Spring Cleaning: The Art of Stain Removal Part 1

Summary

The Wirecutter Show: "Spring Cleaning: The Art of Stain Removal Part 1" Summary

Release Date: March 19, 2025

Introduction

In the inaugural episode of their two-part series on stain removal, The Wirecutter Show delves deep into the often frustrating world of laundry stains. Building on their previous discussion about general laundry tips, co-hosts Christine Cyr Clisset and Kyra Blackwell, along with producer Rosie Guerin, welcomed back Andrea Barnes, a senior staff writer and laundry expert from Wirecutter. Their mission: to equip listeners with actionable strategies to tackle the toughest stains.

Common Mistakes in Stain Removal

The conversation kicks off with Rosie identifying the most prevalent error people make when addressing stains: using inadequate laundry detergents.

[04:14] Rosie: "I would say the biggest mistake by far is not using a good laundry detergent. And when I say that, I mean pretty much any of the big brands that you would see at the grocery store."

Christine probes further, questioning the efficacy of eco-friendly and organic detergents compared to mainstream brands. Rosie clarifies that many "hippie, dippy, organic type detergents" contain allergenic preservatives and synthetic fragrances, which can hinder stain removal effectiveness. Additionally, smaller detergent brands often lack access to high-quality enzymes essential for breaking down stains.

[05:04] Rosie: "A lot of them have preservative that's allergenic in them. A lot of them have fragrance... they're not necessarily getting the best enzymes to put in the detergent."

Understanding Stains and Their Types

Andrea Barnes emphasizes the importance of identifying the type of stain before selecting a removal method. Stains can broadly be categorized into three types:

1. Fat and Oil Stains (e.g., butter, grease, cooking oil)
2. Protein and Starch Stains (e.g., dairy, eggs, chocolate, baby food)
3. Dye and Pigment Stains (e.g., wine, coffee, berry sauces)

[07:02] Rosie: "The first is to actually identify the stain... once you figure out what it is, there might be a completely different way that you're gonna solve the problem."

Effective Stain Removal Techniques

1. Fat and Oil Stains

• Solution: Use liquid laundry detergent with warm water.
• Method: Pre-treat the stain by rubbing liquid detergent into it and let it sit. Wash in warm water to emulsify the oil, making it easier to remove.

[09:27] Rosie: "For fat and oil stains... you want to use a liquid laundry detergent with warm water."

2. Protein and Starch Stains

• Solution: Utilize liquid laundry detergent or enzyme-based stain removers like Zout with cold water.
• Method: Apply the detergent directly to the stain and wash in cold water to prevent setting.

[10:12] Rosie: "For protein stains... use liquid laundry detergent or something like Zout, which is a stain remover with enzymes in it."

3. Dye and Pigment Stains

• Solution: Employ oxygen bleach, such as Tide Ultra Oxy, in cold water.
• Method: Soak the garment in an oxygen bleach solution to break down the pigment without altering the fabric.

[09:17] Christine: "If it's a dye or pigment... that's when you're going to want to use oxygen bleach on cold water."

The Critical Mistake: Delayed Treatment

Rosie highlights another significant misstep: not addressing stains promptly. Fresh stains, like blood, can often be removed effectively with cold water, but delays allow stains to set, making removal challenging.

[05:50] Rosie: "The biggest mistake people make... is that they don't do it right away."

Listener Questions and Expert Advice

The episode transitions into an engaging Q&A segment where Andrea tackles various listener-submitted stain dilemmas.

1. Yellow Sweat Stains on White Bedding

• Listener Concern: Persistent yellow stains resistant to bleach and OxiClean.
• Advice: Pre-treat with a paste of enzymatic powder detergent (e.g., Tide Ultra Oxy) and water. Allow it to sit for about five minutes before washing in warm water.

[13:21] Rosie: "I would pre treat with a paste of enzymatic powder detergent and water."

2. Brownish-Gray Hue on White Ribbed Tank Tops

• Listener Concern: Difficulty restoring bright white color.
• Advice: Soak the garments in a combination of oxygen bleach and powder detergent (e.g., Tide Ultra Oxy) for up to six hours. Avoid over-soaking to prevent fabric damage.

[15:46] Rosie: "Use products with oxygen bleach and soak... best results with soaking for six hours."

3. Sunscreen Stains on Athletic Clothes

• Listener Concern: Persistent yellowish-pink stains from sunscreen.
• Advice: Utilize oxygen bleach effectively by ensuring it's fully dissolved in hot water before soaking. Alternatively, Tide Ultra Oxy dissolves in cold water, simplifying the process.

[17:51] Rosie: "Make sure that the oxygen bleach is totally diluted... soak in a bucket properly."

4. Chapstick and Vaseline Oil Stains

• Listener Concern: Oil stains from lip products that remain after drying.
• Advice: Scrape off excess residue, pre-treat with liquid laundry detergent or dish soap, and wash in warm water. Repeat if necessary.

