I have the worst luck with stains, so am screenshotting this, petal, great info! Thank you for sharing!

(I am a bit disappointed, though … I was sure this was a euphemism and was hoping the worst stains would be dealt with soon.) 😁

I find Dawn works pretty well on oily stains. I use OxiClean for everything else.

Judi - same for me. I keep a bottle of blue Dawn in my laundry room for oil stains and I have a spray OxiClean for spots as well as powdered for whole loads.

I wash white altar linens that have red wine all over them. Sometimes they sit for almost a week like that till I take them home. I soak them in hot water with a scoop of OxyClean and the wine stains vanish, no rubbing or scrubbing. It's like magic.

A few years ago I was wearing my at the time favorite hoodie, a lovely rich teal color. I was part of a crew cooking up ground beef and, like an idiot, wasn't wearing an apron. I got hamburger grease down the front of me. I tried Shout, Oxyclean, everything I had at home. Nothing got it out. Someone on this very board recommended Zout, which I got on A-zon. The grease stain vanished. Very amazing.

I have the most difficulty with tomato based stains, but I usually can eventually get them out. Getting to them quickly helps. I run cold water through the backside of the stain and remove as much as possible. If that doesn't work I go to rubbing alcohol, then hydrogen peroxide. Some tomato stains are greasy, so I use Dawn liquid to get the oil part out. If stain persists, I dissolve Oxy-Clean in a bucket of hot water and soak for a day or two. If it's a piece I really need to save, I then take to my dry cleaners, though that doesn't happen often. I've also had good luck with a stubborn stain by placing outside on a sunny day after treating with fresh lemon juice. The sun can do wonders

Bunny, I learned about Zout from my nurse friends. They know how to get stains out!

White washing vinegar removes all oil stains with no rubbing etc. Just saturate undiluted white washing vinegar on the spots / clothing in a bucket and the toss in regular wash the next day. Can leave 24 hrs no problem. Also this is the only permanent removal of old sweat odor from clothes. Soak for 24-48 hrs washing vinegar diluted slightly if desired or not. Removes all the old old sweat odors from gym clothes. Wash as usual after soaking.

I have great luck with using Dawn to remove oily stains from my clothing. I will just drizzle it on the oil and let it soak for a couple of hours before laundering as usual. I have even put it on oily stains and just tossed the clothing in the hamper and laundered it whenever I got around to it. Oil always comes out with Dawn. I like to just wear an old T shirt for cooking rather than an apron so I usually have many oil spots on them, the Dawn has not failed me!

Some good tips here, folks. Thanks.

1) How do you use DAWN? It that the dish detergent? I don’t use if for dishes because somethin in it gives me very itchy dermatitis. But I cou;ld wear gloves for treathing oil-based stains.

2) Spaghetti sauce is a hybrid — oil-based and pigmented, That is, as they always say in college classes, ”beyond the scope of this lecture.” But it looks as though Dawn blue will get it out? That’s good.

Yes to Dawn and a stain spray product made by the Oxyclean people i find it better than Shout. i also use Wine Away for stubborn stains, not just a wine stain. It really works well

Thanks for the info Petal. I also keep Dawn on hand, not for dishes, but oily stains. It works great! I have good look with oxyclean products on certain stains too. We use cloth napkin mostly, and I don't care how careful you are (and who wants to worry about their napkin???), you will occasionally end up with a stain. Food happens. I'm going to print your tips out.

PS - Dawn works well for alot of things. I like the homemade recipe for oven cleaner which uses Dawn too.

Do you have a treatment for chocolate milk. DGS spilled chocolate milk on his favorite hoodie. This is the child who can eat anything without getting a drop on himself, as a rule. But the chocolate stain on the hoodie has stymied us all. It has been soaked in Oxyclean. It has been treated with Shout. I even bought a bar of Fels Naptha because I heard it worked wonders on stain removal. It hasn’t budged. And, of course, they no longer make that hoodie.

Then there is his twin sister, who looks like she rolled in her plate. This is how she came home from school one day. And she has no idea how it happened. They are 5. He’s fastidious; she’s oblivious.

