleach like no self-respecting women who
came of age in the 1940s would allow in her house, much less on one of
her beds, but up with whidh she must put whenever she visits one of her
own daughters, just as if they had never been  brought up right. 
(DEV, Madison, Wisconsin)

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