How To Remove An Old Oil Stain - A Drycleaner’s Guide

Removing an old, or 'set' as us dry cleaners call it, oil stain can be very hard. But luckily you got me to give you a dry cleaners guide to removing an old oil stain.

These types of stains are so stubborn because they've already been dried, or 'cooked', into fabric. This means w'er going to have to get a bit more creative than normal to remove it.

First, try rubbing in a touch of dish soap. Dish soap is a surfactant which allows grease to become soluble in water. What that means is adding some water will help move it along sooooo

Mix up some warm water and a few drops of dish soap and work that in. I always like like to let my stain treatments sit on the stain for at least 15 minutes before washing.

Lastly, rubbing a tough detergent into the stain will help too. The idea here is that were using multiple types of surfactants to loosen up this grease / soil.

I washed on an express cycle with cold water and then let the pants air dry to ensure the oil stain came out before tumble drying. This is arguably the hardest part of the process as oil stains are invisible on wet garments.

If you stain has come out, then dry as normal. Otherwise you may need to repeat this process a few times before tumble drying.

For more laundry tips and tricks follow me on IG and TikTok @jeeves_ny

[Peachiie_Keen]

The thing is, people say not to set the stain in by drying, but 100% of the time, I didn't know the stain was there until i dried it..

[crxpto]

W video my favorite sweater had a big ass stain and I got it off on the second try

[austinpoznoski]

one of my favorite t-shirts got stained with various car greases over a year ago and i decided to try and fix it tonight, i genuinely cant believe how well this worked. extra tip: after putting the dish soap + warm water combo on, blot some of it up with a paper towel (use pressure!)

[SquiddyHiggenbottom]

Loaned my favorite pastel sweatshirt to a friend, they "helpfully" washed and dried it before giving it back to me... and did nothing about the 3-inch wide grease stain on the belly! 😳 I will try out this process later, fingers crossed! 🤞

[lynbabysusu]

I did all three as I just got back from a trip, it works so well! I was a little panicky after the initial machine wash didn’t remove the stains. Thank you.

[rocky]

My favorite shirt got covered in olive oil after someone didn't put the cap on correctly. The stains were set in so I took the shirt and put it in a 3 gal bucket and dumped in more olive oil to completely cover the shirt.

Then I moved it to a 5 gallon bucket filled with sea-water and let it soak for 2 days...then cleaned it in the wash.I kid you not, it's now the softest, most broken in shirt I own.

[tabithaormiston-smith]

OMG I have thrown away so many beautiful silk garments because I didn't know how to do this THANK YOU!!! ❤

[jagermanjensen]

Literally just did my laundry and was hoping to find a video of yours on oil stains 😭🙏 prayer answered

[WhiteRabbitAnne]

You are my favorite tips man. Home makers ( male and female) need these tips.
It makes life so much easier.
Remeber if you have stains or things you don't dare clean yourself. Your friendly neighborhood dry cleaner can fix you right up. They can work miracles occasionally.

[Ayamekwlgirl]

For really tough oil/grease stains, rub plain white chalk into the stain and let it sit overnight, then wash the chalk off with dish soap. This has saved so many of my clothes, and it usually works with one wash

[GardnSavvy]

I’m moving my wardrobe to natural fiber and I’ve learned so much from you on how to keep it all looking fresh ❤ thank you

[mattiti]

cleaned my uniform like this back when I worked at a spa (constant oil stains from the massage oil and products...) works great!

[LelasMum]

That’s good information! Thank you. I don’t as folding laundry and found two shirts with grease spots. Back to the laundry tub, but with this hack I’m confident they’ll be gone. Thanks.

[triggerunhappy.]

Another reminder
The answer to all your life’s problems is dawn dishwashing detergent

[m..]

This worked literally like magic, had a stain and quickly did the first step, you're a lifesaver

[ziner]

This is exactly what my momma tells me to do wherever i stain my cloths. He is most definitely right ! It works.!

[cassybucceri]

In the past year or so I learned about the dish soap thing to get grease stains out. This would have been priceless info when I was in my twenties. I had these jeans that fit perfect like all the boxes. Perfect length, fit, color overall perfect everything. Well while eating pizza one day a nice glob of pepperoni pizza grease fell right directly onto the middle of my thigh I was devastated!!!

[CactusKitty]

Thanks! I got this really cute crewneck sweatshirt from a vintage thrift store and have been wondering how to get a little stain like that out. The algorithm and you have blessed me with this video in my time of need 😂

[grandmabiscuits]

dish soap is great. it gets grease off of plates and won’t hurt ducks, so it’s perfect for getting oil out of laundry too.

[alexandriav]

OMG I needed this!! Dried my favorite shirt with several oil stains.