12 Natural Stain Remover Tips For All Your Laundry Woes

Looking for natural stain remover tips? Try out these 12 solutions for all your laundry woes. From lipstick stains to biro, red wine and cooking fat – I have a solution for you.

Whilst a good quality eco-friendly laundry detergent can get most stains out, sometimes it just can’t tackle everything. And there really is nothing worse than a stain on your favourite item of clothing.

Thankfully, there are heaps of natural and eco-friendly methods to tackle those stubborn marks. To help you out, I’ve put together my tried and tested natural stain remover tips and techniques to take out 12 of the most common stains naturally – allowing you to embrace a more sustainable approach to laundry.

I used to always have a plastic bottle of conventional stain remover under my kitchen sink. But after a bit of experimentation, I’ve found all of the techniques work just as well, if not better than their chemical-packed counterparts.

Natural Stain Remover Tips

Here are my natural stain remover tips for a cleaner greener wash. As with any stain remover, I’d recommend spot testing in an inconspicuous area before you start just in case it causes damage to your clothing.

• Biro
• Blood
• Candle Wax
• Chewing Gum
• Cooking Fat
• Crayon
• Faded Whites
• Lipstick
• Mud
• Perspiration Marks
• Red Wine
• Tea & Coffee Stains

Biro

Milk is a surprising natural stain remover, that’s great at removing biro. Simply soak your stained item of clothing in a little milk for around 3 hours, then wash as normal.

Blood

To remove blood stains naturally, you can either pre-soak your item of clothing in heavily salted cold water or soak it in a mixture of 1 litre of hot water and a quarter cup of soda crystals, then wash as normal. Soda crystals, in particular, are a great natural stain remover. However, either option, depending on what you have to hand, should remove the most stubborn of blood stains.

Candle Wax

Got some candle wax on your best tablecloth? Try placing brown paper on top of the wax stain and iron the paper with a warm iron. This should draw the melted wax out of the fabric with ease.

Chewing Gum

For an eco-friendly way to remove chewing gum from clothing, simply pop the offending item of clothing in your freezer for a few hours. After this time the gum should then be quite hard and brittle. This should then allow you to scrape the gum off easily with a butter knife.

Cooking Fat

To remove cooking fat stains the natural way, create a paste of bicarbonate of soda or soda crystals and equal parts of water to spread over the stain. Then leave the paste on for 30 minutes and then wash as normal with your usual laundry detergent.

Similar to soda crystals, bicarbonate of soda also makes for a great natural stain remover and deodoriser, and is a really handy one to keep in your green cleaning kit.

Crayon

Like chewing gum, crayon stains can be tackled by freezing the item of clothing for a few hours to harden the crayon. Once frozen you can then scrape off the excess with a butter knife.

Once you’ve scraped off as much wax as you can, you can then place the stained area of clothing between two clean paper towels, and press with a warm iron. This should transfer the wax onto the paper towels. Depending on how bad the stain is you may need to do this a few times. Then wash with your regular detergent and a large spoon of soda crystals in the drum to help shift any remaining residue.

Faded Whites

Although not strictly a stain, half a cup of lemon juice, or a scoop of sodium percarbonate, added to your usual detergent every time you wash your whites helps keep them bright. Sunshine also works wonders. As such, drying your whites outside whenever you can also help your white clothes to maintain their brightness.

Lipstick

For natural stain remover tips for lipstick, we’re going to take a more off-beat approach. Remove the crusts from a slice of white bread and roll the bread into a ball (trust me on this!). Then use the ball of bread to blot the lipstick stain, which should lift the lipstick from the clothes, and then wash as normal.

Apparently, white Play-Doh also works for removing lipstick stains but I haven’t tested that particular method!

Mud

For mud stains, it is best to pre-soak muddy clothes in a bucket of cool water with a quarter cup of bicarbonate of soda or soda crystals for three hours. Then wash your item of clothing with a cool wash. Avoid high temperatures as this can set mud stains into your clothes forever more. Don’t be tempted to leave muddy clothes sitting either – soaking straight away is more effective.

Perspiration Marks

Yellow perspiration marks and stains can easily be removed naturally by soaking your clothes for a few hours in white vinegar, another great natural stain remover. Leave your clothes to soak for an hour or two, before rinsing them in water, and then washing them as normal.

Red Wine

For red wine stains on clothing, make a paste using bicarbonate of soda and equal parts water and apply it to the stain. Leave for a few hours, then rinse under the tap and then wash. Sparkling or soda water will also help to naturally remove a red wine stain if the bicarbonate of soda doesn’t cut the mustard.

Tea & Coffee Stains

For tea and coffee stains on your clothing mix one cup of soda crystals into a pint of hot water. Next, pre-soak your clothes in the solution for an hour before washing as normal to effortlessly remove tea and coffee stains.

Any natural stain remover tips I’ve missed? Do share your favourites in the comments below!

I also have a ton of other laundry tips that you might find useful. Firstly, how to make your own fabric conditioner. I also have handy guides on how to dry clean at home, and how to wash striped clothing. And lastly, my guide to how to wash wool.