How to remove oil stains from clothes

For many, fries are the favorite appetizer or side dish. They are delicious to snack on, and you can eat them without getting bored, but we can all say that they have a little problem: the oil that you soak in your fingers. And that’s a shame, because it’s this little detail that takes the chip away from supreme perfection.

Anything fried, whether it’s fries, pies, nuggets, onion rings – and whatever greasy treat your weakness is – can turn into a mild headache when it’s comes into contact with your clothes or you inadvertently wipe your hands on it. with a dark, greasy stain that is determined to permeate the fabric forever.

It’s a bit more complex battle than the one we were talking about earlier, but not impossible for that reason. The oil stain is hard to get, but while researching the subject, we realized that all is not lost: do the right thing, act immediately, and use the right products, that dark, oily patch. can disappear.

In site oil spot post Apartment Therapy , expert Laura Goodman, Principal Scientist at Procter & Gamble, explains that “most fats and oils are semi-solid or solid at room temperature, which means warm or hot water is needed to remove them. “. Cold water, on the other hand, instead of helping to eliminate them, can cause the opposite effect, and fix them even more in the fabric.

The type of fabric is also relevant, according to Goodman, who says that “synthetic fibers, such as polyester or nylon, are particularly difficult to process because they attract grease and oil.”

If you stain yourself with oil, the first thing you will succeed in doing is to wash it off, which is not bad, but before doing anything else: first dry the excess oil with a absorbent towel. This is what Patric Richardson, owner of mona williams a boutique laundromat in Minneapolis, USA.

“It’s much easier to work on a dry cloth, because oil and water don’t mix,” says Richardson. “When you wet the fabric, what happens is that the water coats all the fabric around the oil, but it doesn’t get into the stain, so you have nowhere to get the oil out. oil.”

Were the freshly made sopaipillas any good? So much that you were all defiled? So let’s get to work. The oil stain is complex, we know it, but it is not invincible and there are several ways to make it disappear.

According to a tutorial from the Arte y Costura television channel —directed by Óscar Cereceda, a bio and textile chemist—there are several steps and materials needed to remove an oil stain from a T-shirt or T-shirt. -shirt. The result, yes, is 100% worth it, according to what can be seen in both tests.

• Dishwashing liquid
• talcum powder
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Lemon
• Old toothbrush (that you don’t use for your personal hygiene)
• hair dryer

The procedure is rigorous, but not difficult.

• First, you need to dry the stain with a hair dryer for a few seconds.
• The next step is to add talc to the stain and press the powder with a spoon in a circular motion until it completely covers the stain and the talc is compact.
• After that, you need to remove the talc, shake it or vacuum it. Now is the time to apply the dishwasher in circular motions to the stain.
• Next, you need to put baking soda on the stain and spread it over the entire surface, just like you did with talcum powder.
• Now for a little Walter White moment: Squeeze the lemon on the baking soda stain. At this point, you will be able to observe a small chemical reaction: a kind of foam appears that you must brush with the toothbrush – the one you use, of course, to clean anything other than your mouth.
• The process ends with washing, either in the washing machine or by hand. After that, voila, the spots should have disappeared after such torture.

Below you can see Óscar Cereceda himself in action:

As we have verified in different articles, vinegar and baking soda cannot be missing from any self-respecting home. Both, as well as being useful in the kitchen – for seasoning or marinating foods first; to give air and volume to the masses, the others are particularly effective against dirt. Besides not being toxic or harmful to the skin, at least not in small amounts, they are cheap, clean and very effective.

In case of oil or grease stains, vinegar should be used if the accident occurred recently. Just put a good amount on the stain – it’s not a question of giving it a bath either – and let it act for about 30 minutes. After that time, wash the garment with hot water and laundry soap or detergent, and the fabric should look like nothing.

Like vinegar, lemon citric acid is also able to remove certain stains, always depending on the time that has passed and the depth left by the mark. Of course, it is not recommended to use this method on dark clothes, as lemon juice has a whitening effect which can ruin the color of the garment.

What you need to do is squeeze half a lemon – or a whole lemon, if there are several spots or if it is very large – and rub its juice on the affected area. You need to leave it there for at least 10 minutes and then let the clothes soak in hot water. After about an hour, wash the garment in the washing machine and the stain should be pretty far away now.

Another formula that Patric Richardson recommends, in apartment therapy, includes a surprising ingredient: chalk. It’s a life hack ideal for removing stains with oil of recent manufacture, both for cooking and for eating, since it has an effect similar to that of talc or bicarbonate —which are the first options to use—, and it can very well replace them if we don’t have either of them.

First, you need to remove any excess grease with a paper towel. The next step is to cover the stain with white chalk powder – which you can grind with a file or other rough surface – and wait a few minutes, until you notice that the oil has been absorbed by the chalk . Then, you have to quickly wash the garment in the dishwasher.