Monday, April 18, 2016

O is for Oil Stains



My daughter is a pig.

And that's certainly an insult to pigs.

When I say you cannot see her bedroom floor, I am not exaggerating, and I would prove it to you, but you'd probably assume our house had been robbed and ransacked and call the police.

She never leaves a room that she doesn't leave something behind that doesn't belong there, and usually, it's many somethings that don't belong there. Candy wrappers. Drinking glasses. Socks. Used kleenex. Clothes. Shoes. Coats. Backpacks. Volleyball uniforms. You get the idea.

She also spills, both on herself and on the floor under her chair (the only reason I can see for having a dog). Fortunately, she dresses like a homeless person when she's home, and nothing she wears around the house leaves the house, because recently, she slopped chicken noodle soup down the front of the sweatshirt she was wearing. Then the shirt laid on the floor of her room for a couple of weeks before I finally had it up to HERE and made her take her dirty clothes down to the laundry room. I washed and dried the sweatshirt without knowing that she had spilled soup on it, and, naturally, it came out of the dryer with big, greasy spots on it.

So I found this Pinterest pin:

http://www.northernbellediaries.com/
removing-set-in-oil-stains/

This woman RAVED about how well her technique worked on her messy husband's clothes, even after an oily stain had been through the washer and dryer. I was stoked.

Here's the shirt:



I slipped an old cutting board inside the sweatshirt before I started, so nothing soaked through to the back. Then I sprayed the spots with WD-40.



Next, I dumped copious amounts of baking soda onto the spots:



And used a toothbrush to work the baking soda into the spot. According to the pinner, the WD-40 "revives" the oil in the fabric and the baking soda clumps as it absorbs the oil.

Well, yes, it clumped, all right:


The next step was to brush the baking soda into the sink and repeat the process again with fresh baking soda. The pinner recommended doing this until the baking soda clumped very little or not at all.


I repeated the baking soda step four times (the pinner did it twice). Next, liquid dish detergent was poured onto the spots and the toothbrush was, again, enlisted to work the soap into the stain:


Then the shirt was washed and dried as usual. I took it out of the dryer and...well, let's just compare:


IT'S FREAKING WORSE THAN IT WAS BEFORE!!! AND IT SMELLS LIKE WD-40!!!

Pinterest freaking fail.




21 comments:

  1. Oooooo that kind of plastic bananas smell! Too bad i was hoping it worked. Everyone has one shirt like that.

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    1. It smells slightly better than the eau de homeless that it usually sports

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  2. I was so hopeful on this one too! I could use a good remedy for set in oil stains.

    @WeekendsinMaine
    Weekends in Maine

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    1. I have used Goop hand cleaner with some success. It's the stuff mechanics use that is waterless and gets grease off their hands. Guess I'll try it on this, since WD-40 obviously isn't the answer.

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  3. Your daughter sounds remarkably similar to my daughter. It was so aggravating when she was a kid. Now she's grown up and lives on her own and is still a slob. As for the stain solution. ..my first thought was that it would just be easier and cheaper to buy a new sweatshirt haha. Love your posts!!

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    1. For her future roommate's sake, I hope she neatens up by the time she goes to college!
      She loves that silly sweatshirt! It's too big and an odd shade of purple, and she got it from my dad's store before he retired and closed the store. Thank goodness she only wears it around the house!

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  4. As soon as you said WD-40, I got nervous. i have heard others use this trick too but never thought it sounded like a good idea.

    Being an artist who uses oil paints, I have found a few tricks up my sleeves to get the worst stains out of clothes. My two standby options include:
    The Master's Brush Cleaner: http://www.amazon.com/General-Pencil-Company-Masters-Preserver/dp/B0009RRT9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461045254&sr=8-1&keywords=master+brush+cleaner
    This has worked for me to get oil paints out of clothes, carpets, hands, tables you name it.

