I can hear the funeral march every time that while cooking, eating or fixing an appliance or car my clothes get stained with grease. For a long time, they meant that piece of clothing was going bye-bye straight to the trash because there was absolutely no way to save it and make it appear new. I have recently been experimenting and scouring online to search for an answer and I have found how to remove black grease stains from clothes with natural ingredients. It is a miracle! Let’s rejoice!
We are going to use materials that you already have at home and use for everyday cleaning.
Table of Contents
You Will Need
- A clean cloth to rub the stain with
- A toothbrush especially for this purpose, you can use an old one
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Baking soda
- All-natural dish soap
Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda are two ingredients that although seem very chemically they are absolutely not! Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizing agent that uses basic chemistry to help clean out wounds and also stains! Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate can be found dissolved in many mineral springs.
For Every Type of Clothes
Step 1
With the extra cloth or a piece of absorbent paper, blot away all the excess grease that you can. If there is less grease, there is less stain and it will be easier to remove later on.
Step 2
Start with the hydrogen peroxide and saturate the stain. We are going to layer all the stain removers, one on top of the other.
Step 3
Add 2 or 3 drops of dishwasher on top and rub it in a little bit. If it is a larger stain, add a few more drops.
Step 4
On top of this concoction, sprinkle a thin layer of the baking soda.
Step 5
Finally, using a toothbrush, scrub everything together on top of the stain. All of the ingredients should combine and form a sort of paste. If it is too wet, add a bit more baking soda. If it is too dry, you can add more hydrogen peroxide.
Step 6
Let everything sit for half an hour to an hour so that the ingredients can work their magic.
Step 7
Wash the garment as usual, in a normal cycle.
Step 8
If you can still see the stain, repeat steps 1 to 7 as many times as you feel it is needed. Bear in mind that although hydrogen peroxide will not bleach your clothes, you can cause an adverse effect and actually end up with a white or whitish stain.
The point is that hydrogen peroxide is great at removing stains that come from natural ingredients like grass, blood, and red wine. Also grease! It’s bleaching capabilities depend on how much you use and on which fabric. Test a little bit on a non-visible part of the item first, in a seam or hem.
You can also check the item’s label to see if it is colorfast, that means if the colors will bleed or not. If it says you should wash the item separately or with like colors then that is a warning sign.
Hydrogen peroxide can also turn bad. To make sure it is still effective, you should pour or spray some into a water bottle. It should fizz. If it does not, then make sure to get a fresh bottle.
Also remember that, as you are scrubbing, you are damaging the fabric, so you do not want to push it too much.
Other Tips
If the stain does not budge, you can always use some cornstarch. Place the garment in a table and cover the stain with a lot of cornstarch. Let it sit for a couple of hours so that the cornstarch can absorb the grease. This can help prime the stain for more processing later.
You can also use the dish soap, letting it sit undiluted over the stain overnight. This will help soften it for sure!
What If I have already Washed AND Dried the Stain?
This is a hard thing to accomplish because that stain is wedged in there good. You can try reviving it so that it is easier to get rid off.
The way you do this is by adding oil to it. That may seem odd, but think about how oil can be used to clean teeth, by a method called oil pulling. Oil is actually a cleaning agent as well, only that it works differently.
You should not use kitchen oil, though, because it will make the stain worse. Although it is not natural, you can try some WD-40 to make the stain release. This is an old trick a friend of mine told me about.
Step 1
Place a cardboard piece in between the clothing so that the WD-40 does not penetrate to the other side and actually stain what is clean.
Step 2
Using a q-tip, apply a little amount of WD-40. You should put some of the liquid in a spoon or shallow bowl and then pick it up with the q-tip to apply.
Dab on with the q-tip or, if your bottle has a pray attachment, you can try spraying the stain. Only do this if the stain is large enough.
Step 3
Leave it on for 10 minutes.
Step 4
Lift the stain using the method previously described.
Pre Treating the Stain
Other than using the cornstarch to dry out your stain, you can rub some baking soda over the stain with a toothbrush without any of the other stain removers. This will create grease lumps, that is the baking soda absorbing the oil.
Repeat that process multiple times until the balls are so small you cannot see them. You can check the cardboard and see how much of the grease it has absorbed too.
Afterward, you can use some dish soap over the stain, as described before, leaving it to soak for 30 minutes or even overnight. You can wash it as usual afterward.
Have you tried these tips? Tell us in the comments below!
