Have you found yourself in the sticky position of trying to get old cooking oil stains out of your favourite pieces of clothing? Cooking oil can be particularly nasty when it comes to stains, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be an impossible task. Luckily, we’ve outlined several different methods today that can help get those cooking oil stains out from your clothes; hopefully, this might help you find the optimal solution for your own cleaning needs.
Is it Possible to Get Cooking Oil Out of Clothing?
Before we go any further, we need to consider a key question: is it possible to get cooking oil stains out of clothing in the first place? Absolutely.
The severity of the stain and the amount of elbow grease you need to use to get cooking oil stains out will usually depend on two factors. These include the size and shape of the stain, and how long it’s been left. Certain material types may also be harder to remove stains from; for example, wool clothes may often be harder to stain than other materials such as cotton due to the natural lanolin content.
With that being said, in the vast majority of cases, a cooking oil stain shouldn’t mean the end of the line for your favourite clothes. And luckily, we’ve outlined a few essential tricks and ideas you should know as follows to help make this decision a little easier.
How to Get Cooking Oil Out of Clothing
If your favourite clothes have been splashed by cooking oil, we recommend jumping into action immediately to try and remove the stains. The following five methods may help in this regard. Clean with Tissue Immediately
1. Clean with Tissue Immediately
One of the first tips we can give is to clean away any excess cooking oil immediately after the spillage. A spoon can be good to remove larger quantities; if there’s not as much excess, tissues will also do a good job. Don’t let the stain get any bigger than it already is!
2. Sprinkle with Bicarbonate of Soda
As soon as possible after the spillage has occurred, apply a generous amount of bicarbonate soda over the area, and rub it in well. You may notice the bicarbonate of soda beginning to clump up; that’s a great sign since it means that the bicarb is drawing out a little of the oil from your clothes. This probably won’t fully remove the stain alone, but it’s a great way to tackle fresh stains and make the stain less severe.
Before continuing to the next step, brush as much of the bicarbonate of soda off as possible. Don’t worry if a little is left behind, as it’ll dissolve once you wash the garment.
3. Scrub with Detergent
If your choice of clothing is safe for use with detergent cleaners (always check this before continuing!), a generous dose of detergent over the stain can work wonders. Apply the detergent neat, and then scrub it in with a damp sponge or the soft side of a scourer. You should begin to notice that a lot of the cooking oil starts coming off at this stage.
4. Optional: Leave to Rest
If you want to help the detergent work its magic, best of all, leaving the garment with the lathered-up detergent mixture still applied for around five to ten minutes may help. Then, simply rinse the garment in cold water to remove the detergent, and you’ll hopefully notice that most of the stain has gone (especially if you already applied bicarbonate of soda to the garment, too).
5. Wash as Normal
Finally, all that’s left to do is wash your garment as normal in your choice of washing machine, ideally with a stain-removing washing detergent. Then, leave your clothes to naturally air dry with a rotary washing line or washing line rope outside; this will help give your new garment the freshest finish possible, so you don’t have to worry about any cooking oil smells lingering in your wardrobe.
Final Thoughts
Cooking oil stains can be stubborn, but it’s important to use plenty of soap if you want to get them out easily. Indeed, oils are fat-soluble, which means water alone simply won’t shift them. Still, you can find the optimal solutions for your own cleaning needs with a little planning – and we hope today’s five suggestions will have given you some idea of where to start.