Remove Stubborn Grease Stains With Two Simple Household Ingredients

Whether you're enjoying chicken wings during game night or having a salad with a light vinaigrette, there's nothing worse than looking down at your favorite shirt and seeing a grease stain. Oil-based stains are among the toughest laundry stains to get out because oils are hydrophobic. That means they repel water, so you can't just blot at your stain with a damp rag and expect to remove it. To make matters worse, oil easily soaks into the fibers of most fabrics, especially highly absorbent materials like cotton, so stains can set quickly and become even more difficult to remove.

But your clothes aren't destined for the trash when they get a grease stain. Two items you already have in your house, baking soda and dish soap, are some of the most effective tools in removing oil-based stains from clothing. They work just as well on older stains as they do on fresh ones, so there's no need to fret if you can't tend to your stain right away.

Popular online stain-removing hacks often prove too good to be true, so it's no surprise if you're a bit skeptical about the power of baking soda and dish soap to remove grease. But there are actual facts behind the suggestion to use them for cleaning oil-based stains. There are many baking soda cleaning hacks, but it is probably most commonly used to eliminate odors in the fridge. As a powder, it is highly absorbent, which also allows it to soak up the excess oil or grease in the fibers of your clothing and make the stains lift more easily. It is also a mild alkali, or a chemical that dissolves in water and helps neutralize acids, so it can help grease break down when exposed to water and rinse out of your clothes.

With dish soap, it's a bit more obvious why it works so well on oil-based stains. These formulas are designed specifically to break down grease on your pots and pans, so it's hardly a surprise that they work similarly on clothing stains. Dish soap works well on older grease stains, too, because its suds also help remove stuck-on particles.

To remove a fresh grease stain, start by blotting the spot with a dish towel or paper towel to remove any excess oil. Be careful not to rub it, though, because this common laundry mistake can make the stain worse by pressing it deeper into the fibers. For old, set-in grease stains, wet the area with hot water to loosen up the particles first.

Next, apply several drops of dish soap to the spot and work it into the stain with your finger or a clean toothbrush to break down the oil. Spread some baking soda over the dish soap, once again working it into the fabric. You want a thick paste to completely cover the stain, so add more dish soap or baking soda as necessary to get the right consistency. For the best results, let the mixture sit on the stain for at least an hour.

After the paste has dried, rinse the clothing with hot water. When the dish soap and baking soda mixture is fully removed, soak the item in hot water for another hour to help break down any remaining grease particles and residue. Transfer it to your washing machine, and wash it with warm water according to the label instructions. Be sure to air-dry the item afterward because the heat from the dryer can lock in stains if they haven't been fully removed.