Even though pizza is your favorite Friday night dinner, it's often the culprit behind life's worst grease stains. "Grease is one of the most common stains I get asked about and it can be one of the toughest to remove, especially from synthetic fabrics, like polyester," Carolyn Forte, Director of the Home Appliances & Cleaning Products Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, says. Show
Shout Advanced Grease-Busting Foam worked the best on grease in our Cleaning Lab tests, but if you're at work or nowhere near a laundry room, there are a couple of easy remedies that will help get out fresh grease stains. Forte's go-to for removing grease stains on the go: dish soap. It's made to cut grease on your plates, so it can also help with your clothes. The condiments on your table can work magic, too. A sprinkle of salt or artificialsweetenerhelps prevent an oil stain from setting into the fabric and makes it easier to lift when you're doing laundry later on. More From Good Housekeeping How to Get Grease Stains Out of Washable ClothesFollow these six simple steps for getting out new and old grease stains, no matter where you are (or what oily food you spilled). Materials
Step-by-step Instructions
That's it! Consider your work shirt officially saved. Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at Good Housekeeping, including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl. Carolyn FortéHome Care & Cleaning Lab Executive Director Carolyn Forté brings more than 40 years of experience as a consumer products expert to her role as executive director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Home Care and Cleaning Lab. Using deep analytical testing and writing expertise in appliances, cleaning, textiles and organizational products, she produces cleaning and home care advice for GH, has authored numerous books and bookazines for the brand and partners with the American Cleaning Institute to co-produce the Discover Cleaning Summits. She holds a bachelor's degree in family and consumer sciences from Queens College, City University of New York. SaveComments We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a dainty diner, or an enthusiastic eater: Grease will eventually find its way onto a piece of your clothing. Be it by bacon or a delicious vinaigrette, it will find a way, and attempt to claim your clothing for the dark side of the closet.
Because it can be so hard to lift a grease stain — and everyone seems to have a recipe for what works best — I decided to put five popular methods to the test. The good news is that one method really stood out, and a very, very close combo platter took second place. Let’s take a look. Credit: Photo: Ghazalle Badiozamani; Design: The Kitchn I tested five similarly sizable splatters of bacon grease on a 100% cotton dress shirt. I waited 15 minutes for each stain to set (I used that time to eat the bacon!) and then got to cleaning. The ratings: Each method received a rating of one to five, with five being the best method overall and one being the least favorite method. Along with the rating you’ll find notes on how easy or difficult the method was, how much elbow grease it took (pun
intended), and how much time it took to remove. Credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani The method: Lay the soiled clothing on a paper towel and saturate the stain with hairspray. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then launder in hot water. If you can still see the grease stain, spray again and let sit for another 30 minutes. Do not dry the item until the stain has been lifted. How it went: I saturated the stain with TRESemme non-aerosol hairspray and let it sit for about 30 minutes. According to my research, I should have started to see the stain lift at that point. Because the area was saturated, though, it was difficult to tell if what I was seeing was grease or hairspray — so I went ahead and laundered it in hot water. After removing it from the washing machine, it looked as if the stain was completely gone, but the fabric was wet (clearly), so it was actually hard to tell. I went ahead and tossed it in the dryer. Mistake! I was bummed to learn that the stain hadn’t lifted much at all and I had set it into the fabric deeper. Out of all the methods tested, this was the least effective. I could see how you might use this method if you’re out and about and need something to intercept the stain until you can launder your clothing, but I wouldn’t recommend hairspray being your only line of defense. Definitely use dish soap, or a stain-fighting agent to spot treat your garment before laundering at home. (More on this below.) Credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani Grease Cleaning Method: Chalk
