How can you preserve the bright colours of new clothes?

I've heard of adding a cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle or soaking in vinegar to lock colors in, I did put vinegar in the rinse cycle for a little while but I don't know if it really did anything, at least it's cheap. Washing inside-out should help some too.

I add baking soda to my wash water b/c our water is very "hard" (high mineral content). The baking soda "softens" the water, which helps to keep colors from fading because hard water is also hard on your clothes. I also hang most of my clothes dry, which preserves the material as well as the color. The high heat of a dryer will cause your clothes to fade more quickly. Avoid direct sunlight, though, because sunlight will bleach some fabrics (unless it is white things, of course, then hang in the direct sun all you want).

My mom used vinegar on our new clothes. I make a point to buy the expensive Tide detergent. I've bought the cheap stuff, and I think it fades clothes faster.

Thank you for your responses. I will try the baking soda thing. Unfortunately both my kids are highly highly allergic to tide, so I'm really hesitant to change detergent again. Thanks anyway.

also using softner in the washer can make your clothes fade too

Hi, I'm coming back to this question because it just came up on another board I'm on (it's a clothing board). To lock in colors you soak your new clothes in a bucket of water with a half cup of vinegar for about an hour, then wash in cold water (so I assume you soak in cold water too). Then you do what I said before and add a cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle to prevent or remove detergent residue on the clothes. Don't to add vinegar to the regular wash though because it makes the detergent less effective.