38 Comments
So I must admit… I didn’t actually know what “color catchers” were until a couple of years ago. When I first heard the term, I had no idea what they were supposed to do. But it turns out there’s some pretty good reasons for utilizing these little laundry helpers.
A color catcher catches loose dyes that seep into the water during wash cycles. This prevents the dye from getting absorbed into your other clothes, meaning that by adding one to your washer you can wash darks and lights together in the same load. That’ll save you time by reducing the need for sorting, and save you money by eliminating a lot of half-size wash loads.
That all sounded pretty good to me, so I wanted to see if I could figure out how to make my own at home. After a LOT of research, I stumbled onto a method that ended up working out perfectly. Here’s how it works.
Related: 3 Surprising Reasons You Should Always Wash New Clothes
How To Make DIY Color Catchers For Laundry
Materials:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp washing soda*
- White scrap fabric
*Note: You can usually find washing soda in the laundry aisle at most grocery stores, but if you can’t find it for some reason, you can always make some at home out of baking soda.
Directions:
Add the washing soda to the water and mix until the washing soda dissolves.
Put the scrap pieces of fabric in the water and saturate with the liquid. Wring out the excess water and hang to dry. To use your finished color catchers, add one sheet to standard wash loads, and two sheets to large loads or loads with new or especially dark clothing items.
I tried out my color catchers with a couple of new pairs of dark denim. It’s not easy to capture the difference in a photo, but there’s definitely a blue tint there!
I would definitely recommend trying these for yourself. They couldn’t possibly be easier to make, and saving time and money is definitely a “good thing!” :-) And don’t forget to clean your washing machine to cut down on dye transfer too.
Have you used color catchers with your laundry before?
