I’ve tried a lot of different products to remove stains in clothing and linens. I’ll get enticed by some snazzy packaging or marketing, try the product, and then will be disappointed. The container that is still full of product then gets donated to the Hazardous Waste center for their reuse area. The best laundry stain removal product was already in my laundry cabinet!
What works the best for me, especially on greasy looking laundry stains, is Dawn Dishwashing Liquid. The grease cutting agents in the Dawn dish soap are great at removing oils and animal fat that create stains that can be very hard to get out of your clothing. It is equally good at getting oils spots out of my nice Turkish cotton kitchen towels. As long as your fabric item is colorfast, Dawn Liquid is safe to use. Be sure not to use this method on clothing that needs to be dry cleaned, or on any article of fabric that has not ever been washed before.
In fact, I have tried getting stains out with one of the super easy to use spray products, only to see that the spot is still there after cleaning and drying the clothing. I then have used the method I describe below, using the Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, and the spot will disappear. I now just save myself the second washing and I always use Dawn first.
How to Use Dawn Dishwashing Liquid for Stain Removal
In this real life example, I spilled some spicy buttermilk dressing on one of my favorite sweaters. So the stain had milk products, vegetable oils and dark red chili powder in the spill.
Here is my favorite green sweater with the stain. You can see how the oil has penetrated into the fabric.
I added two safety pins on either side of the stain so we can watch the progress of stain removal.
Dribble some Dawn Dishwashing Liquid soap on the stain. You don’t need much.
Notice from the picture at the top of this article that I tend to use the non-concentrated version of Dawn liquid because I think it disperses into the fabric better than the super concentrated kind.
Scrub the Dawn soap into the stain. You want the liquid soap to penetrate the fibers of the fabric.
If you are using concentrated Dawn liquid, you can add a drop of two of water to help it soak in.
Now just wash your clothing article normally with the rest of the laundry load.
All done! Laundry stain removal is complete!
Other Laundry Stain Removal Tips
These simple steps can also help with successful stain removal:
- Deal with the stain right away, instead of tossing it in the laundry basket.
- If I know that something is stained, and I was too lazy to deal with it, I at least tie the arms or legs of the garment together to remind me I have a spot to treat before I wash it. 😉
- Rinse the stain with cold water FROM THE BACK of the fabric. In other words, wash it away instead of into the fabric.
- If a stain has already dried into the fabric, letting the Dawn Dishwashing Liquid soak into the stain for about 20 minutes before washing can help.
The truth is, I didn’t do any of these things for my Green sweater and the spot still came out. But a little extra care can make the difference on some spots, especially if it is something harder to get out, such as red wine or coffee.
Product Mentioned in this Article
This link takes you to the non-concentrated version of Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, which is the product I used in my laundry stain removal article. If you decide to pick another Dawn Dishwashing Liquid product, those will also work, but you may want to add a little water in your process.
You may notice that the bottle of Dawn Dishwashing Liquid in my own pictures looks a lot older than the pictures online. The product is the same, but laundry stain removal just doesn’t use a lot of it. That makes this method super economical, and more friendly for the earth as compared to a bunch of plastic spray bottles.
Other Product Review Articles
You may also be interested in reading about other uses for Dawn Dishwashing products:
