Stain Remover Addendum

I had previously posted about two stain-removing concoctions made up of common household items, which I referred to as Berry-Be-Banished and Grease-Go-Gone. As you can probably surmise, the first one removes berry stains and the second, grease stains. The details of these ingredients and instructions can be found at the original post, 'Tis the Season for Stains.

Since then, I have discovered two things—hence the addendum.

1. Berry-Be-Banished removes blood stains
I had a hunch that this would do the job on blood since it contains Hydrogen Peroxide. I've been told in the past that Hydrogen Peroxide is good for cleaning blood stains. I prefer the Berry-Be-Banished mix (again, found on 'Tis the Season for Stains) since it contains soap and baking soda in addition to the Hydrogen Peroxide and gives the stain little to no chance of survival.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When dealing with blood stains, use cold water. Hot water can actually bind the blood to the fabric, which is the opposite of what we want.

Side Note: No, my daughter did not get into an adorable baby knife fight. A few droplets of blood escaped the bandage from her vaccination shot.

I think it is worth noting that this blood stain had dried on the pants the day before I tried cleaning it, and it still came out almost immediately after I applied the Berry-Be-Gone mixture. Even so, I threw it in a load of laundry (with cold water) afterwards to get that real good clean.


2. Grease-Go-Gone works on cotton fabrics as well as denim
In the previous stain-removing post ('Tis the Season for Stains) I had successfully used the lighter fluid trick on a pair of jeans. Since then, my husband battled some devious french fries and greased up a cotton t-shirt, giving me an opportunity to test another fabric.

Psst... I think my grease-staining husband might be Batman

IMPORTANT NOTE: On lighter (both in color and weight) fabrics than denim, I recommend following the instructions from 'Tis the Season for Stains but reducing the lighter fluid soaking time from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.

On my first try with the t-shirt, the grease stain disappeared, but a very faint mark was left behind—so faint that I thought it was just shadows from the light. It seemed that the lighter fluid was making this small mark. This is why I recommend reducing the lighter fluid soaking time by half.

I actually lightly covered that area with lighter fluid again, soaked for only 10 minutes, rinsed the area out thoroughly with cold water and used the Berry-Be-Gone treatment, including throwing it in the washing machine, for good measure. This seemed to do the trick as you can see from the above image.

Henry doesn't mind sporting his sister's floral shirt on laundry day, January 2016