Like many of you, I have children that get into everything they possibly can and thoroughly enjoy making messes. My little girl can find one single M&M and somehow I find her covered head to toe in chocolate.
They come home daily from school with food stains, grass stains, who knows what stains… And all those wonderful stains make it into the laundry hamper for me to find days later.
I have tried about every product on the market for stain removal and so far I haven’t found anything that works as well as this simple homemade recipe. I get frustrated with stain removal charts as well- they can be helpful to some but how am I supposed to know if that blue-ish brown spot is mud, chocolate or blueberries?
Even if I catch the stain on the clothes as the kids get home, they can’t remember what it is they got all over themselves. So short of finding green stains on knees- I usually have no idea what the heck the stain is to identify on a chart anyway.
So I have experimented over the years with various products and various homemade recipes trying to find an all-in-one, simple stain remover that actually works and I thought I’d share my very favorite one with you! This is cheap and easy to make and I have used it on all sorts of stains and had great luck with getting things clean. I have used it on various fabrics, colors, whites…. all with great results. 
In fact, here is a little peek at my Sunday afternoon laundry session. I had 8 items that had stains on them – everything from set in paint stains to blueberry juice, to mystery yellow something or other and mud. I had lots of cotton items, denim, a sweater– and this stain remover worked on almost everything. Here is the easy recipe- simply make as much as you need! Mix equal parts:
- Blue Dawn Dish Soap
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Baking Soda
I usually mix 1 tablespoon of each and that will be enough for several items- I had enough for all the items pictured above. I add one tablespoon of each to a bowl and then I just use a spoon to scoop a bit of stain remover onto the stain. I use the backside of the spoon to sort of rub it in and then let it sit for up to an hour. You can also get a little squeezy bottle and make a larger amount to have on hand- mine bottle is from the Dollar Store. I don’t like to let this sit for a really long time (say days on end) because there is a chance the blue in the Dawn dish soap will discolor your fabric. A few hours is just fine- even on whites. And after letting this stuff sit- most of the items were perfectly clean. Blueberry juice gone, mystery yellow stain gone, chocolate stain gone, grass stains gone, unknown dark brown spots gone…. For the items it didn’t get back to brand new condition, I just repeated the process and there was a dramatic difference. The items I haven’t found this to work as well on are set in paint stains. And remember how I mentioned my kid’s really, really love to do a number on their clothing?
Yeah… this was halfway into a hike in Maui. My little girl was absolutely covered in mud by the end of the day :). Those shorts got rinsed in the hotel sink and then stuffed in a bag for 2 days until we could get home and launder them. In the back those shorts were completely covered in a thick mud. Here they are after one round of stain remover– if you look super carefully there is a tiny bit of a stain on the seams but overall these look fantastic and they are totally wearable again.
And I have used these on shoes too– my littles have a lot of canvas shoes like these: 
I have washed them in the past and found not much of the dirt comes off. I did try the DIY stain remover just quickly rubbing it all over the shoe and letting it sit for about 40 minutes. I tossed in the wash and you can see a huge difference. Use high quality chemical cleaning supplies, and save with IGA products and prices in the catalogues. They still weren’t perfectly clean so I just repeated the process and second time and actually used an old toothbrush to scrub in the stain remover and now these little shoes look really great. So give it a shot and see how it works for you!
***As with any homemade cleaner it is best to test this first in an inconspicuous spot to be sure it is safe for your fabric.
And if you like this post, here are a few other things you might enjoy: 
How to Perfectly Clean Makeup Brushes 
How to Clean Sunglasses 
Free Printable Chore Charts for Kids
Homemade Spot Carpet Cleaner– this works beautifully on car interiors!
I am so going to try this! My girls are the same way. The sleeves of their long-sleeved shirts are the worst
Michelle- come back and let me know how it works out for you 🙂
I have 8 kids lol and the laundry is crazy in this house and the boys 5 of them seem to hide their clothes from me (unintentional maybe) with stains on them of course for days on weeks. so when i do find them ugh. I hope this helps, i am throwing away so many clothes or they get put in the play clothes section causie the stains dont come out. I dont want them to wear anything like that to school. It seems that chocolate milk is a big problem for me. I cant wait to do laundry LOL
Oh Kimberly– I hear ya 🙂 I find stains after my husband tossed things in the wash and the dryer so the stain is set :P. I hope it works for you! We don’t give the kids chocolate milk but I do have lots of chocolate stains from treats and have had great luck 🙂
Just saw this on Good Day Sacramento, had to come here to make sure I had the right recipe (only caught end of segment), on my way to get the blue Dawn now. Thank You.
Can you use this on carpets?
I have a carpet cleaner and even with the expensive cleaners spots still don’t come up! This sounds like it can do it.
Hi Tim,
You might try this recipe and see how it works. With carpet make sure you spot test in an inconspicuous place- like a closet first. Also you might consider any warranties you have on the carpet because those can sometimes have clauses about what you can clean the carpet with 🙂
http://myfrugaladventures.com/2012/10/diy-spot-carpet-cleaner-perfect-for-cars/
Hi Bret– I hope it works as well for you as it has for me! 🙂
Does this get out mustard stains? That is the one stain I have so much trouble getting out of white shirts!
Hi Diane– try and see if it works for you 🙂 My daughter just came home with yellow on her white shorts- I think that was yellow mustard and it did work beautifully for me. The shorts are like new. Depends on the variety of mustard and I am only guessing that is what the bright yellow stain was 🙂
Does it need to be Dawn, have you tried Palmolive . Thanks for all you do”
Hi Ali– I have not tried Palmolive. There is a certain ingredient in blue Dawn that makes it work incredibly well for homemade cleaning products. That is what they used to clean the animals after the oil spill in Alaska 🙂 You can try Palmolive but I don’t know if it will work– also careful about staining if it is a colored dish soap.
