How To Remove Butter Stains From Clothes

The All-time Way to Remove Butter Stains from Anything

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The only trouble with buttery movie-style popcorn at home? The fact that it has a tendency to lead to greasy fingerprints on the sofa. Warm, crusty bread spread with a creamy pat of butter? There's well-nigh ever a glob that falls off the knife onto your shirt. And tender lobster dunked into melted butter? A tablecloth'southward worst nightmare.

The points is, that buttery deliciousness we love virtually ever come as a stain-removal toll. "With butter, it's the oil attribute that makes information technology so tough," says Meg Roberts, president of Molly Maid. "It seeps in and sticks pretty quickly, and seems like an instant stain."

Merely human activity fast and use the correct tools, and y'all'll salve your wearable and home effects from testify of your decadent eating habits.

The first step is always to scrape off any lingering globs of butter with a spoon or butter knife. What comes next depends on the surface in question.

For wear that can get moisture (basically anything just silk) …

Catch a white textile napkin (or paper in a compression), dip a corner of it into your water glass, and glaze the corner liberally with salt from the table. Holding a 2d (dry out) napkin behind the stained fabric, press the salted napkin right on top.

"Put pressure on both sides, merely don't rub," says Roberts. "The salt will absorb and break down the oily nature of the stain."

Hold information technology there for a minute or and so, then dampen another spot on your napkin to dust off the salt. Leave it be until you lot can launder information technology.

Tip: And so what about your favorite silk shirt? If you've got greasy butter stains on anything that'due south super valuable or frail, that's a job for a pro.

For upholstery or a tablecloth that y'all tin can't remove notwithstanding …

Place a piece of a brown paper bag or parchment paper right on elevation of the stain, pressing information technology down with something heavy (a water pitcher, a book, etc.). Let information technology sit until your guests get out, then become out a warm iron and press over the paper.

"The newspaper volition start to absorb the oil, and adding heat will pull it up fifty-fifty more than," Roberts says.

For unfinished woods (like a table or butcher-block counter) …

The parchment- or brown-paper-plus-iron trick is a peachy one here, as well, to coax out oil that may take soaked in.

"Use a warm, non hot, setting on the fe so y'all don't scorch the woods," says Roberts. "Later on that stain is lifted, you can treat the whole tabular array with oil to normalize the discoloration."

For an area carpeting that tin be water-done …

The secret weapon here is cornstarch. Shake some onto the stain and press — don't rub! — it in. Leave information technology alone for a bit, and then come back and work in some undiluted, clear-colored, grease-cutting dish soap using a spare toothbrush.

"You want to brush lightly so y'all don't fray the fibers," says Roberts.

Pour on some warm water to rinse out the cornstarch and soap: "It'due south going to become soaked, merely don't be afraid of a water stain,'" she says.

Clean up by firmly pressing with a dry white towel (a colored towel could leave its dye backside), so place a new dry white towel on pinnacle, weighted downwards with something heavy to suck upward the rest of the moisture and stain.

For anything that was stained a long fourth dimension ago …

Where was this story when you needed it a month ago? Sorry, guys, you need to telephone call in a pro. "Once it's set, it's much harder to remove," Roberts says.

Willing to run a risk it all in the name of butter?

Amy Roberts

Contributor

Amy spent years writing DIY advice and product reviews for Good Housekeeping, rendering her a virtual domestic goddess—emphasis on "virtual." She's also a personal trainer and tweets her fitness articles (when she remembers).