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?
I LOVE “color catchers”!! They save me so much time and save so many of my clothes from being ruined. They are priceless when my hubby helps with the laundry. Now that he knows how to use them that is lol. For a while I couldn’t figure out why he was going through so many until I realized he was using them as fabric softener sheets in the dryer!! ♀️
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Doesn’t the fabric need to be 100% cotton?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I like the idea, but isn’t it just as expensive to boy the cloth? Most of my “rags” are from clothing that is non absorbent or o buy them. So do you throw them away after several uses (as I do the color catchers) or do you bleach them, or what?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just re-apply the color catcher mixture and keep using them!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Do you have a cleaner/ conditioner for leather furniture?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Jillee, I love your hints and recipes, thank you so much for sharing and doing the research. This is a great idea but I had a question. Does it matter what type of fabric is used for the scraps? I know some fabrics absorb dye better than others and it looks like you’ve used cotton or muslin. Can you clarify that please? Thank you again for your dedication.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I used cotton, but I’ve also used old pieces of felt! Any fabric works. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Jillee, I have weird issue plaguing my laundry for quite a while. My husband’s work shirts and pants are dark colored and I always wash them seperate from other clothes. But they sometimes come out with almost bleached spots on them, even though I wash them first and never after a white load. As you can imagine, this causes a lot of aggravation to the hubster, we’ve had to throw quite a few items. Any ideas why and how to stop it from happening?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Could it be something he is getting on his clothes at work? Otherwise you might try cleaning the washer out first with a vinegar cycle.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Are these uniforms given by his job? Some companies require the return of uniforms, or reuse the same set repeatedly on different people. So in theory, if this is accurate, the uniform company could have dyed over bleach spots but the color didn’t hold. And yes, with my husband having been an oilfield mechanic, stuff from work can cause “bleaching”. Lastly, is it silicone by chance? Or caulk? Both leave white spots, and never come off, unless its a large chunk you can pick at.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Sometimes liquid fabric softeners cause this problem.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Jill, I enjoy your emails but have had a difficult time when printing all the directions. After trial and error, I did find that I could
eliminate the pictures by clicking on them. But, it would have been much easier if, after clicking on “print friendly”, there was
information on eliminating the pictures -or- just eliminate the pictures in the printed version. This would prevent printing all the pictures and stop the use of so much ink and paper.
Hate to say this but those ads in the middle of your instructions drive me crazy. Put them to one side or the other in your directions…….Or tell your website provider to do so.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.There is! Check the box that says “remove images” right after clicking printer friendly. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi. Do the color catches need to be washed and retreated after each cycle? Thanks
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Nope – they will last several cycles before needing to be retreated. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I second the suggestion to wash something white with blue denim. Anything white would have looked like the square. The real test would be to see if the white clothing item came out white.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Jillee for doing the homework for us. Always wonder what made color catchers work; however, I am with everyone else and think a white T needed to be thrown in the load to see just how well the experiment worked. Look forward to reading an update on the new test.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Jillee, Please wash those same jeans with a white tea shirt and tell us if this works. That would be the real test.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks so much for solving that little mystery ingredient ! I’ve wondered about it before, but never took time to investigate. This is a real money saver, especially for quilters. I’ve used commercial color catchers to restore quilts with bleeding colors and to wash new quilts. Great for combining small mixed colors to fill a load, too.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great idea and doable enough. How big should these white cloths be?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.About the size of hand or bigger. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Looks like a great idea! Have you tried them with a mix of light and dark clothes?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I buy color catchers all the time. Can you please tell me if these are as effective as the originals and can they be re-used? Do they need to be re-treated with the mixture each time? I am assuming so, which is fine. Just clarifying. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yes, they can be reused a dozen times before re-treating them. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Does the color catcher take any dye from the colored item, ie the blue jeans?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.No, the dye leaches away from the colored item anyway. It would drift onto other items without a catcher. The catcher is literally just a catcher. The carbonate soaks it up before it can get on other things.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.If you are worried about fading jeans you can soak dark items in salt occasionally to fix the pigment. At least I think. That sounds like a Jillie experiment-to-come!
Here are the results of that experiment :-) http://jillee.co/2eAWsiS
I’m wondering if USED color catchers could be washed, then treated with the mixture and reused. I recently found out about these, too – after ruining one of my husband’s polo shirts. The originals work great, but it seemed wasteful to throw the used sheets away. Thank you for this great DIY tip! Love your tips
Please log in or create a free account to comment.They sure can!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.What type of fabric should the white cloth be?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Doesn’t matter!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.These work so well and I’m giving them as part of my Christmas gifts to my friends!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you for this handy money saver, Jillee! This is yet another one I will make.
Thanks again!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Can these be reused or do you have to wash them out and redo the process?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.They can be reused several times before redoing the process. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Jillee, thanks for your “how to” on the color catchers. Can this also be used for mixed-color laundry loads? Can an old tshirt or baby onesie be used instead of a new scrap fabric? Do I need to wash/clean off the collected tint from the scrap & reapply the washing soda & water mixture after each load? Sorry for so many questions. Thanks again for your great tips!! :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yes, you can use them in mixed-color laundry loads. Yes, you can make them with any old fabric! No, you don’t need to wash them after every load – just reapply the washing soda after several washes. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just skimmed through, as it’s late, but love what I see! Looking forward to more ideas! Thank you so much!
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