[20:44] Rosie: "Pre treat it with either really good dish soap or liquid laundry detergent."

5. Hot Sauce Stain on White Linen Pants

• Listener Concern: Persistent hot sauce stain despite multiple treatments.
• Advice: Apply liquid laundry detergent directly to the stain, allowing enzymes to break it down. Repeat the process as needed, preferably using a trusted brand like Tide Ultra Oxy.

[22:05] Rosie: "Pre treated with a good stain remover... it might take two tries."

6. Burned-In Vodka Gummy Stain on Jeans

• Listener Concern: Gummy stain baked into fabric from heat.
• Advice: Soak the area with a warm washcloth to loosen the stain, scrape off excess, and apply a specialized soap-based stain remover like Amodex for sugary residues.

[31:21] Rosie: "Use Amodex because it's great for sugary dessert stains."

7. Butter and Cooking Oil Stains on Holiday Dress and Sweatshirts

• Listener Concern: Difficulty removing grease stains, sometimes only noticeable after drying.
• Advice: Pre-treat with liquid laundry detergent and allow it to sit. Wash in warm water to emulsify and remove the oil effectively.

[28:52] Rosie: "Pre-treat your oil stains with a liquid laundry detergent."

Recap and Key Takeaways

As the episode concludes, the hosts summarize the essential strategies for effective stain removal:

1. Identify the Stain Type: Recognize whether it's fat/oil, protein/starch, or dye/pigment.
2. Select the Appropriate Treatment: Use liquid laundry detergent for oils, enzyme-based removers for proteins, and oxygen bleach for pigments.
3. Pre-Treat Promptly: Address stains immediately to prevent them from setting.
4. Choose Quality Detergents: Opt for reputable brands with proven enzyme formulations like Tide Ultra Oxy.
5. Avoid Heat: Air dry stained garments to prevent stains from baking in, unless the method specifically requires it.

[35:14] Christine: "Think about what the stain is and what are the properties of that stain and choose a stain remover that kind of fits those properties."

Looking Ahead

Due to the overwhelming number of listener questions, The Wirecutter Show announced a continuation of the series:

[35:43] Kyra: "Detective Barnes is gonna be back on the case next week to solve all of your mysterious stain questions."

Listeners can anticipate more in-depth discussions and solutions to even more challenging stains in the upcoming episode.

Conclusion

"Spring Cleaning: The Art of Stain Removal Part 1" serves as an invaluable resource for anyone grappling with stubborn laundry stains. With expert insights from Andrea Barnes and practical advice from the hosts, listeners are empowered to tackle their laundry woes with confidence and effectiveness. For those eager to master the art of stain removal, this episode is an essential listen.

For further details and product recommendations mentioned in the episode, visit nytimes.com/wirecutter.

Transcript

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[Rosie]

I don't know what kids do. I think my daughter actually just like lays on top of pizza. What are you doing, girl? Same.

[Christine]

I'm Christine Cyrclassette.

[Kyra]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm Rosie Garant and you're listening to the Wirecutter show.

[Kyra]

This episode is called called the Art of Stain Removal Part one.

[Rosie Garant]

Hello, my friends.

[Rosie]

Hello.

[Kyra]

Hi.

[Rosie Garant]

Do you remember back in time, back in August, our first episode about laundry and all of the wonderful feedback that we got.

[Rosie]

Who could forget?

[Christine]

Who could forget?

[Rosie Garant]

A lot of questions, a lot of follow ups, one of which we probably need to set the record straight on, which is, yes, you do need to separate your whites and colors.

[Christine]

Unfortunately, I got a question about that.

[Rosie Garant]

Another thing, we got a lot of questions about stains and how to get stains out of clothes. So today we're doing the first part of a two part episode.

[Kyra]

Our first, we asked people to call in with their listener questions, telling us all their details about their worst stains, what happened and how they tried to get it out and hopefully see if Andrea can help solve their problem.

[Christine]

Frankly, I was kind of shocked by how many people called in. There were so many people with so many issues, lot of calls, lot of.

[Rosie Garant]

Questions, lot of people super frustrated about how to get stains out of their things.

[Kyra]

So because we're talking about laundry and specifically stains, we thought, of course we have to bring Andrea Barnes back to talk with us. So today that's exactly what we're going to do. Andrea is a senior staff writer and industry expert in all things laundry. She tests and writes about laundry detergent and stain removers. And she can often be found in the basement testing facility of our office with piles and piles of stained clothing. She's always testing washing machines and various detergents.

[Rosie Garant]

And when we let her up to see the light of day, she comes into the studio and hangs out with us.

[Christine]

Yes, I mean her, her family has been writing us letters asking her to be able to come home.

[Kyra]

But one day.

[Christine]

Okay, so after the break, Andrea is going to share her best stain fighting advice. Reveal the biggest mistakes people make when they're doing their laundry. And we're going to take some listener questions. We'll be right back.

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[Rosie]

This stuff that you may not have seen.

[Kyra]

The way the tabs are at the.

