Oil stains can and do happen on clothes, but getting rid of them does not come easy. You may spoil your clothes with oil easily while eating, cooking or passing through a garage. Oil stains may actually make your shirt look ruined. Surprisingly, you can handle those discolored splotches on your clothing with the help of talcum powder. We have already told you how to remove oil stains from shoes, jeans and concrete floor. Read this oneHOWTO article to know how to remove oil stains with talcum powder.
Step by step instructions
Talcum powder works as a mini sponge to soak up oil from your clothes. Follow these step by step instructions to know how to remove oil stains with talcum powder:
- As soon as you get an oil stain on your clothing, grab a bottle of talcum powder and pour it all over the stain. Talcum powder is very fine and it can fill in the gaps between the fibers of your cloth to absorb the grease.
- Leave the talcum powder on the cloth and let it soak for a few hours, preferably overnight. Make sure that the cloth is placed in warm temperature so that the powder becomes more effective in absorbing the oil from the cloth.
- Use a soft brush to scrub away the powder. The oil stain will also go away with the powder
- You may still see some grease faintly visible on your garment. Wash it in the washing machine while following the manufacturer’s instructions to wash the fabric
- Let the cloth air dry, preferably not in the sun. By the time it will dry, you should not see any stain of the oil on your garment.
- If you can still feel some oiliness in the area, you can repeat the process as many times as needed
Alternative option
Has the first method not worked? Fear not, there is a more aggressive method that also involves talcum powder, though you will need more common household ingredients in this case. Apart from the talcum powder, get hold of some salt, cornstarch, dish-washing liquid.
- Apply a good amount of talcum powder over the stain, followed by the salt and cornstarch. Mix all of them with a brush.
- Get rid of any remnants with the brush and apply these ingredients once again.
- If you notice the stain is already lighter, apply some dish-washing liquid on the stain and leave it on for approximately five minutes.
- Put the garment in a bowl of hot water and leave it soaking for thirty minutes.
- Once this time has passed, wash the area with warm water.
- Wash in the washing machine. You can apply pre-washing detergent so it's more effective. Once the cycle is over, your oil stain will have disappeared!
A few precautions for garments with oil stains
Even though this old-time remedy is nearly 100% efficient with difficult oil stains, there are some precautions you may need to take in order for this remedy to be efficient:
- When oil gets on your garment, the key is to start as quickly as possible. The quicker you start the operation, the easier it will become to remove the stains. Even a difference of a few minutes can matter a lot, and letting the grease stain stay on the cloth for around a day can be disastrous.
- Before starting working on your garment, it is always advised to read your garment label first. Hot water works best on most garments to remove oil stains, but some fabrics can be seriously damaged due to hot water. So, read the garment label first to be on the safer side
- Never sun-dry or machine-dry a cloth that has oil stains on it. The high temperature can set-in the stain on the fabric, making it all the more difficult to remove it.
What’s the last option?
If your garment is badly stained with oil and the above processes are not able to make it clean, then the last option available to you is to take it to the dry cleaner. Even if your garment is a dry-clean only item, you can still try the talcum powder method to absorb the oil stain from it. But if the stain still does not go away, you can send it for dry cleaning. As you have already treated your cloth with talcum powder, it will become easier and quicker for the dry cleaner to get rid of the grease.
If you want to read similar articles to How to Remove Oil Stains with Talcum Powder, we recommend you visit our Home cleaning category.