Note: I first published this post in 2014. Knowing how to remove stains is still an essential skill for every homeschool mom, especially if your kids like to immerse themselves in the great outdoors as part of your homeschool day! Life hack 101!
If you read my post yesterday, giving the recipe for a homemade stain remover, you know that a few days ago, my husband came home with mud splatters all over a pair of khaki pants. Since these are a good pair of dress pants that he wears frequently for work, I knew I needed to find some tips for removing mud stains.
Thankfully, one of my readers had just given me a recipe for a homemade stain remover that she uses for all sorts of stains. (You can see the comment here.) She did mention, however, that she wasn’t sure how it would work on mud. Given that word of caution, I did some quick online research, and came up with the following tips for removing mud stains.
Step 1: Let the mud dry. Trying to remove the mud while it is still wet will accomplish little more than spreading the stain and rubbing it deeper into the fibers. Not good.
Step 2: Once the mud is dry, scrape off all the mud that you can with a small plastic scraper, knife, or spatula. I did this and was able to see quite a bit of the mud “powder up” on surface of the fabric. I blew it off and proceeded with my tips for removing mud stains.
Step 3: Apply stain remover directly to stain and rub it in with a toothbrush. Let the stain remover soak into the fabric for at least 30 minutes, longer for deeper or darker stains. Because I hadn’t made my new homemade stain remover yet, I applied Dawn dishwashing liquid to the stains, let it soak for a day, then washed as usual.
I was careful to check for stains after removing the pants from the washing machine and before putting them in the dryer. The Dawn removed all but the smallest remnants of the stain. Because I didn’t want the heat of the dryer to set the stains, I let the pants air dry. By this time, I had made the new homemade stain remover, so I applied it to all remaining stains, let it soak into the fabric, and washed the pants again.
Ta-Da! All stains are gone! As you can see, the homemade stain remover was able to get out stains that the Dawn left behind, making it a permanent resident in my laundry room cabinet.