[Christine]

Top with all of the different sections.

[Rosie]

I can immediately navigate to something that matches what I'm feeling. Click portal or Connections and then swipe over to read today's headlines. There's an article next to a recipe next to games, and it's just easy.

[Christine]

To get everything in one place.

[Rosie]

This app is essential.

[Kyra]

The New York Times app, all of.

[Rosie]

The times, all in one place. Download it [e-mail] app.

[Christine]

Andrea, welcome back to the Wirecutter show.

[Rosie]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Christine]

We love having you here. Clearly we love it. Yes. You're our first guest to come on three times.

[Rosie]

Wow.

[Christine]

And of course, the first episode you came on was our first ever episode about laundry.

[Andrea]

Yep.

[Christine]

And this episode is really going to be a follow up on that, which really covered the basics of laundry. But we didn't get to kind of dive in to, I think what is the biggest challenge for most people, and that is stains. Hard to remove stains. Right. I mean, I think all of us can relate to that. So I want to know what do you think is the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to removing stains?

[Rosie]

I would say the biggest mistake by far is not using a good laundry detergent. And when I say that, I mean pretty much any of the big brands that you would see at the grocery store.

[Christine]

So those are all considered like high quality, good detergents.

[Rosie]

Most of them are really great. Yeah.

[Christine]

What about, like, I don't want to be picking on any brands, but what about all of the sort of like hippie, dippy, organic type type detergents?

[Kyra]

Eco friendly ones?

[Christine]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rosie]

So what's, what's funny about those is that a lot of them have preservative that's allergenic in them. A lot of them have fragrance. Maybe they're not the fragrance like you might see in something like Tide or Purcelpro, but there's still synthetic fragrances that people are avoiding. It's just that it might smell a little more natural. The other thing is if it does actually use a natural fragrance that also has a high potential to be allergenic.

[Rosie Garant]

So counterintuitive.

[Rosie]

Yeah. But the other thing is that a lot of times with smaller laundry detergent brands, they don't have the same relationships with enzyme producers and manufacturers. So they're not necessarily getting the best enzymes to put in the detergent. So that is obviously going to impact how stain removal happens. Right.

[Christine]

And just as a reminder from our first episode, we talked about how enzymes help remove stains, right? They help remove stains and odors, right?

[Rosie]

Yes, yes. Enzymes help break down the stain physically so that the soaps and surfactants can start washing them away.

[Christine]

Okay. And so if you have a good detergent, it will probably solve most of.

[Rosie]

Your problems for the most part. Yes. There's obviously gonna be exceptions to the rule.

[Rosie Garant]

Don't you think the biggest mistake people make when it comes to removing stains is that they don't do it right away?

[Rosie]

Yes. I mean, any, any.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm speaking about a friend.

[Rosie]

It has nothing to do with you. Yeah, yeah. Yes. But I do have to say I try to be really gentle about that because if somebody's coming to me about a stain that they have, odds are they did not do that. You know, I think we've all dealt with a really fresh blood stain. If you get to it quickly and use cold water, you don't actually have to do much more before you throw it in the wash. But if it's been sitting for even 20, 30 minutes, it gets harder. So. Yes, Rosie, but I do think that there's hope for you and for everyone else. I mean, not for you, for your friend.

[Rosie Garant]

You're so kind to meet people where they're at.

[Kyra]

It kind of sounds like it's all about having the right tool for the job. Right. So we're gonna get into some listener questions soon, but before we do, some people might already know how to get stains out. We talked a little bit about pre treating in our first episode with you, but I think a lot of people might not, or maybe they just never learned. So are there any universal rules to follow?

[Rosie]

Yeah, I would say so. So the first is to actually identify the stain. That's important because once you figure out what it is, there might be a completely different way that you're gonna solve the problem. So I like to look at what the color is. Sometimes it helps to think about maybe what I was doing that day or what I was eating or something like that. So then once you have the stain, you wanna either blot it or scrape it, depending on how fresh it is. If it's kinda old, usually you're gonna scrape it with like a butter knife and then from there you choose a stain remover. So you're basically dealing with oil and not oil type stains. And then depending on how severe it is, you wanna pre treat or soak it. Pre treating is literally just rubbing some of the detergent or stain remover into a stain. Sometimes that means making a paste with powder and water and then you're gonna wash it. The temperature will depend on what you're washing and air dry. And I'd say that's the most important thing when you're removing stains is to air dry.

[Kyra]

Oh.

[Rosie]

Because if you dry it in the dryer and not all the steam comes out, you're basically setting it.

[Kyra]

You're like baking it into your.

[Rosie]

Exactly.

[Rosie Garant]

Yikes.

[Kyra]

I didn't know that.

[Christine]

Even if you dry it on cool.

[Rosie]

Yeah. I would say don't mess with it.

[Christine]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay. That all seems simple enough. And actually my mind is kind of blown about the dryer thing. I think maybe the hard part is the third point. Picking a stain remover. Andrea, so how do you figure out which stain remover to use? Is this when we employ the shorthand we talked about, like, dissolves?

