Ask the Readers | How do you treat laundry stains?
Today's question comes from one of my own cousins! Jenna lives in California and she and her husband have two little boys; a preschooler and a newborn.
Here's a picture of Jenna and me in 1994. 🙂
What do you do to treat laundry stains? I am in the thick of it now with 2 babes between food, spit up, poop/pee, dirt etc. I used to hand scrub every spot before putting in the wash but it’s just not practical anymore.I’ve been using oxiclean stain remover spray on EVERYTHING lately but end up using like a whole bottle per giant load. It gets the job done but I think it’s kind of hard on the clothes (and costly in the end).
I didn't have much in the way of creative solutions for Jenna (I mostly just used Shout, purchased in a giant container from Costco), so I asked her if I could use her question for an Ask the Readers post, and she said, "Yes, please!"
I do have one tip for stubborn stains: if the stain is food-based (like a tomato sauce stain), you can place the item in direct sunlight, and the sun will usually make the stain disappear.
Obviously, you wouldn't want to do this repeatedly with dark clothes because the whole outfit would fade. But for light-colored fabrics, this works super well.
Timely post, I am currently trying to get some curry stains from linen napkins at the moment. The sun is shining, this is my go-to remedy for whites.
I read an interview with someone in a professional laundry business once, and off the top of my head his top 3 were: 1. Prevent (wear bibs, aprons, old clothes where appropriate) 2. Wash at high temperature. Choose fabrics that you can wash at 60-90 Celsius for anything used in the kitchen or for cloth diapers, towels and sheets 3. Last but not least: When stains occur, wash as soon as possible. If you cannot wash your items immediately after the stains occur, then at least rinse well and soak with a little vinagre until you can run a load.
In his experience quick action and high temperatures were more helpful than *any* type of detergent.
For stains, I use the sun/bleaching for whites and soft green soap for darks. Ox gall soap for very difficult stains. My mother has been known to remove ink by repeated rinsing in milk. But she was very patient.
@J NL, I second this: prevention and wash as soon as possible. I know people try to avoid plastics, but there are some plastic bibs with great coverage that are very helpful in protecting clothes.
I also agree with Sarah about keeping a bin of oxy clean or some soap/water solution where you can drop items to soak.
My other solution for tough stains is Dawn. I like the Platinum foam one but a friend swears by the Platinum spray one. I just wet the stain, hit it with a shot of Dawn, give it a little scrub, and then launder as usual. Since we already have it for dishes, we don’t have to have another special product.
Mom of 5 here so lots of stain experience. It does get better with time! At some point, your children have around the house clothes and nice clothes, and it becomes easier to just concentrate on keeping the nice clothes nice and let the others go. And now my children come to me and ask me how to get stains out of their clothes…Makeup, coffee, blood, we’ve had some tough ones but more wins than losses.
@J NL,
When at home with just DH having spaghetti dinner, I've been known to jump up, pull off my shirt, and go run it under cold water in the sink. This is very effective, but highly inappropriate for many situations, lol.
@J NL, High temps aren't good for protein stains like blood. They cook the protein. Cold water for blood etc.
@Jan, Second this! I use Dawn dish soap and scrub right away for my littles and it works most of the time.
@Rose,
You are right, I had forgotten the cold water for bloodstains.
I normally put on a cook's jacket when cooking and that jacket has all kinds of stains on it in spite of washing frequently. But cooks are excused from criticism as long as they don't wear the jacket when serving the food, I think 🙂
It is very funny by the way to not recognize ANY of the brands (non-US reader) and do not know their ingredients. I do the laundry with powdered soap, with an optical whitener for whites, and without an optical whitener for colured laundry. Always with as little smells as possible to avoid asthma. No fabric softeners, for the same reason plus the environment. Sometimes I add blue powder as an optical whitener. I treat stains with either vinager, baking soda, soft (yellow) soap, or ox gall soap.
What are the working ingredients in the soaps you are all using?
@Jan, Dawn and Dawn Power Spray are magic. Removes everything from laundry if you don't wet or mess with the stain first. If stain is really stubborn a second wash usually does it. And so simple to use.
@Connie, I agree ,just put that dawn on the stain, as is. And if the stain didn't come out the first time re-apply and rehwash. I keep a small bottle of dawn dish soap in my laundry room for stains.
@Rose, For blood hydrogen peroxide works amazingly well.
@Lori,
Another vote for hydrogen peroxide for blood stains.
@J NL, this question sent me down a little rabbit hole! Dawn is a Procter & Gamble product with a number of different iterations. It looks like the common ingredients among them are sodium laurel sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate (which as an inveterate reader prone to reading labels when nothing else is available, like in the shower, I can tell you are in a lot of cleaning stuff, like shampoo). Furthermore the Dawn site offers a pretty cool thing called Smartlabel which tells us what ingredient does what. So if you go to dawn-dish.com and choose a product and click on Smartlabel, it tells you which are surfactants, thickeners, and so on.
Anyway. I have learned things! And maybe it'll be helpful to you as well. 🙂
@Rose, I have heard (Kristen, maybe you can explain the chemistry behind it since you LOOOOVE chemistry! LOL) that a person's own saliva (gross, I know) will remove their own blood stains. I've tried it, and it does work...something about the enzymes in the saliva and blood? I work in accounting so I know nothing of the science, but it worked for me. =)
@Lori, Yup, but rinse with cold first.