Can a quart be made and used as needed, or do you need to make it fresh each time??
Susan you don’t need to make it fresh each time, I make a week or two’s worth at a time. A quart sounds like a few months supply? I think that would be OK but I wouldn’t make much more than that.
I have used this recipe and it is too good to be true!! I’ve even removed a dye stain from a shirt that had been stain by the red band on a white sock. I have used a number of different dish soaps, and they all work equally well. It used to be that the wonderful dish soap was Sunlight, not Blue Dawn. The claim was that Sunlight was used to wash the bedding in the hospitals because it was easy on the skin, was said to be easy on the hands, and was even used to wash wounds! But they work as an incredible stain remover so that’s what matters
Thanks for the feedback Beth!
Also not sure if its true, but there is said to be some signifigance to that brown bottle that peroxide comes in. It loses it’s effectivness?? I’ve only mixed up enough for the job at hand. Any ideas on if this is true?
darn, wouldn’t you know, I just bought 3 ginormous bottles of red Dawn at Sam’s! I might mix up a little a try it. I’ll let you know if the red works too.
Oh Nan with red I’d be super careful about staining. You might try it on an old rag or something first.
Wow!! I need to try this on my clothes! Does this work once stains have been set in the dryer?
Rebecca- I have that happen all the time and I have had good luck getting stains out after drying. You might as well give it a shot 🙂
I’m really excited to try this. Have you tried it in a HE washer? I’m worried the dawn will create too many suds.
Hi Katie- we have a Samsung HE washer. I suppose there could be a suds issue if you are drenching things but for a few items with a little stain remover O haven’t had any issues at all. I know with kids it feels like you should just dunk everything in stain remover sometimes so if that is an issue I would maybe separate the things between a few loads 🙂
Katie, I keep hearing about Peroxide and stains, and have been able to use it on Whites. Does it work with colored clothes? Have you tried it on darks? Would love to know.
Thanks.
Hello Katie……Is there any substitute for your Blue Dawn Dish Soap??..I am an Aussie and we don’t (to my knowledge) have that particular detergent down under……am eager to try it, as my husband is a ‘tradie’ and comes home every day worse than a 5yo playing in the dirt…..!
Thanks…
@RoseMarie Way, I’ve used numerous kinds of dish soaps, as well as Dawn, all with equal results. I haven’t tried the generic brands but I think some of them may work too. Would be worth a try!!
I use this for my stains. I love the idea to put it in the salad dressing squeezy bottle. I have not found the solution to fade any of the clothes I have used it on.
You need to be careful what you store it in if your making a larger batch of it. Hydrogen peroxide loses it’s effectiveness when it is exposed to light. That’s why it comes in dark bottles.
Good tip Kalyn! Mine is in a cupboard in the laundry room so I suspect it is probably fine 🙂 I don’t advise making huge batches anyway that will be stored for long periods of time so that will also help.
Does the hydrogen peroxide cause any fading of the colors?
Reagan, as I mentioned in the post I have not found that to be the case with our laundry but you can always do a spot check on the underside of a hem or something to be certain. Also as I mentioned in the post I would not leave this on your clothes for long periods of time- like a few days- as you might have some color fade in that instance.
Do you fill the rest of the squeeze bottle with water? Or just leave it with the three equal parts of the ingredients?
i tried this on a shirt that had some old grease looking stains. It had been washed quite a few times and pretreated with a very popular stain remover. Nothing seemed to work. Then, I found this on Pinterest and decided what the heck, might as well try this too. I used this formula and waited the time I needed to, washed it again and every one of the stains came out!!! It’s some GOOD stuff!
I am so happy to hear that Lydianne!
Hi Nicole- I don’t add any water.
This stuff is great! Yes, I have had it explode on me when I kept the lid on & yes, I have wrecked some clothing that I didn’t test first but I found that most fabrics were fine after I used this. The recipe I use is: 1t blue dawn dish soap. 3-4T hydrogen peroxide. 2T baking soda
Yikes explode on you? Shoot. I haven’t had that happen but maybe because I tend to make smaller batches.
I was wondering if this would be safe to wash in a High Efficiency washer machine?
Sounds great. I am a grandmother and a crafter so I am always getting things messy. Plan to try after my next project. Thanks.
Annie- I have an HE machine and use this all the time 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I have also used the powdered oxy and made a paste. It has worked great…however my daughter stained a dress with some hair dye product! Couldn’t get it out with the oxy. Saw this and tried it. It didn’t remove the stain altogether but really lightened it! I think there is hope. Going to make another batch and have it soak longer…. Thank you!!!
Oh I am so happy to hear that Sandra!
I used bleach on a spot on my white pants and it turned yellow. I tried the peroxide, baking soda and dawn but it didn’t work. Any suggestions?
Hi Betty- since you put the bleach on and the pants turned yellow, I am not sure what else you can do now. You can try soaking in a whitening solution like Oxi.
I have used hydroperoxide and dawn dush soap stains and it does work, but what I do is wet the stain with hydroperoxide and then pour sme dawn on there and then rub and after that I throw in the washer.
What volume of peroxide are you using with this?
this doesn’t leave a bleach type stain on color clothes does it?
Hi Von, You might consider doing a patch test to be certain but I have used this on many different fabrics and very bright colors and not had any issues myself.