Remove stains from white & coloured clothes – Zero Waste

Removing stains with zero waste items may sound daunting to you but it doesn’t from now on. Here’s the complete guide on how to remove stains from whites as well as coloured ones naturally. This article will clear all your doubts like what to use – hot or cold water, salt or baking soda, which formula to use for whites and coloured clothes and other queries.

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you.

The first step in removing stains from white and coloured clothes:

As soon as you get the stain…

• Soak the dress completely in the water. Don’t let your stain get dry. The drier the stain becomes the harder to remove it. So, don’t waste time in thinking about whether to soak in the hot or cold water. Just immerse your cloth in room-temperature water. You can directly go for hot or cold water when you know the water guide.
• Then gently rub on the particular area while soaking the cloth in the water. Be careful in doing this step as you don’t want to spread the stain to the other parts of the cloth.
• If the stain is too bad and you don’t want to spoil the entire dress, wet the affected or stained area by soaking that part alone in the water and rubbing gently. Once the stain got removed partially you can soak the entire cloth or dress in the bucket full of water.

If you just got the stain in your dress and reading this with the stained dress in your hand, don’t panic and sock the dress in the water and get these ingredients.

Ingredients required:

• Hot or cold water (based on the guide)
• Lemon (Yes, Lemon is a natural stain remover)
• Baking soda (Optional)
• Salt (Optional)

What should I do if the stain got dried?

Don’t worry. Wet the stained part and follow the steps mentioned here to get rid of most of the stain.

Hot or cold water?

Okay, now we know that we should soak the cloth in water but we don’t know whether to go for hot or cold water. Few say we should go for hot water when the colour of the cloth is white and cold water for the coloured ones. But it’s not the case. The temperature of the water doesn’t depend on the colour of the clothes but on the type of stain. Molly maid says hot water is used on protein-based stains and cold water can be used on the food stains except for eggs, mustard and tomato-based product.

List of stains to treat in warm-hot water:

• Mud
• Oil
• Dye
• Egg
• Grass
• Tomato-based products
• Lotion
• Mustard
• Sweat

List of stains to treat in cold water:

• Blood
• Cheese
• Chocolate
• Coffee
• Jelly and jam
• Milk and dairy products
• Paint (water-based)
• Tea
• Wine, beer, and cocktails

You can view the complete list here. So, based on the list soak your stained cloth in the hot or cold water.

How to remove stains from whites naturally?

• Once you placed your dress in the water, go and get some lemon and cut it in half.
• Then rub the piece of lemon on the stained area gently without spreading it to other areas. You can also extract the juice from the lemon and apply it to the affected area if time permits. 90% of the stain will be disappeared at this stage.
• You can even make a mixture of lemon juice and salt and treat the stained area as I said above.
• When the stain is too hard you can dilute a 1/4^th cup of lemon juice in a small bowl of water and soak the cloth in it. If there is a time constraint and you want to act immediately just add the lemon slices to the hot or cold water (as mentioned) instead of extracting the juice.
• Let this sit for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, take a little amount of bio enzyme and apply it on the leftover stain and wash it on the particular area with your hands.
• Now you can add this dress to your load and use bio enzyme as your detergent liquid. That’s it! The stain will be removed completely or at least 99%.
• Sundry it to get rid of the further stain if your dress is still left with a slight stain. This is because the Sunlight acts as a natural bleach.

You may also read How to use soap nuts for Laundry? | 3 different ways

How to remove stains from clothes (especially whites) caused by other clothes (coloured ones)?

This usually happens with whites. When you add all your clothes without segregating the whites from the coloured ones, the colours may strip from the coloured clothes and stick to the whites. Of course, we won’t do this intentionally. So, what should we do if something happens like this?

Just wash that dress again with the bio enzyme. If the stain is too hard, add 5 tablespoons of bio enzyme to the half bucket of water and soak the dress for 30 minutes. And then wash the dress with the bio enzyme again.

You may also like All-purpose cleaner-Bio enzyme (Recipe, FAQ & Uses)

How to remove stains from coloured clothes naturally?

Even for the coloured ones, lemons are there to rescue us from the stains. Unlike bleach, lemons don’t discolour your coloured clothes. Hence you can follow the same steps which I’ve mentioned for the whites. But if you’re too worried about using lemons, no problem. You can always find an alternative.

• Take a small amount of baking soda with water to make a paste. If you’re out of baking soda, you can also go for the salt from your kitchen.
• Now take the soaked dress from the water and apply this paste on the affected area and rub gently on it. Let the paste sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove the paste with water and check whether the stain is gone or not. It should be removed to a certain extent. If not use our bio enzyme in that specific part and start rubbing, the stain will be removed to 99%.
• You can add this dress to your load for further cleaning.
• Here is the risky part. What about drying? Should I go for the sunlight?

General note: One should not dry the coloured clothes in the direct sun as it may lighten the colour of your dresses. So, when sun drying the clothes it is wise to turn the clothes inside out to prevent the clothes from fading. Also, try to avoid the scorching sun.

• Hence dry your coloured clothes outside under the sunshade sheet but not directly under the sun.

Reasons for not using the bleach to remove the stain:

Why are we going for the natural zero waste stain removal remedy and not for the bleach? We all know that bleach can be used to remove stains from the clothes but it is also used to lighten the colours. So, a big Nooooooo for the bleach to remove the stains from the coloured clothes. But this is not the only reason. There are a few other reasons to avoid bleach completely at our home.

• It irritates your skin due to its corrosive nature.
• When the bleach is mixed with other cleaning products it’ll react to produce dangerous gases like ammonia and chlorine. Chlorine is harmful when inhaled. This disturbs our entire respiratory system. So, when we use bleach in a closed area, it creates more trouble for us. It affects our eyes, throat, and lungs and leads to all respiratory diseases.
• Bleach is not only harmful to humans but also to pets and the environment. There are different kinds of bleaches available in the market. Among that chlorine bleach is the most harmful one. It leads to ozone depletion due to the presence of chlorine in it. Yeah, chlorine is a greenhouse gas.
• Most household cleaners are toxic to us as well as to the environment. Hence, it’s wise to use homemade products to remove the stain from the clothes and stay away from all those hazardous chemicals.

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