@sfeather, Yeah, the enzymes in saliva are designed to start breaking down food so it makes sense but it's only worthwhile on small spots, I'd think. Also kinda gross, so I've never tried it.
@J NL, Nurses know: Hydrogen peroxide for blood stains!!!!
@Jan, I second all this advice. An oxi bin of water for soaking is what I used along with washing stuff ASAP, especially spit up. When my kids were super young- my chore priorities were dinner and laundry. Everything else got done when it got done.
@J NL, I keep a small squeeze bottle of Dawn near my hamper and put some on as soon as possible and rub it in and toss it in the hamper. A dampened bar of Ivory soap works well too, although if the stain is oily it's better to use the Dawn on dry fabric and rub it in well.
Peroxide does work for blood, but it can fade fabrics. I usually run lots of cold water through and rub the spot with a bar of Ivory soap. I repeat this until the spot appears gone then air dry to make sure before I re-launder the items so the blood doesn't set in the dryer.
My mom would often fill the washing machine with really bad stained clothes and some detergent and oxi-clean, start the soak cycle and stop it mid-cycle when it was full to sit overnight. Then she would switch it back on in the morning. Usually worked but keep in mind that oxi-clean can also fade fabric as it's peroxide in powder form.
Oh man, I remember this exact problem when my kids were babies. You get these adorable little outfits and then they’re unrecognizable after one day. I actually had really good luck using powdered oxy clean. I kept a little bucket next to my washer and I would just drop the clothes in with warm water and a scoop of the powder. The stains were gone within a day or two, and I just pulled them out of the bucket and into the next load. Worked like a charm and I don’t think it cost much, as I got a fairly big bucket of oxy clean from Costco. Good luck!
@Sarah, I second this. We leave them to soak overnight (or several days when we forget to transfer them to the laundry bin) in a sink with oxiclean powder. It has saved almost all my four kids’ clothes.
One tip with oxiclean…which is probably pretty obvious to most people… my fourth child is a girl and I turned several of her pink dresses a dingy pink after soaking them with her brothers’ dark and muddy clothes. So soak whites and pinks separately. 🙂
@Sarah, I do this too! Soak in hot water and a small scoop of Oxi overnight (or longer if needed). No scrubbing, so spraying, removes almost everything!
@Sarah, Just a word of warning...don't overdo the Oxyclean, especially with 100% natural fabrics. I destroyed a set of 100% cotton sheets by soaking them for too long in an overly strong Oxyclean solution. It was many scoops of Oxyclean, and I remember soaking the sheets for at least 24 hours, if not longer.
@Sarah, Awesome from Dollar Tree is just as good as OxiClean and obviously less cost. I learned this hack on Katy's blog. Been using it for years.
Just got blood from a cut finger on a white bath towel. In cold water with tiny scoop of Awesome and in 5 minutes no more blood.
No kids by choice, but my husband’s groundskeeping job means all manner of dirt as well as gas and diesel smells and spills. Full strength Dr. Bronner’s and hot water haven’t failed me yet! For normal stains, I pretreat with our regular detergent Arm & Hammer’s Free & Clear for sensitive skin—it’s scent and dye free. As someone with comically sensitive skin, these are the two methods I’ve found—Dr. Bronner’s and Arm & Hammer—that will do the job without making me itchy from using them.
@N, I should specify Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap. We usually have either peppermint or unscented.
@N, thanks for the tip on unscented laundry products. It's ridiculous how many cleaning products I am allergic to due to the scent.
@CS,
I use Tide Free and Clear, as both my husband and son have sensitive skin. While Tide tends to be more expensive, it consistently rates high in Consumer Report's tests. I tried using less expensive brands, but found our clothes didn't get as clean (and no, I don't work for Procter & Gamble, no stock in the company, no association with Consumer Reports, etc).
Hydrogen Peroxide and Blue Dawn. 2:1 I cup Peroxide and 1/2 cup Dawn is about right for my spray bottles, I mix it in another container, let the foam reduce, then pour it in my spray bottle.
Dawn is $15.34 per gallon at Sam's
Peroxide is $1.98 for 32 oz.
It is the best stuff that I have found and very economical.
@Deb, This is what I use too. Most organic matter is broken down by Hydrogen Peroxide and Dawn dissolves oily stains. I know some people add baking soda to the mix.
For rust stains, I use lemon and salt.
@Deb, this sounds great! Do you just spray the stain and then launder as usual?
@Deb, just don't leave this on very long. It eats holes right through cotton! I think overnight is fine, but don't forget your clothing in a sink or bucket for a week like I did.
@Meira @meirathebear, Yes. 😉
@Central Calif. Artist, I normally just spray it on right before I wash the load, I almost never soak anything, patience is not my strong suit. 😉
For ink stains: spray with an aerosol hair spray. This lifts the ink to the surface of the fabric. Then carefully run water over stain to wash the ink off the fabric. Repeat until ink is gone. I've also had some luck using this method with magic marker stains. As with any stain, air dry the item after washing until you are sure the stain is gone. Drying in a hot dryer will set most stains.
@Karen,
I've also used isopropyl alcohol to get ink stains out (such as ballpoint, Sharpie and other non-dry erase markers). Do a quick color check first if it's a colored piece of clothing.