[Rosie]

Like, yes, to an extent. In general, stains respond to stain removers that are similar to them in nature, especially when we're talking about what I would call a topical stain, like food or dirt or something like that, or oil. Basically, you want to use a stain remover that's similar. So one of the reasons that something like dawn soap or liquid laundry detergent is so good for oil stains is because they behave the same way. And it basically makes it possible for the oil to be lifted from the garment that you're washing. Otherwise it is going to come down to if the fabric has physically changed. Like if you have a tea stain, which would be almost like you dyed your clothes, you're going to want to use a bleach.

[Christine]

Andrea, is there a simplified cheat sheet? If someone is trying to, you know, remember how to remove a stain, how would you simplify it to its bare essence?

[Rosie]

So for a very simplified cheat sheet, I would say fat and oil stains. So butter, grease, cooking oil, you want to use a liquid laundry detergent with warm water. How you treat the stain is going to depend on how severe it is. For protein stains and starches, I would use liquid laundry detergent or something like Zout, which is a stain remover with enzymes in it and cold water. And then for dyes and pigments, you're really going to lean on oxygen bleach. And most likely you could wash it in cold water. For some stains, you might use warm water to get a little bit more stain removing. But we found in testing that's not always required.

[Rosie Garant]

So can you elaborate on a Protein stain, sure.

[Rosie]

So a protein stain would be something like dairy, eggs, blood, or, you know, more organic body stains, so to speak. And then starches are going to be foods oftentimes. Right. So we're talking sugars, chocolates. Baby food is one that tends to be starchy, like sweet potatoes or something like that. Although most stains that are really challenged by are what I would call combination stains. And that's why so many people think, oh, I can't get this stain out. It's not that you can't. It's that you're probably gonna have to do multiple things to remove it. And it might end up being that you have to end an oxygen bleach, because what you have left is something that physically, maybe you'll remove all the grease and you'll remove the proteins, but there's still something that dyed the stain left. Like a good example would be like a berry sauce. Right? You might be able to get the physical seeds off, you might be able to the sugar out, but the berry itself might still stain. Leave a stain. So then you'd have to go back and use oxygen bleach.

[Kyra]

Like Oxiclean.

[Rosie]

Yeah, you could use Oxiclean. Um, we tested it. We didn't like it as much as Tide Ultra Oxy, which is a powder detergent with oxygen bleach in it, which you can use cold water, actually. And. And we thought it worked really well.

[Christine]

Okay, so I just wanna take a minute, Andrea, to sort of recap what we've already talked about, because I think we've already kind of. There's a lot of information here. So if we're thinking about a simplified cheat sheet of how to get out different stains, you can kind of just break it down into some. Some very simple rules. You will use liquid detergent and warm water for fat and oil stains. You'll also use liquid detergent and then cold water for most other types of foods. So that includes proteins and starches and such. And then for when you've got something like a pigment or a tannin or a dye, something that has really changed the color of the fabric, that's when you want to use oxygen bleach.

[Kyra]

All right, well, I think we've covered some of the basics. Now we want to get to the fun part, which is the listener questions. So, Andrea, we're putting you in the hot seat today. Our listeners sent us their toughest stain questions, and there are some doozies in here. So we don't expect you to solve everybody's stain problem, but maybe, hopefully you'll solve some of them.

[Rosie Garant]

Let's get into it. We're going to start with Kate from New York City.

[Listener]

Hey, wirecutter team. I have a stain problem that I think every couple suffers from. One person is always a human furnace. And that means we have a lot of gross yellow stains on our all white bedding. I've tried bleach. I've tried soaking in oxiclean for long periods of time. And so far our bedding is not bright weight. And we have the added problem of the oxy mixing with the black rubber plug in our bathtub drain.

[Andrea]

And now we have black stains as.

[Listener]

Well on our bedding. Thank you so much.

[Kyra]

I really resonate with this one on the human furnace.

[Rosie Garant]

Damn. Time to build combo stains.

[Rosie]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

Seriously going on.

[Rosie]

I remember being told by one of the stain removing specialists that I've spoken with that a lot of times yellow sweat stains are a reaction to deodorant. So just for what it's worth, it might be worth trying a different deodorant. But my answer to this would be pre treating with a paste of enzymatic powder detergent and water.

[Christine]

And what do you mean by that? Enzymatic powder detergent.

[Rosie]

Any good powder detergent that you would find in a regular like Target or wherever powder detergent is getting harder to find, you might have to buy it online. But I would say it could be regular Tide powder detergent or Tide Ultra Oxy. One that we are currently testing that I've been able to easily find in stores is Ariel, which is also powder detergent, though it's very heavily scented. So I would take about maybe an eighth of a cup of powder detergent, add, you know, a tablespoon of water at a time until you get a good paste. And then I would pre treat whatever yellow stains you have with it.

[Rosie Garant]

Keep that on for how long?

