I am not a pre-washer. I know that one day this will probably come back to bite me, but I hate all of that ironing. I swear by the color catchers. They work great. A sampler quilt that I made for my sister all in blues had one fabric that ran the first time that she washed it. I told her to throw it back in the washer with one of the color catchers that I had sent with the quillt. She did and it came out fine..it removed the color that had bled.