How to Remove Oil Stains from Clothes
Get oil and grease out of clothes with liquid dish soap, wash warm, and air dry before the dryer, for fresh or set-in stains.
You will end up with the oil out of the fabric, using liquid dish soap and a warm wash, and with the garment air dried so you can check it before any dryer heat touches it. A splash of cooking oil, a grease spot from pizza, and motor oil from checking the car all come out the same way.
Oil stains come out readily if you treat them the right way, and they set hard if you do not. The wrong way is to toss the garment in the wash without pre-treating, or worse, to put it in the dryer before checking whether the stain is actually gone. Dryer heat sets oil stains and makes them much harder to remove.
Most of the time is waiting while the soap works (step 5), and everything the method uses is in a typical kitchen.
Paper towels or a clean white cloth Baking soda (optional, for the scrubbing paste in step 4) Liquid dish soap Your regular laundry detergent An old toothbrush Cardboard or an old towel
Blot the stain right away
Grab a paper towel or a clean white cloth and blot the stain gently. Do not rub it. Rubbing pushes the oil deeper into the fabric and spreads it outward, making the stain bigger and harder to treat. Work from the outside edges of the stain toward the center so you are not dragging oil into clean fabric. If you are dealing with something solid like butter or grease from cooking, use a dull knife or the edge of a spoon to scrape off the excess first. The faster you start this step, the better your chances. Oil absorbs into fabric fibers quickly, and every minute it sits there makes it harder to pull back out.
Good to know: Keep the stained area dry for now. Do not run it under the tap yet, because water and oil do not mix. Pre-treating the dry fabric with dish soap is much more effective than hitting it with water first.
Check the care label and test the soap
Before you treat the stain, check the care label and test the dish soap on a hidden seam. The University of Georgia Extension says to read the care label before trying any stain removal method and to pretest each cleaning agent on an inconspicuous area to make sure the color holds. If the label says dry clean only, stop here and see the closing below. Do not cover the stain with cornstarch, baking soda, or baby powder. When America's Test Kitchen tested 16 home remedies on peanut oil stains, those absorbents pulled some oil out of the fabric but did not work very well, and they made the stains spread. Liquid dish soap removed the stains, so the soap in step 4 does the work.
Place cardboard behind the stain
Slide a piece of cardboard or an old towel between the stained layer and the rest of the garment. This keeps the oil from transferring to the back of the fabric or bleeding through to other layers while you treat it. It keeps you from creating a second stain on the other side of the shirt.
Apply dish soap and work it in
Squeeze a generous amount of liquid dish soap directly onto the stain. Dish soap is designed to cut through grease on pots and pans, and it does the same thing on fabric. Use your fingers or an old toothbrush to gently work the soap into the stain. You want it to fully penetrate the fibers, not just sit on the surface. If the stain is stubborn, sprinkle a little baking soda on top of the soap and scrub gently with the toothbrush to form a paste. Any standard dish soap works. You do not need a specific brand or a special formula. If it cuts grease on dishes, it cuts grease on clothes.
Let the soap sit for at least 15 minutes
Give the dish soap time to break down the oil. Leave it for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. That is the range America's Test Kitchen used when dish soap cleared both fresh stains and stains that had sat overnight before treatment. Give older stains and heavy grease the full hour. If you are dealing with a stain that has been sitting for days, apply a thick layer of dish soap, give it the full hour, and plan to repeat steps 4 and 5, because the test kitchen found that a deeply set stain can need more than one round.
Rinse and wash in the machine
Rinse the treated area with warm water to flush out the dish soap and loosened oil. Then toss the garment into the washing machine. Wash it in the warmest water the care label you checked in step 2 allows, and follow that label closely for wool and silk. Warm and hot water dissolve oil better than cold water. Use your regular laundry detergent. An enzyme detergent can help, but only if it contains lipase, which is the enzyme that acts on fats and oils. The proteases and amylases in most blends work on protein and starch and do nothing to grease, so check the label rather than assuming enzymes alone will do it.
Heads up: If dish soap does not clear motor oil or lubricating grease, the University of Georgia Extension points to commercial spot removers containing petroleum distillates, such as Goo Gone or K2r. Read and follow the product label, work with good ventilation, and do not combine it with other cleaning products, as UGA advises.
Air dry and check the stain before using the dryer
Dryer heat is what locks leftover oil into the fabric, so do not put the garment in the dryer until you are absolutely sure the stain is gone. Hang it up or lay it flat and let it air dry completely. Oil stains can look invisible on wet fabric but reappear once the garment is dry. If you put it in the dryer and any oil remains, the heat bonds the oil into the fibers and the stain becomes much harder to shift. It is not impossible, as FAQ 2 below explains, but it becomes a different job. If the stain is still visible after air drying, go back to step 4 and repeat the dish soap treatment. Heavier grease or an older stain can take two or three passes.
If a ring of oil stays after two or three rounds, switch to the commercial spot remover in the step 6 warning. If the care label says dry clean only, take the garment to a dry cleaner and point out the stain instead of treating it yourself, because UGA says not to use any product or procedure the care label prohibits. Keep a bottle of dish soap near your laundry area, so the next splash gets blotted and soaped before it has time to set, and if a stained garment already went through the dryer, FAQ 2 below covers what to do.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Yes. Liquid dish soap is specifically formulated to cut through grease. That is its entire job on your dishes, and it does the same thing on fabric. In America's Test Kitchen's test of 16 home remedies, liquid dish soap removed peanut oil from cotton T-shirts, on fresh stains and on stains left overnight. The University of Georgia Extension uses diluted hand dishwashing detergent in its own method for lubricating oil stains.
It is harder to remove at that point, but not necessarily permanent. Apply a thick layer of dish soap directly to the stain and let it sit for several hours or overnight. Then wash it again in the warmest water the fabric allows. Repeat this two or three times if the stain is still there. The dryer heat bonds oil more deeply with the fibers, so it takes more effort to break that bond.
No. America's Test Kitchen tried cornstarch, baking soda, talcum powder, and other absorbents on peanut oil stains, and none of them worked very well. They pulled some oil out of the fabric but also made the stains spread. Go straight to the dish soap in step 4. Baking soda has one use there, mixed with the soap into a scrubbing paste for a stubborn stain.
Not right away. Pre-treat the stain first with dish soap at room temperature. Hot water is great for the wash cycle because it helps dissolve oil, but applying it directly to an untreated stain can set it by bonding the oil more deeply with the fabric. Treat first, then wash warm.
Old stains are trickier but still treatable. Apply dish soap, work it in well with a toothbrush, and let it sit for the full hour, as step 5 says for stains that have sat for days. Wash in warm water and air dry. Expect to repeat the process two or three times for set-in stains.