Removing Stains from Khaki Clothes

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Stain Removal

What's the best way to remove any stains from khaki-colored pants? Most stain-remover laundry products leave stains themselves on the khakis.
TCK

In a quart canning jar, or old mayonnaise jar; I save all my old soap chips, then put them into the jar, and fill the jar up the rest of the way with ammonia. I let this sit with the lid on for about two weeks. This turns the soap chips into a geuy mixture. This mixture gets out greese stains, grass stains and other tough stains. My family swears by this goop!
Loretta C

I suggest spot treating the shorts with Citra Solv. This is an excellent, environmentally harmless product I have recently found. Citra Solv actually got black, oil-based paint out of a white shirt recently. (Also, you can use Citra Solv to get paint off skin and fingers.)

Shop around for Citra Solv. I have seen it in conventional stores, a natural food store and catalogs. The price varies wildly.
Rachael in New Jersey

I use lye soap. It is safe for all colors. I live in an area that has an abundance of red clay. I never could get it out. A friend told me she used lye soap. I got some and it really works. Rub it on the stain and scrub with a soft brush. Sometimes I have to repeat several times. Most of the time it takes the stain right out or lightens it enough that a color safe bleach with remove the rest of it.

I bought mine at Silver Dollar City. You may be able to find it in a local store. The phone number for reorders on my package is (417)338-8232. It has worked wonders.
B.

The best item I have found to remove stains, particularly dirt and grease, is Simple Green. It is biodegradable, environmentally friendly and does not leave any residue of its own behind. It is ultra safe on all fabrics I've used it on.

I buy it in a gallon concentrate at Price Costco for about $6.00. I use it as my primary cleaning agent for the enitre house. The jug provides dierctions to dilute for different cleaning jobs. It usually lasts me about a year. Pretty inexpensive for a primary cleaning agent. It smells great and has no harmful fumes.
CKL

I read this stain recipe in a Tightwad Gazette book: Mix 1 cup Cascade dishwasher detergent, 1 cup Chlorox II powdered detergent, and 5 gallons of the hottest water to come from your tap. Soak several items in this mixture overnight and then launder as usual. Especially good for food stains. This might work well for the khaki's because the entire item would soak in the mixture instead of just treating one spot. I seldom have enough items for this much mixture, so I make 1/5 at a time (figuring 1/5 cup is a little below the 1/4 cup line).
L.

Use an old toothbrush and 'scrub' the stain with Ivory soap and a little water, then wash as usual. Since the soap has no oil in it, the stain and soap should wash out in the laundry cycle.
Lorie P.

I work at an espresso bar and have to wear khaki pants/shorts and boy do I ever get stains on them! I have found a stain remover that is really great. It is called Zout Stain Remover. It is concentrated and it gets old stains out too. I heard about it from a friend and tried it out and it works!
Gigi K. in Seattle, WA

If it happens to be an oil based stain, a bar of Fels-Naptha soap rubbed to a foam then washed in hot water with your regular detergent usually works. This bar is sort of hard to find, I called the Dial corp, and they told me where to find it in my area, and sent me some coupons. A bar lasts for a long time if you keep it dry between uses. The phone number is 800-258-3425
TMB

Try Fantastik All Purpose Cleaner for laundry stain removal. It was suggested to me by the lady who runs a local resale shop, where I buy most of my clothes. I have found that it removes most stains without leaving the greasy spot that alot of the stain remover products leave on fabric. If the stain is especially stubborn, I will saturate it, roll up the garment and let it set overnight, spray it again the next day and roll up and leave another night, then wash as directed. It usually works. In fact, I was able to save a favorite shirt (white) that had been almost totally blood soaked, by doing this procedure, for about 5 days in a row. To make the story even more amazing, the shirt had been thrown in a hot water wash and dried in the dryer (which set the stain) before I sprayed the Fantastik on it.
Pam M.

When all else fails on khakis, I wash them in hot water with bleach. This dulls the color but usually removes the stain or at least fades it to wearable. A tightwad tip I got from a Heloise book is to pretreat stains with bar soap with bunched nylon netting around it. I hang the bar by a paperclip through the netting on a side of my hamper that is against the wall. Wet the bar, give it a quick scrub, toss the clothing in the hamper until your laundry day and wash as usual. It's fast, simple, inexpensive, and hasn't failed me yet.
Karen

The following is my strategy for removal of all stains on any washable fabric. Try applying a hand dishwashing detergent, such as Dawn, Sunlight, or Ajax, to the stain. Let it set for a couple hours before washing as you normally would. If it's an old stain, let it set overnight. For an old stain, you may need to repeat the procedure at more than once.
YFM

There is a product called K2R that I find in Walmart. It dries as a powder and then you brush it off. I just used it on my carpet stains and it works great on those too! I can get out most stains that I couldn't get out professionally!
Michelle

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