I’ve done homemade laundry detergent….my version of OxyClean…foaming hand soap…and stove/kitchen cleaner! It occurred to me today while doing some laundry that the only thing I haven’t tried is a stain pre-treater like “Shout“. Since my bottle was almost empty I figured a little research was called for.
Me and my friend Google found many different “recipes” out there for homemade “Shout“. As usual, they were all pretty similar. The one I decided to try I found at My Kitchen Escapades.
Homemade “Shout” Stain Pre-Treater
2/3 cups Dawn Dishwashing Liquid
2/3 cups ammonia
6 Tblsp baking soda
2 cups warm water
Mix everything together then use a funnel to pour into an old Shout bottle or other spray bottle.
To use: shake bottle then spray on stains as you normally would. I usually let mine “soak in” for a few minutes at least. Then launder as usual.
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| (I only had this tiny spray bottle available, so I put the rest in an empty spaghetti jar.) |
I used this formulation a couple of times this past weekend and found it every bit as effective as that “other pre-treater that shall not be named”.
I made this a couple of weeks ago so I had to come back and tell you how much I love it! I accidentally washed my husband's clothes with a highlighter in one of the pairs of pants. It was pretty bad…. yellow all over his favorite jeans. I put the homemade shout on, rubbed it in a little bit and put it back in the washer. It saved his jeans! Thank you! :)
p.s. I used the bright pink palmolive oxy instead of dawn
Can I use this with dirty cloth diapers?
Thanks for all the advice!
Does this work to get those white baseball pants clean?
Thank you! I'm going to try this for sure!
wOw,I am so sUper excited to try this! thanks so much for sharing with everyone :) off to walmart I go (:
I made this and tripled the recipe. The small bottle of Palmolive is exactly 16 ounces (2 Cups). That way I don't have to measure the Palmolive out and then try to get it out of the measuring cup. I had a empty spray bottle which I filled up, then I had about a 1/2 gallon left over that I put in a recycled orange juice container. Perfect now I have plenty for several months.
For the ones of you having trouble with the baking soda, try to disolve it first in the warm water. That's how I did mine and yes some does still settle to the bottom, but i just shake it up a little and I don't have any problem with it.
If you are still having issues with it what I would do is transfer the stain remover to a empty dish soap bottle, that way you don't have to deal with it stopping up the sprayer. I found a old bottle of Spray and Wash stain remover in my laundry cabinet and the bottle was one that was similiar to a dish soap bottle, so my guess is before they put this stuff in spray bottles they probably use to put it in those pull top bottles.
Chris in FL
Chris, that was great advice. Sometimes it’s the LITTLE things (like a stupid clogged spray bottle) that end up sabotaging my efforts to be frugal and/or natural. LOL
Is the amonia safe for colors?
From what I’ve seen on the carpet cleaning post, ammonia does not ‘bleach’ like bleach does
can you use ajax dishwashing liquid or just pomolive or dawn. thank you
I’ve been using this stain remover for several months now and I just wanted to tell you how great it is!!
Bleach and Ammonia are Explosive and the Vapors will burn your lungs !! Seriously, look it up…
I want to try this, but knowing that Bleach is used heavily in washing clothes, its just to risky !!
so don’t use bleach or bleach-containing detergent in your laundry loads, seems easy enough…
So don’t inhale it. Just about everything in our homes (and outside) is toxic if inhaled or ingested.
You can’t combine Oxy-clean or Biz with Bleach either, and they are sold as laundry products.
I have used ammonia as a stain remover for years. I just make sure that once I have worked the stain out, I rinse it really well.
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Sadly, this did not work for my laundry. Hubs is a driver for a steel recycling company and gets into some really greasy dirt. I had to wash his tshirts with this plus detergent 3 times to remove the stains. Any idea how to fortify this formula to make it work better on these tough stains? I am so sick and tired of shelling out so much money for commercial stain removers.
On really tough grease, you can try pre-treating with WD-40 and then following with this stain treatment. Or buy a degreaser that isn’t a stain remover and use it on his clothes; I have used Greased Lightning with some success & it is cheaper in the long run than stain removers.
I’ll try the WD40 and maybe the Greased Lightening too, thanks! I once even bought an automotive engine degreaser but the smell was so nasty.
I saw a tidbit on Oprah once, a lady said use the WD-40 reactivate the grease stain, then use dish soap to remove both the stain and the WD-40.
Instead of baking soda, can borax be used?
I have great luck removing stains with my homemade dry laundry soap. I just we the stain, rub in some hm dry laundry soap, let it sit for an hr or so and wash as usual. That technique removed a dryed in grease stain from a beloved pink jacket of mine. It took 2 times, but well worth the effort.
Borax is the bomb. lol
Can I use instead of ammonia vinegar?
Vinegar would probably work fine in this. I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how effective it will be compared to the original recipe.
I tried this on my son’s MUDDY White football jersey. Worked like a charm, no traces of mud at all, looks like new! Thanks for all your hints and tips, enjoy your log.
I’m having trouble! My husband and kids say they don’t think the clothes are getting clean. They have a sower oder to them. not every load, just some times. then when you get that smell in your clothes it is hard to get rid of it. I try soaking in vinegar. help any suggestions on why this is happening? they keep telling me to go buy real detergent. any suggestions how to get rid of smell?
It might be your washing machine. Sometimes the mildew odor gets inside the machine and it then transfers to the clothes. You can buy washing machine cleaner in the laundry aisle. Also, if it’s just certain loads, it might be that you accidently let them sit in the washer too long before transferring them to the dryer. Towels are particularly susceptible to this. Search for how to remove mildew smell from clothes wikihow has a good article on this. Good luck!
Try washing them with borax. It removes that sour oder some people get in their clothes from not leaving the front loader door open.
When I have forgotten a load in the washer and it’s getting that smell, I rewash in warm with a little detergent (I use Jillee’s homemade powder) and about 1/2 cup to 1 cup (depends on size of load) of baking soda. Always does the trick!
Your stain remover sounds great, I’m looking forward to trying it out. One question, though. Can you treat the stain and then leave it in the basket until wash day? That is one of the things I appreciate about “Shout”. Thanks!
Sounds awesome! We don’t use Dawn or Palmolive – has any used 7th generation dish washing liquid? Did it work?
I had a different “recipe” for a stain remover and found that using Dawn in the mixture did not work well in my front loader (as in, created lots and lots of suds and completely shut my washer, down). Has anyone tried this with a front load washer?
Is there something I can use besides ammonia? I don’t use ammonia b/c it is toxic.
I’m with you. I prefer to not use ammonia in anything. One person mentioned vinegar. I might try that. Or google it first.