The Household Essential That'll Save Your Oil-Stained Clothing

You're doing the right thing by eating salads, but what you may not have counted on with the extra greens is the increase in grease splotches showing up unannounced on your shirt. But, whether it's a healthy oil dressing or potato chips — oil is among the most difficult stains to remove. You may have noticed that if you don't pre-treat the item properly, regular laundry detergent and water alone don't seem to make a dent. And then tossing clothes that still have a trace of an oil stain in the dryer sets it in even further. However, to remedy this, your best bet is to make a paste with baking soda and a couple of other ingredients to allow that stain to get pulled out before putting it in the machine. 

LiveScience, a site dedicated to making research and science clear and accessible, confirms baking soda's ability to disintegrate grease and clean with its gentle abrasiveness. By now, fans may have bought stock in baking soda companies and stockpiled this endlessly diverse source of cleaning hacks in their pantries. Bicarbonate of soda is super gentle on the earth, making it an excellent eco-friendly cleaning choice. Baking soda also happens to be a natural deodorizer. What makes it a great cleaner is that it's a mild alkali, and mixing it with water enhances its grease-busting capabilities. For more oomph, we sometimes combine it with diluted vinegar.

Gather together dishwashing soap, water, baking soda, a toothbrush, a bowl, and cardboard. Take your garment and place the cardboard behind the grease stain. Blot the stain with a paper towel — pressing but not rubbing — to soak up excess grease. Do this a few times. The cardboard protects the grease from transferring to the back of your garment.

You might spritz the grease stain with water to moisten it first and drip about three drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid (or any brand famous for dissolving grease) directly onto the oily spot. The next step is to mix water with a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in a small bowl. If needed, adjust the proportions to make a paste.

Then "butter" the stain with a layer of baking soda paste, and then brush it in for a few seconds with the toothbrush. If you want to give it the best chance to dissolve grease, leave this on overnight as a pre-treatment. The dish soap, water, and bicarbonate will work cooperatively to dislodge the oils. Scrape off the paste. Next, wash your item in a cold water cycle, not hot or warm. We recommend you air dry it rather than risk further setting in any remnant of a stain from the dryer's heat. Inspect your work — if there's still a stain, it's time to increase your firepower.

Replicate the above instructions but add one more step before you hand your clothes over to the washing machine. After you've pre-treated the garment with the baking soda paste, scrape off the excess. Put a one-to-one ratio of distilled white vinegar and water into a spray bottle and spray the area. You'll see it foam up. Once that settles, you might blot the area again with a paper towel and then wash it in cool water with laundry detergent as usual.

The reason these two ingredients plus water can work well together is that vinegar's acetic acid is another grease-removing buddy. Much like baking soda, it has deodorizing properties as well, which means it can help remove any greasy French fry smell. Once again, hold off from putting this garment in the dryer, especially if you're treating a resistant stain that's already been through a few heat cycles. Air dry it, and make sure you've removed all traces of the meal you ate or the greasy motorcycle parts you were repairing before putting it in the dryer again.