8 Surprising Stain Removers

From readersdigest.comUpdated: Mar. 20, 2019

Stuck with a stubborn stain that won’t come out? Try these common household items to remove some of your worst stains.

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1. Artificial Sweetener

If you are out to dinner at a restaurant, or even if grease splatters on you while you are cooking, use artificial sweetener immediately to blot the stain. The fine powder will absorb the oil. You may have to keep blotting and using more sweetener, but it really works! And artificial sweetener is always handy at any eatery.

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2. Milk

To remove ink stains from colored clothes, an overnight milk bath will often do the trick. Just soak the affected garment in milk overnight and launder as usual the next day.

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3. Shampoo

Got ring around the collar? Cheap hair shampoo will break down body oils and act as a detergent.

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4. Hair Spray

Your toddler just went wild with a ballpoint pen on your new white shirt. Squirt the stain with hair spray and the pen marks should come right off.

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5. Toothpaste

Oh no, a pen opened up in the pocket of your favourite shirt! This may or may not work, depending on the fabric and the ink, but it is certainly worth a try before consigning the shirt to the scrap bin. Put non-gel toothpaste on the stain and rub the fabric vigorously together. Rinse with water. Did some of the ink come out? Great! Repeat the process a few more times until you get rid of all the ink. The same process works for lipstick.

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6. Bread

Tear out the doughy center of white bread and knead it into a ball, then blot the smear repeatedly with the dough until the stain lifts from the fabric. Now wash the garment. The dough ball is also safe to use on lipstick marks on dry-clean only wool clothing

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7. Shaving Cream

Take a can of non-gel shaving cream and spray it onto any tomato-sauce stain, rub it in gently and let it dry before washing as normal.

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8. Cola

It can all-too-easily happen: you’re near the end of a bike ride when your front wheel hits a pothole, sending you and the bike clattering to the ground. Hopefully, all that’s hurt is your pride and a bleeding elbow, which manages to leave bloodstains all over your clothes. It seems ridiculous, but soaking bloodstains overnight in cola removes them. Try it, it may sound insane, but it actually works!

Originally Published: November 08, 2011