@Liz B., Seconding the rubbing alcohol! We've been able to get out some ink stains that I thought would be permanent. It took several applications but it is amazing!
For stains that are formed from grease (food or otherwise), baking soda and blue Dawn dish soap. You can use the spray dish soap but the regular dish soap works just as well. I just sprinkle baking soda on the spot, put a little dish soap over the area and make it into a paste and let it sit for a while before laundering. It should come out in the first wash, but check the spot before drying and treat again if need be.
The carpet cleaner Folex actually works amazingly well at spot removal, for a variety of stains. You can get it at Home Depot.
Another way I use to get stains out is to soak in an OxiClean solution (the powder).
Don't put peroxide on dark clothing, it will bleach out the area it is used.
If your clothes aren't coming clean in the wash, I would recommend switching laundry detergent to something that is stronger. Also, check your washing machine for a different load cycle. Maybe a longer cycle would work better? And also, if you wash your kids clothes more often, then the stains shouldn't have time to set. If you don't have enough time to get to the clothes, a lot of time just getting the spot wet will keep it from setting. I live in a high humidity area so I have to be careful not to get clothes wet and just leave them, but they can sit overnight without growing mildew.
Lastly, life is short and the more fun kids are having the messier they get! Buy their play clothes at a thrift shop and don't worry about stains! 😀
@Tammy,
Amen to your last point in your post!
@Tammy, agree with your last point!! Having a set of okay clothes has saved me much stress over getting stains on those clothes on hikes or anywhere outside. It is nice to not have to worry about them.
@Tammy, oh, Folex, you sure do work well. I don't have kids, but I had a dog with an extremely sensitive tummy. It worked beautifully to get, ahem, biological, ahem, stains out of carpet.
@Tammy, I love Folex for carpet! Going to go try it now on a set in stain on a vintage cloth placemat! Didn’t
@Tammy,
I agree with the last point as well!
Is there a trick I don’t know? With the do not sell banner on the side and the new pop ups on the right bottom of the screen it’s too distracting to read my favorite blog.
I understand marketing and such, but the readability on my end has suffered with these new attention grabbers.
@Jane, Get a pop up blocker. uBlock Origin is the best and free.
@Jane, most browsers have a reader view that cuts out the distractions and just displays the post.
Fels Naptha soap and hydrogen peroxide. Now I just rub on stain and wash. This has always been my go to for keeping my scrubs stain free..even in the days of solid white uniforms. When my kids were at home and I was trying to keep baseball uniforms clean, I grated the soap, added oxyclean and borax and washed on hot. My son, who now coaches high school baseball shares this tip with his players. I added a teaspoon of grated soap to my Tide , oxy and borax when washing a load of stained laundry. For single item stains, I just wet the stain and rub the bar of soap on stain and work into fabric and wash with the regular load.
@Jan, This! For that awful red baseball dirt. Still in the thick of that one. Oxi gel sticks works for the more northern, regular dirt stains.
@Jan, Oh, my, another Jan! I hardly ever comment here, and did this morning, and now I find there's another one of me. 🙂
@Jan, I rarely comment here either, but nice to meet another Jan!
Perhaps you need a small distinguishing mark after your names...Jan the First, or Jan from Kentucky, or Jan P. 🙂
I used Shout, too, but not the spray kind, which I felt was mostly water and costlier. I used the gel with the brush cap and let the garment sit a while - the last bottle I bought has lasted me for a couple of years but my "kids" are grown! I also had an agitator washer, which I think did a much better job cleaning than these HE machines we have now...Another blog I follow suggests using a Fels Naptha bar to rub onto the stain. I think those a fairly inexpensive. Good luck!
I was also dedicated to Shout for a long time, but now I just wash clothes with Tide, and anything particularly stubborn gets a teaspoon of Tide rubbed into it and it waits til the next load (next hour or next day, whichever). In my experience, little kid clothes are so plentiful as hand-me-downs that it’s really only worth it to take the best care of the favorites and just move on. The only thing that has stumped me is Expo marker, which of course the schools prefer. They’re right to choose the best! But if Expo is on clothes, it’s there to stay.
@Karen,
Try rubbing alcohol. do a color check first if it's a colored piece of clothing.
I had a pick your battles mentality when I was in the thick of it. I used Zout or Shout on the stains I would spray on the outer layer of *nicer/viewable* clothing. If we were having poop issues going on I kept a bucket with oxy clean/dawn in the laundry room utility ink for soaking until I would throw in a load of those items. But for me, when we were in the thick of teaching babes to feed, self feeding messy extravaganza I just picked my battles and stripped the kids. Why YES I could have worked harder with my older toddler, but at the same time I SHOULD have been doing that I was trying to start solids with my twins who has no patience to wait for their next spoonful, hated bibs and wanted their hands in everything. So I took the minimalist route. I fed them in their Fisher Price seats that had the flip leg to either be stable or a rocker. To keep the mess off that material my mom took a few old sheets/pillow cases and made slip covers so the seats and buckles stayed clean. I would toss a cover over the seat, strip the tots down to their onesies and plop into the seat. I never walked away once they were in so I did not buckle. I would be prepped with food bowls, wipes, towels and extra clothing. Once fed I stripped them out of the nasty onesie, quick wipe down, redress and let them free to crawl away. Once they were more self feeding in a high chair.. still stripped top off and fed in onesie. Onesies looked awful in the end but I offered them up on my local freecycle page and explained why they looked that way, and they had no holes etc. Always snapped up immediately! lol
You can soak the clothes in a solution of trisodium phosphate (TSP) and water. TSP is the phosphates that have been removed from laundry detergent because it's bad for the environment.
