Removing a Cooking Oil Stain

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

Cooking oil can find its way into the strangest places. The most obvious place is clothing of course, but I recently had a run in with cooking oil on our playroom couch.

A little imp got into the lazy susan where I keep all of our spices and oils for cooking and baking. He proceeded to open up a jar of olive oil, which inevitably spilled. With oily hands, he moved on to the couch. Yikes.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that chalk can sometimes be used to help get out oily stains including cooking oil. Here are some other ways to get out that stubborn cooking oil stains.

Clothing

First try to remove as much excess cooking oil as possible from the garment. You can do this by blotting up the oil with a paper towel. I usually place paper towels on both sides of the garment and blot, changing paper towels until the paper towels come up clean. Next, sprinkle the stain with talcum powder to absorb any remaining oil. Talcum powder seems to work better than cornstarch, but you can try that as well. Treat the remaining stain with a laundry pre-treater and then launder as usual.

Upholstery and carpet

Apply a small amount of liquid laundry detergent to the cooking oil stain and let it stand undisturbed for a few hours. Come back and scrub it clean with a brush. I find that a new or old toothbrush works pretty well for this task, but make sure that the brush is really clean before you begin, or you may make the problem worse. Next take a white cloth and dampen it with tepid water. Use the cloth to wipe away any suds or residue.

What is the toughest stain that you have ever had to tackle?

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog,, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

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