Natural Stain Removing Solutions

Who hasn’t dealt with stains on their clothes? Favourite shirt ruined by a grease stain, grass stain on their kids clothes, dirt on their husbands pants. I used to have an arsenal of stain removers by the washer, anything from bleach to oxiclean. Until of course I found out how dangerous those chemicals are, for us and the environment. Some could be lethal if ingested, or at the very least can be the culprit for skin and respiratory irritations.

Naturally, I set out to try out different recipes for stain removers until I found out a few that have worked really well for me, no to mention the added benefits of saving some green by using these natural solutions and most importantly, no dangerous chemicals in case a certain busy little boy I know gets in the cabinets.

You will learn [show]

Washing soda and hydrogen peroxide

Natural Stain Removers Before After

Lemon and sun

Yet another solution that will remove just about any stain. Lemon is a natural bleach and deodorizer, and the sun will whiten anything and kill bacteria at the same time. This method is the favourite of many cloth diapering mamas.

As you can see from the first picture above, I didn’t sun this diaper for a few washes so it would get a little stained, after spraying with this mixture all it took was one full day of sunning and it looks brand new! All you do is mix equal parts fresh lemon juice and water in a spray bottle and spray as needed.

If after sun for a couple hours and the garment is dry just spray again until the stain is gone.

Biokleen’s Bac-Out

Yet another favorite of cloth diapering mamas. But it has become a staple in my cleaning routine. Bac-Out’s live enzyme cultures and lime peel extract work wonderful for food stains, carpet and pet stains. After my son eats I spray his bibs with Bac-Out and they come out like new, I also use it for pet stains and odours, my senior dachshund has bladder problems and she goes in the house sometimes, I spray some directly and blot with a towel, it lifts the urine leaving no stain and no odour.

This solution contains no harsh chemicals like phosphates, chlorine, ammonia, among others.

For those moms using cloth diapers, you spray it directly onto the diaper before putting in the diaper pail and it smells so wonderfully you could leave the pail open and wouldn’t even know there are poopie diapers around, not to mention it helps lifts stains without damaging the cloth diapers.

Vinegar or hydrogen peroxide soaks

You can soak the stained garment in full strength vinegar or hydrogen peroxide for half hour before washing as usual. This works particularly well for grass stains.

For dried berry juice stains on white garments mix 1/3 vinegar and 2/3 hot water, soak for a few minutes then launder as usual.

Baking soda or chalk

If you have any grease stains that have been set by the dryer (you know those pesky little stains, they look like a permanent wet spot) try rubbing some baking soda with an old toothbrush right on the stain it balls up as it soaks up the grease, keep doing this until stain is gone then wash as usual.

This won’t erase the stain completely but it has saved one or two favourite shirts in the past. If no baking soda around tries using a piece of chalk, I can’t vouch for this since I always have baking soda around but I have heard it works just as well.

5 Natural Stain removing Solutions

Just a few points to remember

Treat stains immediately if possible.
If you don’t have anything at hand try just plain water but never rub, instead just blot to avoid damage to the fibers and working the stain deeper into the fibers.
Heat sets stains, if you have treated the stain and washed the garment, before putting it in the dryer check to see if it needs to be treated again.

I’d love to hear what works for you and if you try any of this let me know how they work for you!