@WilliamB, That said, no one expects baby & toddler clothes to be bright shining clean.
@WilliamB,
Indeed!
Years ago I used this "Stain Recipe" from the Tightwad Gazette:
This recipe came from an expert, a woman who ran a used-clothing store for children.
Add one cup each of powdered cascade (dish washing detergent) and Clorox II to five gallons of the hottest water to come out of your faucet. Soak several articles overnight and launder as usual.
This procedure will remove about 90% of the stains that do not come out with normal laundering. I do not use this recipe for delicate fabrics, or fabrics that are not color-fast. It is particularly good for removing food stains.
@K D, I had a feeling someone else would post the TG formula! I would emphasize not using it on fabrics that aren't colorfast, or on multicolor garments. It worked fine for me in general back in the day, except for one white sweatshirt with a red stripe. The red bled into the white.
Now that I'm older and less energetic, I just use Spray and Wash, with good results. As I used to say when DH was still living at home, "Spray and Wash gets out what DH gets into." (And as you can imagine, doing laundry for a man with dementia isn't much different from doing it for a baby.)
@K D,
Is powdered Cascade available anymore? To be honest, I haven't looked for it....I usually buy the "pods".
@Liz B., Yes I find it pretty regularly at Dollar General.
Awesome. Most Dollar stores sell this. A realtor friend put me onto this years ago. I have used this for laundry, spots on rugs, tough cleaning jobs. It works well and is inexpensive.
@Lynn, Do you mean LA Awesome? That’s good stuff for cleaning just about anything, including using in a carpet cleaner.
I find Dawn does the job for me.
Spray and wash works great. I just spray the stain ; then wash with tide.
@Ci, I love spray and wash too! My trusty cleaner for stains for a long time! Spray, rub in, and wash. For harder set in stains sometimes I soak after spraying and rubbing in.
Something else I did when my daughter was little. I would color coordinate her popsicle. If she's wearing purple she got grape, green got lime, red got cherry, etc... And yes to the play clothes.
When she was a baby she mostly wore feety pj's or onesies, depending on weather temps. The nice clothes were for pics, special occasions like holidays. (Whenever I purchase clothes for new moms I usually grab stuff in the 9-12 month range. Most people get so many little clothes at the shower. They grow so quickly.
@Amie, I color-coordinate my clothing when I'm making Indian food at home, or on the rare occasions when the Bestest Neighbors and I go out to our favorite Indian restaurant. As J NL has noted above, curry stains can be stubborn. (I think it's the turmeric that does it.)
@Amie, Especially if the parents are tall, give larger sizes. My daughter was born too big for 3 months size. She was rocking an 18 mos dress at age 6 months.
@A. Marie,
I think it is, too. The napkins are now lovely clean again, all except one which going forward I will just use myself. I'll fold the napkin so the stain is inside.
Drying on the balcony wash line usually does the trick. Which reminds me that a few weeks back there was a reader who was not permitted to hang her laundry outside? I have been thinking about that long and hard. Why ever not?
@J NL,
It wasn't me, but guessing HOA rules not allowing it?
@J NL, I think Liz B. is right. HOA stands for "homeowners' association"--a group in many upscale U.S. neighborhoods that dictates things you can't do outside your home if they don't "look" good (hang laundry outside to dry, etc.). Thank goodness we don't have an HOA here; I'd have been hauled up before it on numerous offenses, ranging from my gardens in the front yard to my vertical brush pile in the back.
@A. Marie, always reminds me of dear Orwell.
"You know how these streets fester all over the inner-outer suburbs. Always the same. Long, long rows of little semi-detached houses—the numbers in Ellesmere Road run to 212 and ours is 191—as much alike as council houses and generally uglier. The stucco front, the creosoted gate, the privet hedge, the green front door. The Laurels, the Myrtles, the Hawthorns, Mon Abri, Mon Repos, Belle Vue. At perhaps one house in fifty some anti-social type who’ll probably end in the workhouse has painted his front door blue instead of green."
@A. Marie,
Thank you for the explanation- I forget there are international readers here. 😉 Same here - I'd be in constant HOA jail if our neighborhood had one.
@Rose, lol! Not stain removal related, but one of my sisters lives in a community with a home owner's association. Several years ago, they had their house trim, exterior door, and window shutters painted....and of course they had to choose from a short list of "acceptable colors". They must also have a tattle-tale neighbor who reports them if their RV is parked in their driveway (they are allowed 3 consecutive days to have it parked there, and generally get an HOA nasty-gram on Day #2). (Rolls eyes).
Thanks all, as always the trail of comments is both instructive and highly entertaining! 🙂
For my little ones, I was so in the thick of it that I just didn't care. If it didn't come out in the wash, it didn't come out. They soon outgrew the clothes anyway. Ditto to my own clothes at that time period.
When I came out of the fog of that time of my life, I figured out how to wear an apron for my stains (they were cooking ones mostly). For most stains, I use dawn (grease) or a bar of my homemade soap-- I just rub it on. I do use oxiclean because I have it on hand. And there's a product called Grandma's Secret Spot Remover which my knowledgeable friend swears by. (It has worked fairly well but not perfectly.)
