Ancient laundry question....what's up with the whites????

Chlorine bleach will turn synthetic fibers yellow, such as polyester or spandex or whatever. So only use chlorine bleach on all-cotton fabrics.

Not sure why the stains are there still, unless maybe you forgot to add detergent?! lol I've done that... worse, I've forgotten to add clothes.... I go in when I hear the washer quit, open it, and nothing! WTH!?!?!?!? LOL

There are a lot of reasons why this could have happened....the water can do this (if something happened to the water main outside), using bleach on certain materials with turn them yellow, also, bleach will turn shirts that have sweat on them yellow (especially the underarm area), and sometimes it reacts with your deodorant too.

Try using a little baking soda in with your regular detergent. Baking soda works great to make you white stuff white again. Just don't use too much because it can make you itchy. If your not sure how much to use, just buy the Arm and Hammer detergent. Hope this helps.

OMO? You've got OMO in the States? Wierd. I've never seen whiter sheets and clothes than when I was growing up and the neighbours had a big pot outside to boil their whites with ash water.

Try using SNOWY bleach, letting the clothes soak for a while before washing them.

You might just have a problem with you water... like too much rust or lime scale in it that is making your clothes look dingy.

Are they cottons? If not and you washed them in hot water there is your answer. Synthetics are not meant to be washed in hot water todays day you need to wahs in recommended water temp. only cottons use hot water. Most people do not know this. Good Luck!!

i use Tide with all my whites and I get fantastic results. I dont mess with the bleach though..

Whether or not you went to a laundromat probably doesn't matter, but the water could have been dirty. That has happened to me before.