Stain Removal: How to Remove Food Grease Stains

Food grease stains are some of the easiest – and cheapest – stains to remove.   What’s the hard part?  Catching the stain before it is washed and dried in the dryer.

So your husband has dropped part of his sausage biscuit onto his lap.  What do you do next?

With a paper towel, wipe off all of the stain that you can.   When you are ready to wash the pants, follow these steps:

1. Saturate the stain in Blue Dawn Dish Soap. While it has never happened to  me, I understand that some of the other scents of Dawn can stain clothes.  So I always stick with Dawn Original – the blue one.
   Place enough Dawn on the stain to cover it completely and then gently rub it in with your finger.
2. Wash the garment as you usually would. If it can tolerate washing on a normal cycle, then do so.  The agitation of the washer will help eliminate the stain.  If it is a garment that can only be washed on a delicate setting, try using that setting first.
3. Hang the garment to dry – do not dry in the dryer! This step is vitally important to removing grease.  Your eyes will play tricks on you.  While the item is wet, you’ll be certain you don’t see the grease stain any longer.  But once it’s dry, it can possibly ‘reappear’!  So please remember to hang dry.
4. After the item is dry, examine the grease spot in a bright light. Is the stain gone?  Can you see any traces of it?  If not, great!  If you can still see the stain, go on to the next step.
5. Re-wash the garment using these same steps all over again. I know this seems a little ‘high-maintenance’ but if you’ll hang with me, you can get rid of the stain! (hopefully).  If you washed the garment on the delicate cycle, try washing it on a ‘normal’ cycle this time.  If you washed it on ‘normal’ the first time, you can try increasing the agitation of the cycle, washing on a ‘heavy-duty’ cycle or whatever your washing machine offers.
6. Continue this process until the stain comes out.

Stain Removal is not necessarily labor intensive, but it can definitely be time-consuming.  My question always is: Is it worth my time to get rid of this stain?
If it is my daughter’s brand new Easter dress, you’d better believe I am going to do everything possible to get it out!   But if it is just my son’s play shirt, I’ll try once and then leave it if it’s stubborn.

Does your family acquire a lot of food grease stains on their clothes?  What method do you use to remove them?