@Jody S., I wear an apron. I am in search of a new bib apron with large pockets at the bottom
Not sure if it is widely available in the US ( I am in Canada) but I keep a bar of sunlight soap on hand and use that on the stains before putting them in the wash. Usually works like a charm.
For something like a berry stain you can also boil hot water and pour it over the stain.
@Mary, we have sunlight soap in South Africa and it does a great job.
I would mix the oxiclean & put it in my own spray bottle. Also, just rub some liquid detergent onto the stain.
My babies are all grown and generally don't have to wash my grandbabies' clothing, but in a household of farmers/mechanics, I keep SIMPLE GREEN in a spray bottle for stains. DAWN SOAP is also always good. Best bet is to treat as soon as possible.
@Ohio Farmwife, Simple Green is good for so many farm things. Also Citrol for things like gum, sap, oil/grease.
@Karen., I have never heard of Citrol. I also will rub Fast Orange onto grease stains. But honestly, on the farm work clothes, if I don't get the stains out, I don't sweat it. They are work clothes. I have a son that comes home looking like he's been rolling around on the shop floor-lol. Those clothes never get "clean" again.
I am a huge fan of the Spray N Wash stick. It's a solid (kind of looks like a deodorant) and you can swipe it on up to a week before you wash. I used it when my now 9 year old was a baby, and I still do.
Dawn dish soap works for just about any stain for me! Pretreat on the spot and let it sit for about an hour…then wash!
ZOUT is the best thing I have ever used. Spray on, stain comes out the first time!! Idk why they don’t advertise because it is so good! I have tried shout, oxi clean and even bleach on whites to no avail. Try ZOUT
Dawn dish soap and vinegar. The soap on the stain (just a dab) and vinegar in the washer
@Vicky, I use Dawn and vinegar to clean my bathtub and sink. It is amazing stuff!
I use a couple of products from my Mom’s generation. For a load of laundry, add Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. Pre-soak if needed. You can also use it to clean bathtubs, sinks, toilets etc. To remove spots that have splattered on to your cloths, rub with a Fels-Naptha soap bar, then launder. And I second everyone else who uses the original Dawn dishwashing detergent for some stains.
Dawn, Mean Green, and Fels Naptha bar are kept at my laundry tub to grab and clean any clothes. When my kiddos were little, I found that Dreft makes a stain spray, It is amazing stuff!!! I still use it because it works so well and smells so good.
I used to use Shout and Spray & Wash, but figured out they just don't work. So now I use straight Dawn, any color, right from the bottle. I scrub the stain with a toothbrush and throw it in the laundry. I only wash in cold, and it works surprisingly well (even if the stain has been sitting for a few days). I also have always used house clothes for myself (no children here) vs. "good clothes". I change into something as soon as I get home, washing my "good clothes" less often, not sweating stains on basic tees and whatnot. We always did this as children, play clothes vs. school clothes. I realize this doesn't solve every problem and isn't always practical when you're dressing small children.
My babies are long since grown but my MIL taught me to use Biz stain fighter for most stains and if appropriate for the fabric, put it out in the sunlight.
Definitely relate! I have a toddler and we use a gentle, scent-free detergent that just...isn't great at taking out stains, TBH. When I'm ready to give my daughter's clothes to her cousin, I soak them in hot water and Oxiclean powder overnight, then launder. It's hard on the clothes, but does seem to take most stains out.
I've had good effect with rubbing a small amount of dish soap on stains before tossing them in the laundry, especially food stains, but I'd be cautious using any non-laundry soap in a front-loading machine, if that's what you have. We do have Folex and heard it's great, but I haven't tried it yet.
Also, Kristen, what you're wearing in that photo is now SO trendy! The fashion cycle sure comes back around.
I agree with many to treat as soon as possible, but I realize it’s not always practical with littles around. (Mom of 4 here-I feel your pain!) anyhow, I like to use a toothbrush and scrub the area once wet with detergent. That typically works, but when it doesn’t I use bleach. I stick a toothbrush in bleach and brush the area just until I see the stain disappear and rinse immediately before throwing in the wash.
I also heard about a fabric softener called Suavatel. It has a stain shield to prevent future stains. Not sure how effective it is, but worth a try! Good luck!
Most of my solutions are already here, especially Dawn and hydrogen peroxide and Grandma's Stain Remover. I've also used Charlie's, which did really well but is pricey. I've not had a problem with the peroxide bleaching my dark clothes, but I always test a small inner spot first. Sunlight for stained diapers and tomato stains, for sure. The Tightwad Gazette method has worked well for me, especially for heavily stained items, for which I would be spraying practically the whole garment if I used spray. I use plain old rubbing alcohol for ink stains and Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for generic, non-stubborn stains.
The biggest tip I have is DON'T PUT THEM IN THE DRYER BEFORE YOU SEE IF THE STAINS CAME OUT. Hang them on a hanger, an indoor rack or a line outside, but keep them out of the dryer until they are stain-free, if they are items you really are concerned about getting clean. Getting a "baked in" stain out is much worse than a regular stain.
Spray and Wash (the aerosol kind) used to be the best, but I can only find the trigger spray now.
A restaurant server told me to use ivory soap on grease and food spots. I dip it in water and rub it on.