[Rosie]

Depends on how severe the stain is. But I would say start with five minutes.

[Rosie Garant]

Oh, okay.

[Rosie]

Yeah. And then this is one of the times I'm gonna tell you to wash in warm water if you can. I wouldn't always say that that can help with whitening. So I would say maybe try that. So I would pre treat it and then I would just put it in the washing machine and see what happens.

[Rosie Garant]

Instead of the bathtub.

[Rosie]

Well, yeah. Cause if soaking in OxiClean's not making a difference, I think it needs like a direct paste application. Yeah.

[Kyra]

And what about that black rubber stain that they've got from the tub?

[Rosie]

Now I'm gonna go with liquid laundry detergent. Pre Treating for that one. So. Yeah.

[Kyra]

And how long do you let that sit?

[Rosie]

I would say again, five minutes. But most of the time, if you're pre treating before you're doing the laundry. Right. By the time you've pre treated and put it in the drum and everything else is in there, that should be enough time.

[Christine]

So now it's time for our next listener problem. This one I'm just gonna paraphrase. This is Julie in Los Angeles, and Julie has another whitening question. She has these tank tops, these white ribbed tank tops that have developed a brownish gray hue, and she's trying to figure out how to get them back to bright white. Andrea, what would you advise?

[Rosie]

So it's going to depend on the type of fabric, but we had good luck using products with oxygen bleach and soaking. In our case, the best results were when we Tide Ultra Oxy, which is a combination of powder detergent with extra oxygen bleach. But you could also try doing this with any mix of oxygen bleach and a detergent of your choice. In testing, we had the best results with soaking for six hours. I wouldn't go more than that if you can avoid it, because then you run the risk of letting something soak for too long and forgetting about it. And that's when you can maybe start to see, well, this is first. I don't know what color the actual clothes are. Did she say they're white? All right, nevermind. Sorry.

[Kyra]

Well, now I want to know what happens if you soak for too long.

[Rosie]

If something has been dyed and you soak it for too long, you run the risk of the dye, like, releasing too much.

[Kyra]

Oh, okay.

[Rosie]

But you'd have to let it go for a little bit.

[Christine]

This is my moment to admit something I already told Andrea, which is after our first laundry episode. I got very excited about all of the advice, and I got the Tide Ultra Oxy and I made a paste and put it on all my husband's shirts and all the white shirts. It got all the stains out, but I completely bleached his favorite dark blue shirt because I left it on there for, like, three days.

[Rosie Garant]

Oops.

[Rosie]

Oops. It happens.

[Rosie Garant]

Well, let's get to another voice message. This is from DOI in Madison, Wisconsin. Let's take a listen.

[New York Times Ad]

I'm calling about the stains that I have on my athletic clothes, especially the white ones. And I think these stains were created from the sunscreen that was transferred from my skin to the clothes. And maybe I didn't properly remove the sunscreen before I washed. And Dried them, but now they are just these yellowish pink stain that never go away. So I tried Oxaclean, all different types of stain removers, pre treatment. And I've tried all different types of tips and advice that I got from the Internet, but nothing has worked so far.

[Rosie]

Okay. So we have actually cleaned these stains before from sunscreen and I don't know for sure, but I suspect that they are caused by heat either in the washing machine or in the dryer. What worked for us was again, oxygen bleach. And I know that he mentioned that he tried Oxiclean. This is when it gets complicated because one, there are multiple Oxicleans on the market, so I can't say for sure which one he used. But the other thing is a lot of people, they say they used Oxiclean, they throw it in the washing machine machine and with their regular wash and then they're surprised when stains don't come out. It's because they're not actually using it properly. So if you're going to use an oxygen bleach to get a stain out, you really need to make sure that the oxygen bleach is totally diluted. So it needs to be in hot water and you want to kind of shake it around and stir it and make sure that the oxygen bleach granules have been dissolved and then you can add it to a larger bucket or basin for soaking.

[Rosie Garant]

So you're literally taking the oxygen bleach, pouring it in like a bowl or whatever and mixing it so that everything is properly dissolved and then taking the, you know, the stuff that's been dissolved and pouring that into a larger bucket.

[Rosie]

Yeah. Where then you, where then you soak? Yes.

[Rosie Garant]

Oh my God.

[Rosie]

I know. Well, this is why we love Tide Ultra Oxy in testing because you don't have to do any of that. It dissolves in cold water. So you. I do think that's a big part of how it's so effective. The same idea, but just directly into the bucket and stir it.

[Rosie Garant]

Got it.

[Rosie]

Yeah.

[Christine]

Okay. So it sounds like oxygen bleach on its own or mixed in. Laundry detergent is really the best option when it comes to all types of whitening. Sometimes you'll want to use a paste and apply that directly to the fabric. And sometimes you're going to want to soak your garments in a oxygen bleach sort of mixture, but you want to make sure that the powder has fully dissolved and you do not want to soak or pre treat for too long or you will end up with my issue where you like, maybe destroy a piece of clothing.

