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Homemade Laundry Stain Pretreater Recipes
Frugal Laundry Soap – Pretreater
Save pieces and leftover slivers of bar soaps and collect in a jar. Those little hotel soaps are ideal for this too (cut them down to small pieces).
When jar is filled half way with soap chunks, add boiling water. Mix soap bits and water until soap is melted.
Once cooled this will make a soap jelly. Use to pretreat laundry.
*Handy to gob onto stained items and toss back into the dirty laundry bag for pieces that you can’t wash right away.
Quick Tip: I’ve also used just straight liquid dish detergent successfully. Squirt a bit onto stain, rub in gently with your fingers, then toss the garment in the laundry pile to be washed later. This is an especially easy one since you can apply the soap as soon as you notice the stain and leave the garment sit until laundry day.
Homemade Laundry Stain Removers
Recipe #1
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide
Directions:
- Mix ingredients then store in spray bottles. Spot treat stains then soak overnight.
Recipe #2
2 quarts water
1/2 cup ammonia
2 TBS laundry detergent
Directions:
- Mix ingredients then store in spray bottles. Spot treat stains then soak overnight.
- Do not use with bleach.
Updated: Many of these recipes were previously published here on Tipnut and combined into this single post for convenience, all bookmarks will automatically forward here. The comments below are timestamped earlier than the post date since they have been moved here so they won’t be lost.
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I’m a big fan of spot removal books. A solution I’ve found for just about every fabric and problem is a squirt of dish washing liquid, along with a spill of white vinegar in a gallon of warm water. The enzymes in the dish detergent help break down a number of things, and the white vinegar boosts the process.
Sounds very effective with those ingredients, thanks very much for that info Sheryllyn
.
Be Careful! Liquid detergent (FOR washing machines, not for hand washing dishes) contains bleach and WILL bleach your colored clothes.
that is so cool!
I like the homemade pre treatment of equal parts water, ammonia, and dish soap. It gets out almost everything!
Sometimes if my grand daughters shirts are dried with pasta sauce I have to soak it in Oxi-Clean first but otherwise this combo gets out kool-aid, grease, mustard, I have had great success
Please, note that mixing ammonia with chlorite (that many laundry detergents and dishwashing machines have) gives very harmful gas!
Thank you all for sharing your recipes!
To remove berry stains:
1. Boil about a quart of water over high heat.
2. Place stained garment in sink.
3. Pour boiling water over berry stain.
4. Watch the stain dissolve.
5. To remove blackberry or blueberry stains, apply powder stain remover that has been rendered into a paste. Apply the paste on the stain and rub. Rinse in the hottest water safe for the fabric. Also try bleach alternative detergent. Apply directly on stain. Let sit then rub. Rinse. Repeat until stain is gone.
Tips:
* This works best if you move quickly. Apply the boiling water as soon as possible after the garment becomes stained.
* It is possible that this method will not work with all berries, however, it generally works with most red staining fruits.
* You can also use dish liquid along with the boiling water!
Another good use for those little bath soap pieces that are no longer big enough to use.
Make a little bag out of common nylon net. The nylon net can be purchased for very little at any fabric department or store.
Put a handful of little soap pieces in it and tie it off, sew it up, or secure with an elastic band.
Not only will it contain your soap chips,
but it acts as a nice little exfoliant scrubber. You can use it at the sink for
handwashing, or in the shower for an extension of the life of your soap.
I use a version of recipe #1. Straight hydrogen peroxide works wonders as well. It’s especially good on set in tea and coffee stains on my rug.
IHAVE BEEN USING THIS RECIPE FOR YEARS AND IT WORKS WELL.
1/2 CUP WHITE VINEGAR
1/2 CUP AMMONIA
1/2 CUP LIQUID DETERGENT
1/2 CUP WATER
PUT ALL INGREDIENTS IN A SPRAY BOTTLE AND USE AS NEEDED.
Is this laundry detergent or dish detergent??
Thanks,
Sherri
Sherri it looks like a laundry stain treatment to me.
To get grape juice stains out of clothes, rub with salt and water or add salt to the wash.
For those worried about using Borax or Washing Soda on diapers, don’t be. My children on in their mid to late 40’s and that’s what I used to soak their cloth diapers in before washing them to remove stains and it did it’s job very well.
It’s also the reason your homemade laundry detergent works so well, it’s an excellent laundry booster. Fels Naptha & Castile soaps have been around since before the turn of the last century so you know they work well too.
Anyone worried about no suds, don’t be, suds don’t do the cleaning it’s for looks only.