Stain Removal Home Remedies?

I found a stain on the pocket of one of my favorite button down shirts.... Apparently a potato chip fell in the pocket which is really weird because it's got a closed pocket on it that buttons shut and I don't keep potato chips in my pockets... It left an oily residue stain....

Anyhow, it's a light gray shirt and the oil stain is clearly visible... Took it to the cleaners and it didn't help... I'm thinking about going back to the cleaner's to complain because I don't think they specifically treated it....

Any home remedies for specifically treating oily residue stains?

 

A dab of shampoo or kitchen detergent may work, as they are good for oily scalps and greasy pans. cheers..

 

Try the product called "Awesome", available in Dollar General stores.

Or Family Dollar stores.

 

You can buy dry cleaning fluid in 500ml bottles in the local supermarket for small spot stains like that. Better read the instructions and always test in an out of sight spot first - just in case you end up with a permanent white bleached spot, and be cursing my advice forever. :-o

 

If the cleaners dried it, you're out of luck, unfortunately. In which case, you should absolutely bring it back to them and make them try to fix it (if it's permanent, which it could very well be, they should pay to replace the shirt). These statements assume that when you brought it to them you hadn't already washed and dried it, and that you specifically pointed it out to them when you dropped it off.

If you want to try to get it out yourself, OxiClean does wonders, as does a bit of quality dish soap or Fels Naptha.

 

As a last resort, if you've decideded to throw away the shirt, go to your local hardware store, pick up some MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) and wet the oil mark with it. MEK is (I read this somewhere) the ingredient in Paint that evaporates, and leaves it dry on whatever you put it on. We use it to take caulking off of aluminum, and anything else down here, and you want to talk about oily.. I've put MEK on dry caulking worked into jeans, and it's come out with little fight. I'd have to imagine that a basic oil mark wouldn't be any trouble at all..

I'm saying to use it as a last resort because I don't know what it does to all fabrics, but I've never seen it hurt anything here.

 

Try a carbonated soft drink.. just pour a can in the wash.


Usually does the trick for me.

 

I would use - remove by rubbing the affected area with talcum powder, placing absorbent kitchen paper under and over the stain, and then ironing.

I had a question one time to get a bad red stain in my carpet. No one wants to tell you "how to do it" unless you pay for there service. And I went and searched for a cleaning forum. I found many good ones. I read and read and read AND I came to point that cleaners really aren't cleaners(no offense to cleaner workers here). On most of the forums, they talked about luck and how to "never tell a customer its a guarantee to get out. And it was A LOT of home remedies... they spoke of. But for my red stain they told me put some sort of soap on it.. then put cotton towel on it, then put steam iron on top and steam will release red into cotton and bam red comes out. BUT theres dangers with it.. it turn to white.. it can not work.. it can burn carpet.. I live in an apt and iam worried about my deposit because of my red stainold koolaid

 

Yes I pointed out the oily stain to the Dry Cleaner when I dropped the shirt off... And yes I hadn't washed the shirt at home because I only dry clean it....

 

Well, the best I have found, is good ole Peroxide.. you know, the kind you buy for the medicine cabinet.. Works like a charm, and unlike, bleach, it won't hurt colors... Great stuff, with TONS of uses...

 

Blotting paper and a moderate to hot iron (no steam)
Blotting paper under the stain, clean linen handkerchief on top of the stain. The heat melts the grease and the blotting paper absorbs it.