[Kyra]

Well, Andrea, I think you're actually going to like this next one because it's very relatable. This is a question we got from Patrick in New York City. So let's hear.

[Listener]

I seem to be fighting a perpetual battle with leaving chapstick or Vaseline in my pockets and then putting it in the laundry and getting oil stains on my clothes during the dryer cycle. I feel like I remember reading years ago that these oil stains are impossible to get out. And so I feel like I just proudly wear my stains. If I get them or if they're too bad, I just throw the clothes away. Is there a way to deal with these or am I screwed?

[Kyra]

Is it a lost clause?

[Rosie]

No. I mean, if you can get lipstick stains out, you can get chapstick stains out.

[Rosie Garant]

I don't think my wife does a load of laundry without leaving a chapstick. It's like a little. It's like a little treat.

[Rosie]

This is a combo stain because you have some sort of grease and a wax. So the first thing I would do when you remove a garment and you have these stains on it, I would one, if there is any chapstick residue left, I would scrape it off if I can, and then I would pre treat it with either really good dish soap or liquid laundry detergent. Because you're really. We're still talking about oil stains here, right? So again, we go back to, like, dissolves. Like, really, this is gonna be the best thing. I can't tell you how many people have come to me asking me how to get grease stains out and have started pre treating with liquid laundry detergent or soaking in warm water and liquid laundry detergent, and the stains go away. It might take one or two tries, but it works. And I would say this is the same kind of stain, and we've tested it, and it works.

[Christine]

Oh, and should that. Will that work on wax also?

[Rosie]

Yeah, well, the waxes should be pretty easily removed just with water. Okay, so.

[Christine]

All right, let's take another listener question. This one comes from Emily in Boston.

[Andrea]

I have been waiting for an episode of the Wire Cutter show like this because this past summer, I spilled hot sauce across my favorite white linen pants, and I haven't been able to get the stain out. I have tried dawn dish soap, which my mother swears by. I have tried baking soda. I have tried vinegar. I've washed the pants innumerable times, but I've never dried them. I think the only thing I haven't tried is bleaching. Them. Am I too late? Are the pants ruined? Any advice would be really helpful.

[Rosie Garant]

Can I start by saying Emily's very brave? Because I feel like you either can be a person who uses hot sauce or a person who wears white pants. I don't actually think that you can.

[Rosie]

Physically be both, but you can apparently.

[Rosie Garant]

Apparently. So is she doomed, what happened here?

[Rosie]

No, she's not doomed at all. Admirable effort here with dish soap and vinegar and baking soda. But I would once again go with some sort of laundry stain removal product. I have a friend, incidentally, who spilled hot sauce on shorts that she washed multiple times and couldn't get it out. And then she went out and bought a good liquid laundry detergent and pre treated it and voila, it was gone. You know, after multiple washes. The reason liquid laundry detergent is so great for pre treating stains is because the enzymes in it break down the stain, which then make it possible for the same surfactants that are in something like dawn dish soap to actually go into the fabric. So I would try that first. It might take two tries. We have a stain remover guide. It might be the time to look through it. My first try would be a liquid laundry detergent for pre treating.

[Christine]

And the, and the one we recommend is Tide. Is it free and gentle?

[Rosie]

Tide Free and Gentle, yeah.

[Christine]

So you need to really be looking for one of these, like, kind of big players, right? Yeah, Tide Purcell. Like, you know, if you're using something like Mrs. Meyers, maybe it's not going to be the best choice. Right?

[Rosie]

Yeah. But you know, I totally understand wanting to not use one of the bigger brands with fragrance, which is partly why we recommend Tide Free and Gentle. But another brand that I think appeals to a lot of our readers is Dirty Labs. And that brand of laundry detergent is really interesting because it was actually. Well, one of the co founders comes from Big Laundry, so he like. Yeah, so he has a relationship with the enzyme manufacturers so he can get different enzymes that maybe like some of the smaller companies don't have access to. So if you really want to get a laundry detergent that's more niche, I would go with that brand. And you can pre treat with that one really easily. There's many detergents on the market that would work and we have a list of them that you could see.

[Christine]

We're going to take a quick break and when we're back, we're going to take some more challenging questions.

[Rosie Garant]

They're going to get harder.

[Christine]

They, they are. We're going to go beyond oxiclean I promise. We'll be right back.

[Kyra]

Welcome back. We're here with our laundry and stain expert, Andrea Barnes, taking listener questions.

[Rosie Garant]

So so far we've heard about stains from hot sauce, chapstick, sunscreen and more. We're going to get into another batch, see if we can stump Andrea. This one is from Sarah in New Jersey. Let's hear it.

