When you know what takes grease out of clothes, unintentional grease drips and stains are no longer nightmares. Gone are the days of a messy meal ruining your favorite jacket or blouse. We’ve all been there – one minute, we’re having a fantastic night out in a cute outfit, and the next, we’re dabbing at our sleeve or hiding a new stain beneath our coat.
If you’re afraid the grease won’t come out later, don’t fret! Fortunately, it’s not hard to answer the question of what takes grease out of clothes.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to several of the best grease-removing remedies and quick tips, including dish soap, detergent, and baking soda. If you need to get gum off pants, we can advise you on how to do that, too.
Grease Removal Solutions for Clothes
Grease and clothing have never been a smart combination. The reason for this is two-fold: one, because oil tends to absorb into the fabric of our dress and stay there, and two because fat is hydrophobic. You have probably seen the experiment where if you pour oil in water, the two don’t mix.
It can sometimes be hard to get ink out of clothes for this reason, too. Some salad dressings also separate into two distinct parts. Typically, this wouldn’t cause an issue, but we wash our clothes in water, not oil.
Because of this, oily stains prefer to stick to your t-shirt in the wash instead of getting washed away. The question is, then, what takes grease out of clothes?
How to Take Grease Off Clothes with Dish Soap
Dishwashing soap should always be your first line of defense for grease or to remove latex paint from clothing since dish soap was formulated for cleaning. All you need is a bottle of dish soap. To get hair color out of clothing or eliminate grease, apply a small squirt of soap to the stain, rub it in thoroughly, then let it set.
This also works for old grease stains, too. You may need to let the dish soap soak into the garment a little longer to be effective.
Toss the stained clothing into the wash and wash it as usual. Dawn dish soap binds to oil and grease where water does not, then washes away. Dish soap is so useful for cleaning greasy stains and oily dishes!
How to Take Grease Stains Out of Clothes with Baking Soda
Baking soda works well to remove melted butter stains from fabric because it’s a powder, and grease absorbs into it well – especially fresh spots!
If you don’t have any baking soda handy, many other powders will function similarly, such as baby powder, talcum powder, or cornstarch. Here is the recipe for how to take grease off clothes with baking soda.
To get oil stains out of fabric, start by gently blotting away any excess cooking oil on the stain itself with the paper towel. To get coconut oil out of clothes, apply enough baking soda to cover the grease spot thoroughly, then leave the powder to absorb the grease for at least an hour. You should be able to scrape off any baking soda and throw the garment into the wash as usual.
Make sure you check your clothing’s care label and washing instructions first. If your clothes can handle warm water, you can optionally soak the garment in a solution of hot water and baking soda for about 15 minutes before throwing it in the washing machine.
You can use cold water instead, but it won’t work as well. Doing this gives the baking soda a little more grease-removing power. You can use heat or hot water to remove candle wax from fabric, too.
Baking soda has the added advantage of eliminating odors on clothing, too. Get rid of food smell from clothes by adding some baking soda to the wash with your regular detergent.
Removing Set in Grease Stains with Detergent
Dishwashing detergent is an excellent way to remove stubborn stains, but it should only be a last resort. Some liquid laundry detergents or powders can be useful for getting stubborn stains out of clothes, too, but you should look for one specially formulated for that purpose.
Laundry stain remover for tough stains is an excellent way to remove rust stains from clothes or as a way to get Modge Podge out of clothes. Here is a recipe for how to take grease stains out of clothes with dish detergent.
You may also find that it can get sticker glue off fabric. Follow the same procedure.
If you’re using a dishwashing detergent powder, mix it with a small amount of water to make a paste before using it. Apply the paste or dishwashing liquid to all oil stains, then rub it in carefully in a circular motion.
Rinse with water and repeat as necessary until the stain is gone, launder your clothing with your regular wash cycle, and allow it to air dry. Detergent works well to get red lipstick out of clothes and to get melted wax out of clothes after removing big chunks, too.
If you didn’t notice a grease stain and washed and dried the garment as usual, you can still get that grease stain out, but it takes a little extra effort. Remove stains from clothes after drying by pre-treating with the recipe above and then washing again.
Check to be sure the stain is gone before drying. A repeat treatment may be necessary.
Did you enjoy our guide on the various ways of removing grease splatters from clothes? While grease stains can feel like they ruin an article of clothing once they’ve set in, taking the time to remove them right away or prevent them from absorbing are always the best ways to avoid an unsightly stain.
However, just because you didn’t get at a stain right away doesn’t mean the stain won’t come out. The methods in this guide should provide an excellent start for getting grease stains out of your clothing, but if you can’t find what you need here, we have many other unique articles on stain removal, too.
Of course, you can always take your clothing in for dry cleaning at the dry cleaner, but why bother when there are so many useful remedies available at home?
If these cleaning tips on what takes grease out of clothes helped you, please take the time to share these grease stain removal tips on Pinterest and Facebook so it can help more people!