I use dawn powerwash (I make my own after buying the sprayer), or just dawn for most stains.
Every couple of months I gather all the "hopeless" clothes, dish towels, and my husbands undershirts and soak them in a tote of a dishwasher tab, tide, oxy clean, and dawn overnight. It's the last chance for the "hopeless" clothes, if they don't come out wearable, they get demoted to rags or thrown away.
I have seen a lot of people have great results with Miss Mouth's stain remover on kid stains, also there's a new Tide spray that I think works amazingly well!
I have 4 young kids, so there are lots of stains in our house. I am able to get most out with some form of Oxi-clean, either the kind you mix with water and soak, or the extra strength spray. The sooner you treat a stain the better. Then I throw it in the washer. I have to attribute my washer to some of the success because my old washer was a top load HE and if I didn't get the stain completely out before washing, it would still be there. Now I have a Speed Queen top load. It is so fast and almost always gets the stain out after pretreatment.
@Cara, Another Speed Queen top loader fan here. Ours has been through a lot of laundry in the last few years and still going strong!
HE machines will still operate but stop cleaning well after just a few years of use. So clothes come out of the dryer just slightly dirty. (I think it's because the water drains out of the bottom of the drum leaving the dirty scum on the clothes.) After having two HE machines that didn't clean well after 3 or 4 years, I returned to the old fashioned agitator independent of the drum machine (Maytag Commercial and Speed Queen are the only two I'm aware of) and will never go back.
@Elaine N,
Dang, I wish I knew this before we replaced our washer a few months ago. Oh well, live and learn!
With three teenagers we are now encountering different stains and issues than when the kids were little so we have found many various solutions. Scrub a drop of Palmolive into grease stains with a toothbrush sometimes adding baking soda if really tough. At
certain times of the month, hydrogen peroxide drizzled or dabbed on with a q tip can remove blood stains. It will foam up and a little scrubbing with a toothbrush and a rinse can work wonders. For regular cleaning I use Persil Odor Fighter (or something like that) and that has helped a ton with the stinky sweaty clothes. Lastly Tide pens are miracle workers. I always have one in my bag and my car, one in the kitchen, and each of my kids have started keeping them in their car/backpack as well. They are great for immediate triage and really helps keep spills from becoming stains. Also amazing for travel.
I have a spray bottle of diluted Dawn in my laundry room. It takes out 95% of stains. I also soak some whites in oxygen whitener (I have been using Molly’s suds with better results than Oxiclean) and water for chocolate or ketchup stains.
I also do not put nicer clothes in the dryer so that helps prevent stains from setting. Hand -me-down or every day tee shirts, pants, and jammies for my son or my tees that aren’t super special go in the dryer. Nicer clothes get hung to dry.
I separate clothes into dryer and no dryer loads now. It takes longer to hang clothes than toss it in the dryer, but having them separated helps me make sure that i have time to hang those things.
There's a book titled Laundry Love by Patric Richardson that details how to get out any stain on any fabric. I read it the other night and it is fascinating.
For myself, Biz enzymatic detergent is great at getting organic stuff out of clothing. I also use a bar of Fels Naptha soap and a tube of gel stain remover. It used to be Stain Stick, but I think Shout now makes it.
My son spit up every meal, so my wardrobe consisted entirely of bleachable white blouses for a couple of years. 😀
@Ruby,
I was going to mention this book! I listened to the audiobook. I believe he also has some YouTube videos, but I've never watched them.
I use nothing but Spray n Wash on a daily basis. I have for 30 years of marriage and my mama did the same. It will take out virtually any stain, although of course I have had to wash some things twice. Sometimes I will wash things first, if they are really bad and then use the SnW while wet and wash again. If I have a particularly stubborn oil based stain, I will put Dawn dishwashing liquid on it. I pretreat as I go if I can, but I always wait 15 minutes after spraying before washing.
I have had some success spraying a stain with oxiclean and then using a toothbrush to scrub baking powder into the fabric. The oxiclean and baking powder make a paste that seem to work the stain out.
We use Biokleen’s Bac-out. A little goes a long way in treating stains. (We found out about this product when cloth diapering years ago.)
As a person who collects antique textiles, Engleside Restoration Fabric Restorer is amazing. Want to see a 90 year old stain disappear? It's not cheap but worth it for things like vintage quilts, laces, embroidery etc. (always check colorfastness with a wet q tip first, especially red dyes, which are fugitive.)
I do what my Mom always did: find the dish soap, blob on as much as needed to cover it, and wash! 🙂 Not scientific, but with 2 little ones and a mass of stains, I roll with it! My Mom used ajax, I use Mrs. Meyers or Grove Co.'s plant based soaps. Then wash it all in Cold with 7th gen fragrance free laundry soap. Nine times out of 10 the stains are gone. If there's a super stubborn one, I either make it into a rag for later, or embroider a little cute flower or something on it for the kids. They like that better anyways 😀
Also, shout out to your cousin in Cali! It's been really wet here on the west coast.
Put dawn dish soap on the stain, sprinkle baking soda over the dawn, let it sit for 30-45 min, then toss in the washer.
For teenage girls, I delicately mention what my Mom did: Buy printed bed sheets for when periods start and overnight accidents happen. Any stains that didn't come out completely were less visible on my floral print or my sister's tiger striped cottons.
