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FeedFrugal Living: Homemade Stain Remover
Posted: 04/05/11 3:00 PM (Modified: 04/05/11 3:00 PM)
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On of our Money Saving Contributors, Jenny from The Peaceful Housewife, is here to bring us the latest in frugal, homemade cleaning products. I know, you're loving her posts so let's get started with this week's Homemade Stain Remover:
Even with the best laundry detergent, tough stains are inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that you have to fork over big bucks or invite harsh chemicals into your home to rid your laundry of your kids’ latest art projects or leftover dinner.
I have two solutions for tough laundry stains for you today, both of which are far less toxic than most commercial stain treatments and are easily made using common items that most people have in their houses.
Stain Treating Gel
Save leftover pieces of soap bars and throw them in an old jelly jar. This is a great use for those last little slivers that aren’t quite big enough to use or those hotel bars of soap. Once the jar is about half full of soap bits, pour boiling water over them and stir them up until they’re melted. It will make this jelly-like paste that you can just rub on stains before washing.
Liquid Stain Treater
Mix 1 cup of hot water with 1/2 cup of baking soda. When baking soda has dissolved, mix in 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide. Store in a spray container and use as a pre-treater for any heavily soiled or stained items.
These two treatments can be used together – there is no risk of a chemical reaction.
Bonus thrifty points to you if you use old, empty spray bottles and jars. You’ll be saving yourself even more money while doing your part to cut down on waste.
A few bonus tips for this week:
· Straight hydrogen peroxide will remove blood from fabrics.
· Use cold water to rinse out stains; hot water will set the stain in.
· Straight vinegar can be very helpful in removing oil-based stains.
· Dish soap is also great for removing oil-based stains or deodorant stains. Use 1 part dish soap to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide. For really tough stains, you can rinse and then apply a paste of baking soda and water and scrub gently with a toothbrush.
Check out The Peaceful Housewife for more tips and natural cleaning products!
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My husband uses H2O2 for everything. Good results on stains and also as a mouth wash to keep gum disease in check. Just uses it to rinse after brushing. Also 2 parts H2O plus 2 parts H2O2 used as a gargle cures a sore throat.
I tried the liquid stain remover recipe, but couldn't get a half cup of baking soda to dissolve in a cup of water. First I tried with warm water, then with hottest I could get from the tap, and finally on the stove with the water at a near boil, and adding the baking soda gradually. Even after increasing the water to a cup and a half, the baking soda wouldn't all dissolve, some still remained in the bottom like sediment. In a spray bottle, it would risk clogging the tube. This makes me wonder if there's a misprint in the recipe, or if the recipe has actually been tested as written.
i know you have to be careful with the liquid stain remover. if you don't use the whole sotution then the hydrogren breaks down and will not be as effective in getting the stain out. also i have 1/0 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup peroxide, in the washer. i let it agitate for a while then opened the lid and let it set for about 2 hours then let it go through the rest of the cycle. i got this receipe from onegoodthingbyjillee.com and i like it very much.
I just tried the liquid receipe and had the same issues with the baking soda. My other option was to use it anyway and just shake the bottle before hand...but who knows how many times I get to do that until it explodes on me. I wonder if there is any other way to keep the baking soda from seperating...I would really love to turn my whole house into homemade cleaning products but this one is not working out like planned...
So I was looking at this Chemistry website and in a forum there was a post saying that only 1 1/8 cups of baking soda will truly dissolve to every 1 gallon of water. So for the sake of the stain remover looking normal and liquid-like, I wonder if there would be the same stain removing result if you drastically cut back on the amount of baking soda (for those that are worried about clogging the line of their spray bottle).