There are several reasons why clothing can take on a greyish color and never look completely clean. Here are some tips to keeping those clothes bright:

Reason #1: Too little detergent.

Solution: Sometimes those white clothes aren’t coming clean because of something as simple as not using enough laundry detergent. Read the instructions on your detergent bottle and use your own judgment: the more clothes you’re washing, the more detergent you have to use.

Reason #2: Wash water temperature is too low.

Solution: It’s important to use warm/hot water while washing white clothes. Do not forget to keep in mind the recommended temperature on the garment. Never exceed that.

Reason #3: The load is incorrectly sorted

Solution: Never wash heavily soiled clothing with lightly soiled clothing. Only wash like-garments because the amount of dirt on the clothing dictates how much detergent and which water temperature to use. The same goes for colors: always separate loads by colors: whites with whites, brights with brights and darks with darks.

Today we battle with two seemingly contrasting virtues when it comes to doing laundry—how to be energy efficient and time efficient while thoroughly cleaning our clothing.

The correct amount of clothing to throw in the washer for each load exists as a fine line between too-much-to-thoroughly-clean and not-quite-enough-to-conserve-energy (by cutting down the number of loads). The official “full load of laundry” is a combination of the right weight and a good mix.

Weigh it in:

Smaller capacity top loaders can handle about 6 lbs of dirty clothing to be full. Medium capacity top-loaders can take about 7-8 lbs. The largest capacity top-loaders can wash around 12-15 lbs. As we all know, front-loaders are the most energy efficient, and part of the reason is that they have the greatest capacity. They can hold as much as 18 lbs of clothing.

Weighing your dirty laundry is easy: Put the laundry in a basket and hop on a scale. Record that weight. Then, empty all of that laundry either into the washer or onto the floor and weigh yourself holding only the empty basket. The difference between the two weights is the weight of the load of dirty clothes.

Mix it up:

Oh, but that’s not all. Like in many aspects of life, diversity is the answer. A good load of laundry mixes a range of sizes of items. A good mix allows the load to move around inside of the washer, keeping the clothes fully washed, fully rinsed and undamaged.