I am fascinated by the list of products here. I suspect having soft or hard water makes a lot of difference to their effectiveness.
Do not soak, scrub or mess with stains. Use Dawn Power Spray and toss in washer. If stain is stubborn a second wash will usually do it.
I use dawn dish soap for stains. Most of the time that takes care of it. When my kiddos were younger, I had a terrible tendency to overstuff the washer full of clothes, but clothes are so much cleaner when they have some room to agitate.
What almost always works for me: make a paste of Dawn dish detergent, baking soda and peroxide. Scrub it in with a tooth brush and put it aside overnight. Just throw it in with the laundry the next day. I wash every load on a soak cycle and I think that helps. As JD said, check to see if the stain is out before putting the garment in the dryer. I have never had an issue with the peroxide harming dark colors.
I've used hydrogen peroxide and soap (any soap will do) to remove stubborn stains. You need to be careful peroxide can bleach things, but if you have a stain you can't get out this seems to work well. I haven't had problems with color loss, but maybe I am just lucky. After the treatment, just wash as normal. I was able to get rid of a red wine stain on a lime green shirt using this method. Good luck!
Not laundry help, but what I did was just I accepted stains happen and adjusted our wardrobe. My kids are tweens/teens now, but when they were under 6 or 7 the kids and I just stopped wearing any white or very light coloured clothes. I also gathered a large collection of aprons and we use these for cooking, painting, anything!
Anyway, I just feel that stains are just not things I want to spend time on lol!|
If there was a very bad stain and I wanted to keep the item, then I really try deep cleaning or find a workaround, like a patch. So yeah, guess am a lazy housekeeper! but I'm ok with that hehe 🙂
You already suggested it, but sun is the best baby clothes and diaper stain remover! Our family also swears by Zout.
Dish soap will help with greasy/food stains. Actually, I use it for all of my stains. I use the Norwex dish soap but I have also heard that Dawn works as well. Hydrogen peroxide works for upholstery, car and heavier fabrics.
My advice - as a mom of 2 boys who were Steiner educated and spent much of their time outside resulting in their clothes being covered in mud and other things (!!) - embrace the concept of a ‘clean stain’
The clothes have been laundered, if a stain remains so what, the clothes are clean after all. 🙂 🙂
Peroxide will take out blood stains.
I like to prevent things as it's always better than cure/ stress. But accidents do happen, and these are my 2 go-to products-
Nellie's Wow Stick-
https://amzn.to/3iuemLh
and Buncha Farmer's All-Natural Biodegradable Stick-
https://amzn.to/3vWckqE
I either wet/rub directly on the stain or use a toothbrush. I always use gentle wash in cold water which is easy on the clothes and the wallet (electricity plus longer lasting clothes). HTH
If you can't wash immediately, dampen the spot if needed. Squirt on a drop of liquid dish soap & rub with your finger or s reused toothbrush. Bibs are good but not in all situations. .y Mom used to presoak baby shirts, pants etc. I would soak in water with Oxyclean or an enzyme cleaner.
Enjoy your babies and be nice to yourself
Terri
Missouri
I've used this on stubborn stains from Goodwill clothes with HUGE success:
For a small stain mix 1 teaspoon of Dawn with two teaspoons of peroxide. For a large batch, 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide to ½ cup detergent works!
How to you remove stains with odors or that need a little extra scrubbing powder? Add a enough baking soda to make it a paste (particularly handy if your stain also has odor-like underarm stains, pet stains, vomit, or greasy stains).
Blue original dawn dish soap for any greasy stains. Let sit 24 hours. Wash.
Dirty or mud stains I use oxyclean in a bucket let soak then wash.
Sports stains oxy soak then wash or rub rub rub felsnaptha then wash.
I am a PRO at laundry!!! Seriously
I also believe tide powder works TGE best for very dirty laundry. Start washer. Put in tide powder. Let it dissolve a bit. Then clothes!
Dawn original dish soap is my GO TO
My "go to" is Fels-Naptha soap. I purchase it at the Lehman's website (3 bars for $8.99) or you can purchase it on Amazon (cost is a little higher, but it is usually in stock). Either way, the bar lasts quite a good while, so it is very cost effective. You just wet the bar and/or the clothing and rub the soap over the stain. It has gotten out stains that I never dreamed I would get out. (I tried to include links, but couldn't get them to work.)
@sfeather,
We visited a Lehman's hardware store for the first time when camping this past fall. What a great place!
Another vote for blue Dawn ultra. If I’m not at home I just use water. I’ve spilt my dinner down my shirt gone in the bathroom and scrubbed it out under the sink faucet and put it back on. I was always amazed how fast it dries.
Blue dawn for stains and it has many other uses around the house. Don’t buy many other cleaners now. https://shareably.net/clever-uses-dawn-dish-soap/
This is not for loads of laundry but I carry a Tide To Go stick in my purse to quickly treat small spills. A friend borrowed it when his new grandson "christened" him.
After reading a bunch of comments I decided to add that blue Dawn dish soap is formulated to work in cold water if you need that.
I know it’s probably not practical with littles, but I change out of my “good” clothes and into a tank and flannel pants when I get home from work. I also use Shout, and I think it’s important to wet and treat a stain with Shout or Dawn right away, before it gets a chance to set. Whites can also be put out in the sun to help bleach them naturally. If it’s white cotton, I’ve treated the stain with watered down bleach, applied to the dampened stain with a Q-tip. I’d take off the littles’ clothes before they eat, use bibs. I think prevention is the best policy with littles! And know that stains and tears go along with littles!