My MIL’s trick for getting berry stains out of fabric was to drape the stained fabric over a deep bowl and pour boiling water on the stain. you have to hold the water as high as you can above the bowl and get a stream flowing. This works like magic for blueberry stains and other fruit. Even though it’s a fruit, I’m not sure it would work for ketchup stains. Probably need something stronger for that with higher intelligence.

Mustard is photo sensitive. after washing just put the item out in the sunlight. voila!

OMG, bbstx/ that smock. No idea how it happened, Mommy.

There’s always scissors or tie dying.

Chocolate milk. I love chocolate milk. I think of chocolate milk as having a very fi e grit like sediment property to it. Maybe try to flush it out with cool water, then Dawn. Then try Oxyclean? Got me.

I once downloaded and printed out a huge volum,e of stain mitigation measures for my mom. I put it into a notebook. Maybe the answer is in that tome. Call Hersheys. haha

Honu, you’re the second person here that said sunlight will remove mustard. I didn;t know that.

Garden soil stain are one of those grit particle stains that seem impossible to get out. Maybe blue Dawn will fix that, or an ultrasonic cleaner.

I've been holding onto this little bit of magic hint waiting for the right time to pass it on, lol, and this might be it. I was researching how to get blood stains out of cloth. My favorite pair of white jeans somehow ended up with a blood stain on the front of the tummy. I have NO idea what happened. I don't have a wound there, I'm too old for other blood, plus it was the wrong place. Maybe I cut myself and didn't notice or??? They had been washed and dried before I found it and NOTHING has affected it very much. Several kinds of stain remover, chlorine bleach, oxy bleach, borax, etc. Then I read online to use saliva from the same person who bled (sorry, a little gross). Apparently, an enzyme in our saliva breaks down our own blood?! So I tried it, even though they've been washed and dried a dozen times as I tried all the methods. I saturated it and let it set for a couple of hours and it actually looks like it could work! It lightened the stain more than anything has; I'm going to repeat it a few times and see what happens.

I use Tide in the red bottle full strength on any stains. Most of the time it works great. Sometimes I have to reapply. I absolutely have to work the tide into the fabric.

We had an unfortunate incident where my mother cat dropped a kitten in the middle of the room and my son turned around and stepped on him.

Blood spewing out of the poor little fellow's nose made its way on to my white sweater.

Once we realized that the that the kitten was going to survive life began again and went on. I decided I could face the stained sweater. I poured Tide all over those blood stains. I rubbed the tide in and the stains immediately began to lighten and then I threw the sweater in the wash. After washing voila, no more stains.

This is Earl of the Gray. As you can see he has grown into a beautiful healthy normal cat. Luckily kittens can heal very well from a very bad accident.

Oly, I have known about the saliva trick from my years of sewing. I have had more pin and needle pricks than I can count. Thanks for all these tips.

Trailrunner, I had to google washing vinegar. I've always used white vinegar for various cleaning applications. I'll keep an eye out for the washing version.

Great tips, and I forgot about the difference in oily stains. My son was fixing my bike a few days ago, and he got a few marks on his khaki shorts. I'm trying various methods to remove it--now focusing on the methods above.

uh oh! machine or motor grease. Maybe the Dawn rx will work. I hope so. Else, you might try a bit of something like lighter fluid. Never gasoline, to disolve it a bit before the Dawn.

Nice of him to help you with your bike.

Petalique, I'm not sure. He was sitting on the ground, and then I also believe the bike seat itself was dirty. I wasn't paying attention.

So far, I've soaked in Oxyclean overnight, washed, soaked in bleach overnight, dabbed with dish detergent (but not Dawn), washed again... and there are residual stains. Right now, I have them soaking with Borax and dish detergent, which seemed to work the best so far. If this doesn't work, I'll go get some Dawn.

Thank you for your suggestions!

I’m often getting stains on things, partly because I like working on untidy projects.

Yikes re the bleach. I hope the bike grease stain comes out. I

I didn;t know about the blue Dawn, but I learned that from others posting above. I am going to get a small bottle next grocery trip.