Messy Sauce Stains Stand No Chance Against This Medicine Cabinet Staple

You're at dinner with friends in your favorite white shirt when, bam — spilled sauce strikes. Not all sauces are equal, but many are rich in color, making them difficult to remove from fabric. It's embarrassing enough to drip food onto your clothes, but must the event be commemorated with a permanent stain? Luckily, the answer is no, and all you need to solve the problem is blue Dawn dish soap and a medicine cabinet staple – hydrogen peroxide. These ingredients are affordable and easy to find.

Dawn Ultra dish detergent lines most grocery store shelves. You can pick up an 18 fluid ounce bottle for around $3.12 at Walmart. Hydrogen peroxide is available in a variety of pharmacies, and runs around $1.89 for 32 fluid ounces at CVS. Mix the two together and you've got yourself a magic sauce-fighting spray for your clothing. Fill a small squirt bottle with the concoction for easy application. You can pick up a two-pack of two fluid ounce spray containers from your local Dollar Tree for around $1.25. Thinking of trying this laundry hack for yourself? Check out this recipe for your own DIY sauce remover and add it to the list of stubborn household stains you can get rid of with hydrogen peroxide.

Whether you're tossing a batch of wings in hot sauce or slurping noodles from a Bolognese, sauce spills happen. The best way to tackle these stains is quickly. First, get rid of any excess food or liquid by scraping the spot clear. Now, you can apply your laundry spot remover and banish stains. TikToker @taybrett uses a mix of ¾ hydrogen peroxide and ¼ blue Dawn dish soap. For tough Chick-fil-A sauce stains, she sprays and washes as usual. Both ingredients have strong cleansing power but are gentle on clothing.

Hydrogen peroxide is an oxygen bleach, which is a good cleaning agent for all water temperatures, materials, and colors. At 3% potency, it's a safe alternative to stronger chemical cleaners. Blue Dawn dish detergent is a more concentrated formula than other soaps sold by the brand, making it more effective with less waste. Put them together and you've got a miracle pre-wash spray to tackle tough sauce stains. You can also put this 3% oxygen bleach directly into your wash cycle.

There are many reasons why you should be using hydrogen peroxide to clean your laundry, including its stain-fighting power and gentleness on materials. A pre-wash spray is useful in treating discoloration by sauces, but you can also pour it into your washing machine. In a 2022 study on its ability to remove stains and disinfect clothing, hydrogen peroxide was found most effective when introduced during the main wash cycle and had no negative impact on fabrics. The study found it helped remove several stain types, although it was least effective on blood, milk, and ink. The key is adding the right amount to your machine.

SafeSol, a U.K. manufacturer of hydrogen peroxide, recommends pouring 1 cup into your machine with laundry and your usual detergent. Be sure to forego the Dawn when opting for this method. Dish soap is too sudsy and could overflow your machine with bubbles. Whether you go with a pre-wash sauce spray, add a cup to your next load of whites, or do both, you'll have a new use for that bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the back of the medicine cabinet.