[Listener]

I was visiting Istanbul, a city known for its stray cat population. And these cats are everywhere and they're so friendly. I was eating at a cafe with an outside table and one of the neighborhood cats jumped right into my lap. She spun around a few times and curled up in a purring ball for the rest of my meal. When she finally jumped down, I saw that she made black cat footprints all over my new white wide leg pants. I think it must have been tar or soot on her little toe beans because even after trying laundry soap, dish detergent, shout wipes and dawn power spray, the tiny black footprints are still on my pants. To top it off, I also spilled an oily hummus next to the footprints and it rained that afternoon, so the cuffs of the pants got muddy. The hummus in the mud mostly came out with laundry detergent, but the cat tracks remain and I'm left with not so white pants.

[Kyra]

Wow. I was going to say it's a fashion statement until the other stuff was.

[Rosie]

Added to the mix.

[Rosie Garant]

I don't think you can argue that hummus is. Is fashion.

[Rosie]

I also noticed it mostly came out the hummus in the mud.

[Rosie Garant]

So. Yeah, so there are some things at play here.

[Rosie]

Yeah. So I am going to guess based on all of the things that she tried that the black footprints are some sort of dirt and soot. In which case this is when I would first start with soaking in powder laundry detergent. And it doesn't have to have oxygen bleach in it. I would just use powder detergent because it's going to work itself into dirt and clay or soot stains more easily because the powder detergent behaves more like this, like soot. But after that is soaked, I would then pre treat with liquid laundry detergent. The other, the oil stains, anything else, and then I would wash it. So I would pre treat while the pants were still wet. My guess is that she's gonna have to do this two or three times if she wants those pants to be back to normal.

[Rosie Garant]

I was gonna say this seems like not a one and done type situation.

[Rosie]

No, not at all.

[Kyra]

And air dry every time.

[Rosie]

I would air dry every time. That said, I totally think she can get those out with some soaking and with a good powder, detergent and washing. And I would wash in cold first, and if it's still not coming out, I would then try warm water in case there's some oil left over.

[Christine]

All right, we've got another question about a very common stain. Let's listen to Katie from Takoma Park, Maryland.

[Listener]

My question is about getting butter and other cooking oils out of clothes. I realize your response might be that I just need to wear an apron, but I have ruined a holiday dress. I have ruined, like, sweatshirts that now I can only wear at home. I've thrown out a dress. I sometimes have found that using, like, grease, cutting dish soap helps, but it doesn't always work. And sometimes I also don't notice the stain until after I've washed and dried it, and then it's even harder to get out. So I would love your advice on that. Thanks.

[Rosie Garant]

Can I give Katie the advice? Can we test my knowledge?

[Christine]

What have you learned so far, Rosie?

[Rosie Garant]

What I've learned, Katie, is that, like, dissolves, like. So probably what you want to try is pre treating your oil stains with a liquid laundry detergent. A really good one.

[Rosie]

A.

[Christine]

And may I add, maybe do it a couple times.

[Rosie]

Right. And she might need to soak it.

[Rosie Garant]

She might need to soak it. Wash in warm.

[Rosie]

Yes. One of the rare times I'll tell you to.

[Rosie Garant]

Hell, yeah.

[Rosie]

Warm water's gonna emulsify the oil. Good job, Rosie. Thank you so much.

[Christine]

I've also done this with a sweatshirt. One of my kids, like, a dark blue sweatshirt that I thought, you know, how, like, the oil stains turn out darker on a colorful fabric. And I found that it worked, but I didn't work after the first try.

[Rosie]

So, yeah, it usually takes a couple tries. I don't know what kids do. I think my daughter actually just, like, lays on top of pizza. What are you doing, girl? Same.

[Kyra]

Okay, this is the last one, Andrea and I love this question, so let's hear it.

[Ad]

G'day. My name is Rory from Adelaide in Australia. The worst stain I ever got was actually during university when I went to a party. We were sitting around a fire eating vodka gummies, which, you know, a bit gooier than normal gummies. I didn't notice, but I dropped one on my jeans, and the fire kind of baked it into my jeans. When I got home, I just tried throwing it in the wash. But I also read somewhere that I should put it in the freezer and then when it's frozen to try and peel the gummy off. That didn't work, so I left it in the freezer. I wonder if I could have succeeded in getting that stain out.

[Kyra]

There's a lot going on.

[Rosie Garant]

There's so much going on that I love.

[Christine]

I didn't know that vodka gummies were a. Yeah, that's a thing.

[Rosie Garant]

We really just went on a ride.

[Rosie]

This is like jello with Rory, but better. So my guess is that the freezer trick didn't work because the gummy had already like really melted on and probably chemically changed a bit. But again, we're gonna. We're going back to combination stains here. What I would personally try is actually taking a washcloth and putting warm water on it and putting it on top of the gummy stain to see if you can loosen it up a little bit. And then from there, if that worked, I would then scrape what I could off the jeans and then I would pre treat with a good stain remover. So in this case, I might try Amodex because we had really a lot of luck with Amodex with sugary stains.

[Christine]

What is Amodex?

[Rosie]

It's a great question.

[Kyra]

Magic in a bottle.