The method:Rub chalk over a grease spot and let it absorb the oil, then brush the chalk off and launder. If stain persists, continue rubbing chalk on the fabric until the stain lifts. The idea is that the chalk will absorb the oils that hold dirt in. How it went: I definitely saw the chalk absorb the grease (it turned brownish and got gross pretty quickly), but I also noticed that rubbing the chalk seemed to move the stain around and make it bigger. Once the shirt came out of the washing machine, it looked like the stain had disappeared, but once it was dry, the stain was clearly visible. I might use this method as a Band-Aid of sorts, to absorb the grease stain until I could take the clothing item home and properly treat it with a stain-fighting agent, but would not recommend chalk on its own to fight grease stains. Credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani Grease Cleaning Method: Dish Soap
The method:Squeeze a dab of dish soap onto the stain and let it sit for 15 minutes or so. Place the stained garment in the washing machine and once the cycle is finished, check to be sure the stain has disappeared. If you don’t see it you can transfer the item to the dryer; if the stain persists, repeat with more dish soap. How it went: I dabbed the dish soap right over the stain and let it sit for about 30 minutes before popping it into the washing machine on hot. (More time is better than less time, right?) Once the cycle was finished, I held up the wet cloth and couldn’t see the stain anymore, so into the dryer it went! I pulled it out of the dryer with high hopes (dishwashing detergent is a degreaser, after all!) and was disappointed to find that the stain hadn’t completely disappeared. It did work at removing quite a bit of it, but I think it’s necessary to first soak up the grease with baking soda (see below), then treat it with dish soap. (I used Dawn by the way!) Credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani Grease Cleaning Method: Baking Soda
The method: Sprinkle baking soda on a fresh stain and let it absorb the grease for 5 to 10 minutes. Next, use a brush (a toothbrush or a clean kitchen brush would be great) and scrub the baking soda into the stain. Once the powder changes to a brown color, scrape it off and repeat until the soda no longer changes color and the stain is lifted. How it went: I sprinkled the baking soda on the stain in a nice little mound and let it sit, undisturbed, for about 10 minutes. I shook the excess soda into the sink, grabbed my cleaning toothbrush, and started scrubbing. I definitely saw the baking soda turn a dingy brown color, so I scraped it all off, poured more soda on the stain and let it sit for 15 more minutes. After the second pass there was so much baking soda pressed into the fabric that I really couldn’t see much of the stain at all, so I went ahead and popped it into the washing machine on hot. When the shirt came out of the wash I couldn’t see any of the stain at all, so I happily chucked it into the dryer, feeling victorious. Once out of the dryer it looked like the stain was completely gone — until I took a photo of it with my phone, then I could see the faintest ghost of the stain. I was still really happy with this method, but think it could be perfected if used in combination with Dawn dish soap, after the baking soda step. It’s definitely the best/least harsh method! Credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani Grease Cleaning Method: Salt + Stain Remover
The method:Immediately sprinkle salt on the grease stain (it works like baking soda to absorb the grease). After the salt absorbs the grease for a few minutes (or once you make it back home) use Shout Advanced Grease-Busting Foam as a spot treatment before laundering the garment in hot water. As always, make sure the stain is gone before drying the garment. How it went: In almost every sort of light, the stain looked like it’s completely gone. Even when photographed there’s just the slightest, faintest ghost shape of the stain. This method worked just a bit better than the baking soda method, although I’m not sure how effective the salt really was. I liked this method so much, I also tried it on a yellow dinner napkin. I noticed that, once again, the grease came out, but it emerged from the dryer looking a bit worn, which tells me that this treatment is pretty harsh. I’m giving this the highest rating because it did the job and I would 100% use it again. But only on an all-white garment. I would not recommend using it on black, or anything colorful. Also, if you hesitate to use extra chemicals or products in your household, go with the Dawn and baking soda combo. Do you have a method for lifting grease stains out of clothing? Tell us about it in the comments below. How do you get grease out of clothes that have been washed?Douse the stain with white vinegar, then apply a paste made of equal parts baking soda and vinegar. If this doesn't work, immerse the item overnight in a bucket of water containing a few tablespoons of detergent and vinegar. Rinse and wash the following morning.
How do you get dried grease out of fabric?Lay your clothing flat.. Place an old towel or cardboard under the stain.. Sprinkle baking soda on top of the grease.. Let the baking soda sit for about 10 minutes while watching for it to change color as it soaks up the stain.. Scrape off the baking soda.. Wash clothing with hot water.. |
How to get out washed in grease stains
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