    For tough grease, dirt, blood or grass stains, I use Oxi Clean Max Force: https://jet.com/product/detail/f6327c6cbd54486e991ca3cea55ab63c?jcmp=pla:ggl:gen_jd_home_garden_a3:household_supplies_laundry_supplies_a3_other:na:na:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15&ds_c=gen_jd_home_garden_a3&ds_cid&ds_ag=household_supplies_laundry_supplies_a3_other&product_id=f6327c6cbd54486e991ca3cea55ab63c&product_partition_id=163686991740&gclid=CjwKEAjwi9K4BRCQzq7d1c6A_XASJABueAO23vQiOmtAVj4YBaJo_2GTFBKf_lSFNnJcs7I984HkxhoCyBrw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

    I am unsure if I have used them after already washed and dried, but I have definitely used this both on VERY dried stains before. Oxi Clean you can even put on and not wash for several days and it still works. Pretty sweet.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Kate the Great. Thanks for the tips. Ruined a shirt at a Paint and Sip.

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    2. Naturally, it was too good to be true. Someone told me Simple Green was good at getting grease out.

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  5. You really had my attention. (My daughter is a hot mess when it comes to her room, too). But big FAIL. Good thing it's just a house shirt. When I cook I get those splatters on my black shirts so I was quite interested but NOT.

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    1. Goop works really well on cooking splatters. Rub it in and immediately launder the shirt. My husband always gets greasy spots on his shirt when he eats out, and the Goop almost always works for me.

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  6. I haven't read previous comments, so pardon me if this is a repeat, but try Dawn liquid dish soap and peroxide.... I usually squirt Dawn on the stain and rub it in real well with a toothbrush, use a little of your detergent to make a 'paste' and then add a little peroxide and rub it in with the toothbrush. *Usually* works pretty well in my experience.
    And yeah, *why* are girls soooooo messy?!?!?! They could put most teenage boys to shame, I think, in the area of messy rooms! 'Course I have two boys and one is neat n' tidy and other ... not so much... so maybe it isn't so much a 'gender' thing.

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    1. Does the peroxide not bleach the fabric?
      My son isn't neat, either, but she's unbelievable. Currently, there is a sports bra on my dining room table (among other things of hers).

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    2. I haven't had the peroxide bleach anything yet....but in the Pinterest things I have seen that use peroxide always tell you to color test it first (although I'm a rebel and I have never color tested anything) ;-/
      There's hope... I used to have THE WORST room growing up and I remember my mom always telling me to clean my room and I hated it!! But, I didn't grow up to be a slob, so, I keep trying to remind myself that my daughter probably won't grow up to be a slob either. *I hope*

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  7. wait a minute i'm confused ...do you know my daughter, because you described my daughter - LOL - seriously what is wrong with this picture daughter a mess, messy bedroom , every room she was in i know she was there- i tell her all the time don't ever get into crime cause you'll get caught quickly :)... my son so neat it hurts really - he doesn't use a napkin that i place next to his dish when we eat a meal - every single time and never stains his clothes - we have an ongoing joke about that - :)

    i have no idea how to get oil stains out after the clothes are washed and dried - but there quite a few suggestion - always good to know

    sorry baout that ...all that effort too:(

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    1. I don't know how she comes out of that room looking so good. At least I have learned from everyone's comments so far that my daughter is not the only one who is like that!

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  8. Your daughter could be my son's twin. His room was a nightmare when he was a teenager, most of the time you couldn't see the floor for all the stuff that was on it - and he's not much better now he's an adult!

    Sorry the stain removing tip didn't work - it may have been easier just to buy a new sweatshirt. Here in the UK there's a product called Vanish, it's a powder you mix into a paste and rub into the stain, then put a bit more in machine when you wash the garment. I was very sceptical about it at first but my friend gave me some when I got dark brown permanent hair dye all down the sleeve of my best white tracksuit top - and it got every single bit of the stain out so I was well happy :)

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    1. You literally cannot see her bedroom floor right now.
      Since she only wears the sweatshirt around the house, I figured it wouldn't hurt to experiment on it. I may try some of the other suggestions and see if I can get any of the spots out rather than adding more like the WD-40 did!

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  9. Ohhh NOOOOOO! Thank goodness it's only a slobby home-wearing sweatshirt! Maybe the scent of WD40 will motivate her to put things in the laundry next time?

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    1. She doesn't even care that it has a stain on it. At least it stays at home! Waiting to see if she can smell the WD40

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  10. Strategically placed brooches perhaps?

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