[Rosie]

So Amodex is a laundry, a soap based stain remover. The formula is proprietary. It's owned by a small family in Connecticut. The actual stain remover is a very lotiony soap that is great for stain removal. It's really easy to work into stains and it's really good for. We found for sugary dessert stains and for inks.

[Christine]

And when you say it's a laundry soap versus a laundry detergent, I think people sometimes think they're the same thing. But what is essentially what's the difference?

[Rosie]

So in this case, it's truly a soap. So like you would wash your hands with.

[Christine]

Right.

[Rosie]

So detergent is basically synthetic soap. In the case of laundry detergent, you have a combination of enzymes and synthetic soap. This soap is a oil based like a hand soap or a bar soap that you would use. And it was actually invented to remove ink from hands as a hand soap.

[Kyra]

Oh.

[Rosie]

And then they realized it works really well on textiles.

[Christine]

Why have I not had this in my home forever? Because this is like ink on hands is like little hands.

[Rosie]

Yeah, we actually. I had a couple bottles, Shockingly, I had a couple bottles hanging around when my daughter had a tie dye party and a bunch of the kids didn't wear gloves and they used it to wash their hands and it worked really well.

[Christine]

So this issue with this burnt on gummy stuck on Rory's gummy, that got.

[Rosie Garant]

Fired onto some pants.

[Christine]

Sounds like a fun night.

[Rosie]

Yeah.

[Christine]

But I'm wondering, another common sticky, gross thing that sometimes happens is gum getting stuck on clothing. Would you use like a similar approach? I think. Oh, a gum. You have gum stuck on clothing, you stick it in the freezer and then maybe scrape it off. But what would you advise?

[Rosie]

I mean, you could definitely do that. I think the reason the vodka gummy didn't work is because it also burned on. So like I don't, I don't know.

[Rosie Garant]

So for the same reason you have to be careful about drying things is like when that heat gets in place.

[Rosie]

Exactly.

[Rosie Garant]

You're going to burn it right on.

[Rosie]

For gum, I would try the freezer trick first. You could also try the warm washcloth. If that doesn't work, you have to change the temperature to figure out a way to get something off. So that's what I would do.

[Rosie Garant]

Curious if this is similar and this is something that comes up a lot in my house. My daughter Elsa and my son Spider man wear a lot of stickers on their clothes. And then the sticker residue, is that a similar.

[Rosie]

That is how I learned this hack.

[Rosie Garant]

Really?

[Kyra]

Yes.

[Rosie Garant]

Is the heat thing.

[Rosie]

I would put a warm washcloth on stickers for on my kids clothes to get it off. Same with like on the floor. Yeah, like on wood floors. That's how I started doing it. And then I found out it's like a common way that people remove these tacky sticky things.

[Christine]

So before we go, let's do a little recap of what we learned this week. Kyra. I think the thing that really sticks out to me is this idea. When you're thinking about how to treat a stain, you really need to think about like dissolves like, so think about what is the stain and what are kind of the properties of that stain and choose a stain remover that kind of fits those properties. So just a real quick recap on that. If it's a fat or oil stain, like butter or oil or grease, use liquid laundry detergent and warm water. If it's a protein stain, like dairy, eggs, grass or starch, like baby food, chocolate sauce, those types of stains use a liquid laundry detergent or something like zout that has enzyme in it on cold water. And then the last one, if it's a dye or pigment, if it's like wine, coffee and it has really changed the color of the fabric, that's when you're going to want to use oxygen bleach on cold water.

[Kyra]

Yeah. And I think another thing that's really important to remember is above all else, you need to have a really good laundry detergent. And probably your best bet is to just go for one of the bigger companies because they have the relationships with the people who give them all those good enzymes, and that's the most important thing. So a lot of sins can be forgiven just with a great detergent.

[Christine]

That's right.

[Rosie Garant]

Well, because we had so many excellent questions from our listeners, we're gonna do a part two of how to Be Rid of youf Toughest Stains.

[Kyra]

And Detective Barnes is gonna be back on the case next week to solve all of your mysterious stain questions, like that of Chun Yi from la.

[Rosie]

I was inspired by your recent episode on Tinned Fish and decided to host my own tinned fish fish dinner party. Unfortunately, one thing led to another and some of the tin fish oil spilled on my chambray jumpsuit.

[Christine]

So stay tuned for that next week.

[Rosie Garant]

And if you want to find out more about Wirecutters coverage on laundry stain removal, or if you want to check out any of the products Andrea recommended Today, go to nytimes.com wirecutter or as ever, you can find a link in our show notes. That's it for us. Bye. Bye.

[Kyra]

Bye. The Wirecutter show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Boitup, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Christine]

I'm Christine Cyrclassette.

[Rosie Garant]

And I'm Rosie Guerin.

[Kyra]

Thanks for listening.

[Rosie]

All right.

[Christine]

And if Kate has no luck with this treatment, then, you know, we do have some nice sheet recommendations on the site.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah, I was gonna say I'm gonna go ahead and send Kate some sheets.