Easily Remove Pesky Butter Stains With This Kitchen Essential

Adding some extra butter to a piece of toast or some popcorn can be well worth it — but there are always risks. Messes happen and sometimes a bit of butter or margarine can make its way onto one of your favorite items of clothing. While you can't go back in time and prevent a butter stain in the first place, you probably don't need to. You can remove pesky butter stains easier than you might think as long as you have a certain kitchen essential around ... and you probably do. We're referring, of course, to baking soda.

Baking soda is well-known as a versatile cleaning ingredient for the home and there are many baking soda cleaning hacks that are worth trying. It can also work wonders on butter stains. Baking soda can even be used on delicate fabrics, so you'll be able to get it out of almost anything as long as you have this ingredient and a little bit of extra time on your hands.

Before removing butter stains with baking soda, scrape off as much excess butter you can. A large clump of butter should be easy to remove with a fork or knife. Then, you can blot the butter stain carefully and gently with a paper towel while avoiding making the situation worse by rubbing the butter in. Rubbing can cause the stain to get further ingrained in the fabric and will make removing it more difficult if not impossible.

After you've followed these steps, you can then get to work with baking soda. You'll simply need to sprinkle some of the powder onto the butter stain and allow it to sit and absorb the butter. Let the powder sit on the fabric for a few hours at a minimum or overnight. After sitting, the baking soda should start to turn brown as it absorbs the butter. You can repeat these steps as needed until the baking soda no longer turns brown and the butter stain has been fully removed. Once you've completed this process, you can wash the clothes in the washer like you normally would.

Keep in mind that other types of powder can serve as an alternative to baking soda during this process, so don't worry if you don't have any baking soda around at the moment. Other powders with absorbent capabilities can work well including talcum powder and baby powder. After using this method, you can also add liquid dish detergent for extra effectiveness. Rub liquid dish detergent into the fabric in circular motions using your fingers before wiping once more with a damp cloth. However, you'll want to avoid using dish detergent on delicate fabrics.

Although baking soda works to remove butter stains that are in fabrics, including delicate ones, you should avoid using this hack on anything that is labeled for dry cleaning only. However, if you can clean your clothes by hand or use a machine washer, then baking soda can be a great tool to use.