Brightening up those winter days: #ACEWinterRefresh Challenge with Britmums (gifted product)

Whilst I wish I could say that I was one of those people who loves the winter approaching...the cosy evenings indoors, the warm winter clothes and boots coming out, I'm afraid I can't. In fact, I often dread the long winter season of dark evenings, damp weather and the general dullness of winter.

My winter clothes tend to stay untouched in the wardrobe for long periods of time leaving them somewhat musty smelling by the time summer has ended and winter is here again. So anything that can help me get even a little bit excited about winter is definitely a good thing.

I may not have the brightest of winter wardrobes, but instead I love to add a splash of colour with bright scarves, gloves and hats.

When it comes to seasonal clothes and sustainability I'm all for looking for new ways to revive old outfits rather than buy a new outfit altogether. So when I spotted these hats with bright pink pom-poms in the spring sale early this year, I snapped them up and kept them packed away ready for this winter season. The jeans that me and Miss T are wearing are close to a decade old! Miss T's jeans used to belong to the boys when they were younger and I remember buying my jeans just before I was pregnant with Miss T. They've both been in storage for a while so it was great to get them out again and freshen them up to look as good as new!

I'm also a big fan of charity shop finds. In fact our Christmas jumpers were charity shop bargains. Whilst the charity shop is a fab place to find winter clothes I tend to find that they DEFINITELY need a bit of a refresh to get them looking and smelling their best.

We also had an added twist to our school uniform stresses this year when our eldest announced that for year 11 they are permitted to wear coloured shirts instead of a white shirt. A special privilege for year 11's without thinking about us poor parents. He chose purple. Oh great - something else to keep free of stains and looking bright!

The boys no longer wear white shirts at school, but blue and purple.

At my younger son's school, the uniform is blue shirts for every year group so I'm glad to have found a way to keep his new shirts looking bright as his older shirts are definitely looking a paler shade of blue over the years. And of course at Miss T's school it is always a struggle to keep whites looking bright with the amount of tomato-based dishes they seem to serve for school lunch.

So the #ACEWinterRefresh challenge is perfect timing for all the laundry dilemmas in our family!

With the plastic-free revolution taking hold around the world and also in our own household, we LOVE the idea of using a regular spoon instead of having a bespoke plastic laundry measure. What an utterly simple idea but absolute genius idea at the same time.  The pack itself is also recyclable. And to help the planet a little more you can wash at 30C because ACE is effective at low temperatures too.

ACE for colours is so simple to use. It can be used in every washload to remove stains and keep colours bright. You add your usual detergent and then add 2 tablespoons of ACE into the same detergent drawer as the water flushes through at the start of the wash cycle. You can double the dose if you have really grubby or heavily stained clothes.

There are also instructions on the pack for pre-treating and soaking clothes too. It's always important to check the instructions to help look after your clothes. For example, this product is not suitable for wool, silk or leather. Most of our jumpers tend to be acrylic, polyester or cotton so ACE has been perfect for them. Although Miss T loved taking part in the photos for this blogpost, we do store all of our detergents and cleaning solutions out of the reach of children.

Stain removal is an absolute must for our family, keeping colours bright is certainly helpful too given the coloured school shirts situation but the real bonus has been the wonderful fresh smell from using ACE for colours:

• Teenagers tend to bring home smelly and sweaty uniform and PE kits (well my teenagers certainly do)
• My own clothes often pick up cooking smells
• Our charity shop finds are often musty smelling
• And don't even get me started on how muddy J returns home after Saturday morning ParkRun!

So having a way of getting our clothes really clean and smelling fresh too has been brilliant. This is where I wish the power of the internet was strong enough to have developed "smellyvision" to be able to let you smell just how fresh I mean. Instead I'm going to have to urge you to try it yourself to see what I mean. So for a winter wardrobe refresh it is perfect.

But my extra secret tip is to wash all your summer bright t-shirts and dresses before packing those away for next summer. Sure they may need a quick refresh too when the season changes again, but in the meantime it means my wardrobe smells fresh that bit longer than usual.

And here's a really quick video explaining just why ACE for Colours powder gets the thumbs up from us:





Disclosure: This post is an entry for the BritMums #ACEWinterRefresh Challenge, sponsored by ACE for Colours Powder. Get help for all kinds of stains with the ACE Stain Helper http://www.acecleanuk.co.uk/ and pick up the range at your nearest Morrison’s store or buy online on Amazon.

I was sent 2 x 450g boxes of ACE for colours powder for the purpose of this challenge. All opinions are my own.