14 Natural Stain Remover Tips For All Your Laundry Woes

Looking for natural stain remover tips? Try out these 14 solutions for all your laundry woes. From lipstick stains to biro, red wine and cooking fat – I have an eco-friendly 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. And if you can’t get a stain out, then you’re likely to bin the item – leading to textile waste.

Thankfully, there are heaps of natural and eco-friendly methods to tackle those stubborn marks, and keep your clothes looking good for longer.

To help you out, I’ve put together my tried and tested natural stain remover tips and techniques to take out 14 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 & Eco-Friendly Stain Remover Tips To Remove Any Clothing Stain

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.

You can use the quick links to jump to the homemade solution for tackling a specific stain, or keep scrolling for the full post:

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

Biro

Milk is a surprising natural stain remover, that’s great at removing biro. This is all down to the enzymes in the milk, which work wonders in breaking down ink.

To shift biro and ink stains naturally, simply soak your stained item of clothing in a little milk for around 3 hours, then wash as normal. It’s best not to let the milk dry – you want to wash your item straight after soaking.

Blood

To remove blood stains the eco-friendly way, 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 a few hours, the gum should then be quite hard and brittle. This should then allow you to scrape the gum off easily with a butter knife.

Don’t worry about popping your clothes in your freezer – generally, it doesn’t cause them any harm.

Cooking Fat

To remove cooking fat stains in a natural and sustainable 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 (also known as laundry bleach), can be added to your usual detergent every time you wash your whites. This helps to keep them bright and white, in a non-toxic way.

If you’re looking for another easy sustainable technique then sunshine also works wonders. Try drying your whites outside – turned the right side out – whenever you can to help naturally maintain their brightness.

Grease Stains

If you have a grease-stained item of clothing, then try raiding your kitchen cupboard for cornflour for this DIY stain treatment.

All you need to do is sprinkle some cornflour liberally onto the grease stain – enough so that the stain is covered and then a little more for good measure – and then gently rub the cornflour in. Let the cornflour sit for around an hour, so that it can absorb the oil, and then brush the powder off. Then launder your item as normal. Stain be gone!

Lipstick

If you need a DIY stain remover idea 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.

It’s important to avoid high temperatures as this can set mud stains into your clothes forever more. And don’t be tempted to leave muddy clothes sitting either – soaking straight away is more effective.

Grass Stains

If you’re looking to tackle grass stains then vinegar is your non-toxic friend. All you need to do is to mix one part white vinegar with one part cold water. Pour the solution on the stain and let it soak in for around 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, gently scrub the stain with a scrubbing brush, before rinsing it in cold water. Then wash with your usual detergent in a 30^oC wash or cooler. Don’t wash your clothing with hot water as it tends to set grass stains, making them impossible to remove.

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!

More Sustainable Laundry Tips

I am all about helping readers to care for their clothes because the most sustainable item of clothing is the one you already own.

• Here’s how to dry clean at home.
• Here’s a guide to over 45 UK laundry care symbols.
• I’m cracking the laundry enigma code, with my guide on how to wash striped clothing. 
• Here’s how to wash wool clothing – to keep it looking better for longer.