Saturday, June 5, 2010

Getting Out Grease Stains

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A couple weeks ago, I was making carnitas for a LOST party we were having with some friends.  I had just finished setting everything out to be served, when I looked down and saw this:

Grease stains!

This was one of my favorite shirts and I thought it was ruined for sure.  Before throwing it out, I decided to do some online research to see if there was anything I could do to get out the stains.  One thing I read about was to use dish soap.

I used Oxy since that's what I had in my kitchen at the time:

I put soap on the stains and then rub it in to the fabric.  I then let my shirt soak in hot water for 15 minutes.  I put it in the washing machine and then let it air dry - just in case the stains hadn't come out.  Once my shirt was dry I checked it out and.....like magic the grease stains were gone!  Yay!

10 comments:

  1. So, I want to try this, but my dish soap says it has bleach alternative in it. Is that going to be a problem?

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  2. I'm not sure if the bleach alternative would cause a problem. I would maybe test it out on an inconspicuous place on the fabric.

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  3. I always use Dawn dishwashing soap. If the grease stain is still there after washing and drying, you'll need to "reactivate" the grease stain by spraying it with WD 40 (sounds counter intuitive, right?), then putting Dawn soap on it, let it sit for a few minutes, rub the spot with an old toothbrush and then wash. Comes right out!

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  4. THANK YOU! I just used this technique on a set in grease stain on my favorite top. I had to do the re-activating hint with the WD 40 and then the washing. What I found out by trial and error is make sure that you cover the ENTIRE area of WD 40 with the dish soap. If not then it comes out of the dryer looking like a bigger mess. But I just re-activated one more time with the WD 40 and made sure to COMPLETELY COVER the area with dish soap. The third washing and drying was a charm. Back to my wearing my favorite top without any grease stains thanks to you and Charlene :)

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  5. I keep a bottle of Dawn with Bleach Alternative in my laundry room. Dish soap also works wonders on accidents during 'that' time of the month! I have been able to save many of my daughter's things by using this trick!

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  6. I've done this with the dish soap, except that after letting it sit a bit, I pour a kettle of boiling water over the stains then wash. Works like a dream, I've never had to repeat.

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    1. i was looking for something that i didn't have to repeat the process and this did the trick. thanks.

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  7. I always use Dawn dish soap. Has even gotten set in stains out!

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  8. I put a dab of Dawn dishsoap on the grease spots. I roll up the shirt and throw it into the laundry basket. The spots come out every time. It even works for automotive grease. I do scrub a bit when I use it on automotive grease though.

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  9. I rubbed a little squirt of dish soap right onto one of our most recent stains and let it sit for a little while before washing. I sent the shirt through the wash and didn’t see a stain, so I went ahead and dried it too. Like magic, the stain was officially gone.

    Riyanna
    Kansas City Carpet Restoration

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