I agree -- if it's possible to run off and sponge the stained area with warm(ish) water right away, that's a big start to getting rid of it. Next, when you take it off, wet the stained area again and rub with soap (I use Dial) before you throw it in the dirty clothes. This works for me.
I do not use Oxyclean -- too scary. While it's gotten some stains out, it's done a LOT of damage to antique textiles. Hydrogen peroxide works. A mild solution of Clorox 2 (with some Dawn or Ivory, or baby detergent) works, if the item is allowed to soak. (This is my go-to solution for washing old quilts; e-mail if you want the specifics.) The important thing to remember is that once the item is wet, whatever's going to happen has happened, colorfast-wise. You can do a lot more good soaking the piece for a long time in a mild solution than you can, using a strong solution for a short time.
Also -- your spit will take out your bloodstains! It often works, as well, if you're related to the person who made the bloodstain. Something about the enzymes...
Like many others, I use a little blue dish soap right on the stain for anything bad like blood, oil, chocolate, etc.
For lighter stains like spit up that I'm worried won't come out, I soak in warm water with homemade oxiclean and a little laundry detergent before washing. (Equal parts washing soda and peroxide = oxiclean! Just don't mix it ahead of time because apparently it doesn't keep well. I just add both to the container that I'm doing the soak in.)
I use Lestoil. It gets out even those phantom stains that suddenly appear like dark spots. I put it in a spray bottle and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Gets almost every stain out I’ve ever thrown at it.
Puracy stain remover is my go-to. It seems to work best on new stains, spray and let them sit for a while. A few hours at least. But, I’ve used it successfully just tossing it in after spraying and also after washing/drying.
My other tip is buy cheaper play clothes because they’re going to wear them out, especially the preschooler. The older my son gets (he’s now 5) the more he wears his clothes out (and since he’s still growing so fast, it’s not worth spending money on expensive stuff). Also dark colors hide stains way better. I get target tshirts for school, and nice shirts/clothes for when I want him to look nicer but day to day cheap clothes and dark colors work just as well as stain remover.
Fels naphtha is the end all and be all of stain removal!
It’s cheap, comes in a dry bar and even works on heat-set stains.
I’ve successfully removed tomato-based stains from clothing.
It’s a winner!
i have been using grandma's spot remover and it gets out most of the sztains from our clothes.
i have a hose end "pressure" attatchment for the farm grunge. it is about $15 on amazon. looks like an aluminum tube with a ball valve handle. i lay clothes on the driveway and pre rinse out there. gets out red clay, knee stains, mudslide butt .
I suggest you follow @nancy.birtwhistle on Insta. You may recognize her from the Great British Bakeoff. She has tons of recs for stains and other facets of home keeping. All of her suggestions all are earth friendly. It depends on the material, but most of the time I use a combo of eco friendly liquid soap (Dr Bonners), washing soda and sodium percarbonate (the active ingredient in OxyClean). I only wash with cold water. Sometimes I soak overnight first if the stain is very bad. I have some TOUGH stains - think horse induced mess. It's all come out so far, thanks to Nancy. Best of luck!
As has been mentioned: prevent them before they start. I was never a fan of bibs but we were fine with babies and toddlers eating naked (well, wearing diapers) weather permitting.
Also, kids need clothes they're allowed to get dirty / stained / ripped. So set aside some clothes for "best" and then let the rest get clean or...not. Use smocks or already stained clothse for painting or messy play.
Two of my favorite stain removal tips are: 1. boiling water for fruit stains. Totally counterintuitive but boiling water has gotten blueberry, cherry, and grape stains out of shirts and tablecloths for me. And 2. Body-temp water for blood stains. Not cold, not hot, but body temp seems to help blood "flow" out of the fabric. (Of course, the sooner you get to it, the better any trick will work.)
And if you're up for a whole book on laundry, "Laundry Love" by Patric Richardson is a fun read with lots of helpful hints.
I have just discovered Patric Richardson akaThe Laundry Evangelist/The Laundry Guy on you tube. He also has a website. This guy loves,loves, loves the laundry and knows his stuff. He swears by oxygen bleach (not the same as oxygen bleach) and soap flakes. I think if you used a vinegar/oxygen bleach/soap flake combo it should work for your cousin's household of young children. Also, he is a big advocate of simple, non fragranced, no phosphates, dyes, etc.....He also does fb live events with questions. Very entertaining and very useful info. I think he's schedule for an hgtv show premeire in spring of 23 too.
... I meant to say.....oxiclean is NOT the same as oxygen bleach. Patric explains this on his youtube channel. Also, he breaks down stains. If you have an oil based stain you need a recipe that includes oil based soap. It is very interesting and effective/useful info.
I might be lazier than everyone else, but I just ignored stains. I used to soak baby clothes in oxyclean but if that didn't get it out I wouldn't bother working any further at it. I had twins so was already overwhelmed. Since I knew the outfits were clean I didn't sweat any stains too much. They grew out of things so quickly too and I wasn't trying to pass on the outfits to anyone else.
Mothercould.com is an excellent resource for all things childhood. She swears by miss mouths messy water jstain remover, it is on Amazon.