NBR: Stain removal tips

jclester614 · April 2014

DH works outside and his shirts are covered in oil, tree sap, dirt/grass, grease, etc.

Any good tips for stain removal on colored t-shirts? I am going to try oxyclean, but I'm not convinced it will work.

Thanks ladies! You are a wealth of wisdom!

babygabe614 · April 2014

I swear by the Oxy clean stain stick - it has a blue applicator top with little "nubs" on it that you press down into the stain as it releases the cleaning gel. I use that on any major stains and it works wonders.

otter1103 · April 2014

Check it all before putting it in the dryer. For grease you could try soaking or spot scrubbing with liquid dawn prior to washing. When I was a server/bartender that was the go to for grease/oil. But I would still also try the oxy in the wash after doing a prewash treatment whether Dawn or Goop.

lellymine · April 2014

My mom always used rubbing alcohol to get grass stains out of my brothers' clothes, especially their sports jerseys. You get the grass stain wet with water, put rubbing alcohol on it and let it air dry. Rinse with cold water and work in any liquid detergent into the grass stain. Rinse again with cold water, let it air dry and wash the shirt as you normally would. Kind of a process but it always works.

k2k2tog · April 2014

If they're his work shirts, why bother stressing over the stains?

I know. I'm not helpful. DH does the laundry in our house more often than not...

jclester614 · April 2014

Thanks, all! Super helpful, I'll def check out those products. I have a few old shirts to try them out on - I'm always paranoid I'm going to ruin the color with white spots or something.

sempre_staccato: I have not bothered with them so far, since, as you say, they are work shirts. DH has gotten it into his head, somehow, that I should be able to get the stains out and the shirts should be (nearly) pristine, regularly.

Pipe dream? I think so. But at least I can try. : )

To be fair, he goes on sales visits so wants to look clean for that. He has a hard time "saving" shirts for this purpose. I even tried marking the label of two shirts to use ONLY for sales, not in the field, but...that didn't last. (Maybe I should keep them in a separate drawer.....hmmmm....)

LindsayDesigner · April 2014

babygabe614 said:
I swear by the Oxy clean stain stick - it has a blue applicator top with little "nubs" on it that you press down into the stain as it releases the cleaning gel. I use that on any major stains and it works wonders.

This stuff is magic!