Homemade Stain Fighter

How to make your own laundry stain fighter, inexpensively and easily.

I will be showing my age with this one. I’m not sure how I feel about that at the moment. But sometimes you have to just roll with things, right.

So this is a trick I picked up about, oh, 20 years ago, or more. I’ve been doing this since my kids were little. And my kids are 20 and 26 so there you go. I’m old. It’s out there.

Most of you likely know this little trick. However when discussing it with a friend, who had no idea you could do this, it occurred to me some people may not know.

So I’m here to show you how to do this but first I should probably explain what it is right. That would be monumentally helpful.

This is a super cheap, and ridiculously easy little project that will make stain fighting a breeze in your household. You essentially make your own little scrubber, and I kid you not, this works like a dream.

Let’s face it kids come home with all kinds of stains. Paint or dirt from school, grass stains from soccer, candy stains from spending too much time with their candy loving mother. My bad, I like candy floss, and brightly coloured ice cream. My secret is out now.

I would try using sprays but nothing would work that great for tough stains. You know, the ones your kids don’t always tell you about right away. So my sister taught me how to make my own little scrub that works like a charm.

All you need is a bar of soap (Leave the dye for your hair, girls, not your soap. You want scent free, dye free soap for this one), and netted onion bag. Doesn’t necessarily have to be an onion bag but just for a frame of reference it gives you an idea of what I mean. You can use any netted bag. Onions, shallots, oranges, any of those will work. You can be fancy and use ribbon or some other snazzy tie but it’s not a deal breaker if you just tie the end in a loop knot. Personal choice.

So basically you just slip the soap in the netted bag, tie it off, then keep it in your laundry room near a place to use elbow grease when necessary. I leave mine in a little glass jar on top of my washing machine.

So how does it work? Well not to get all “science-y” on you but the netting works like a shower pouf. You know we all love our shower poufs. Why? Because those suckers suds up like no ones business. The same principle applies here. You run the soap under water, rub it on your clothes to remove the stain and bammo, stains be gone. See it’s science. I have no idea how it works but then I failed science in high school so that’s all I got.

Now be sure to only use fragrance free, scent free, dye free soaps. Don’t be ridiculous and try to fight stains with a purple bar of soap, people. Use your noggin. I like ivory soap, it’s simple, semi-cheap and no weird colours added to it. So I feel safe using it. Always test a new bar on some fabric to be sure it will not ruin your clothes. I’ve used ivory soap most often, and I used to occasionally use body shop soaps without colour. I’ve even used gardening soap since it has grit to it. Rocky Mountain Soap Company makes an amazing gardeners soap you can use for this project or for other things, like, you know, washing your hands. I think it’s only available in summer though. My son brought me a ton of their products home when he visited recently. I heart him. And not just because of soap.

Okay so make this today, try it out, let me know how it works. Or maybe I should clarify and say the 5 of you in the world who do not know this trick can make this and let me know how it works. I have a feeling lots of folks know how to do this. So this may be a non-essential post. Unless you’re one of those 5 peeps. Then its super essential.

Now here’s a quick how to:

1. Gather what you need: 1 bar soap, 1 net, 1 ribbon.

2. Place the soap into the open netting.

3. Push the soap to the bottom of the netting.

4. Spin and tie off excess or cut off excess.

5. Grab ribbon.

6. Cut a small piece of ribbon.

7. Tie off the end of the netting with ribbon.

You are now good to go. Get in there and suds up those stains!

 

Hope you enjoyed this little how to. Honestly I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and it works better than any stain remover I’ve ever used. If you have a really stubborn stain toss a little bit of oxy crystals in with it and the stain will completely vanish. It helps to add more water as you go so do this near a sink. Seems obvious but you never know. Maybe you failed science too. It happens. More than you realize.

So now that I’ve shown you the easiest trick I know, and shown my age, I think it’s time for some chocolate. At least I know if I drop some on my shirt I’m covered.