homemade stain remover

Note: I first published this post in 2014. As a homeschool mom, money was tight, so throwing out clothes with stains wasn’t a great option. This homemade stain remover is a great solution. Life hack 101!

A few years ago, I started making homemade cleaning products, beginning with homemade laundry detergent and cleaning wipes, then extending into remedies for stains and messes of all sorts, including art pastels, rubber cement, and set-in grease and tomato stains, just to name a few.

So when one of my readers shared her favorite recipe for a homemade stain remover at the same time my husband brought home some mud-splattered khaki pants, I knew it was time to give the homemade stain remover a try. The recipe looked familiar, and sure enough, I had bookmarked this post from onegoodthingbyjillee.com.

Ordinarily, I turn to Dawn dishwashing liquid for many stains, applying the Dawn straight to the clothing and letting it soak in, so that’s where I began with the khaki pants. This time, the Dawn dishwashing liquid removed all but the slightest remnants of the mud stains, so I decided to see what this homemade stain remover could do.

The recipe is pretty simple, and since I keep all the ingredients on hand for other cleaning concoctions, I was able to whip up a batch of homemade stain remover pretty quickly.

homemade stain remover ingredients

Here’s the recipe:
2/3 cup Dawn dishwashing liquid
2/3 cup ammonia
6 Tbs. baking soda
2 cups hot water

pour into spray bottle

Simply mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and pour into a spray bottle. Tip 1: I used the inverted top of a plastic water bottle as a funnel to minimize spills, but you probably want to do this over the sink.

Tip 2: If you often make homemade cleaning products, now would be a good time to mark the contents on the side of the bottle! 🙂

homemade stain remover

Every time you need to remove a stain, just give the bottle a good shake (the contents tend to settle), spray it on the clothing and scrub it in with a toothbrush. Let the homemade stain remover sit for a few minutes, then toss the garment in the laundry and wash as usual.

Want to know how the khaki pants turned out? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I’ll reveal all! 🙂