Stain Remover DIY: The Best Homemade Stain Remover

The stain remover DIY featured in this post is one of many, many formulas I’ve experimented with throughout my blogging career. Though it contains just two ingredients, this stain remover recipe has proven its ability remove tough stains time and time again. 

So what gives this DIY stain remover the power to get stains out of just about anything? Just two simple ingredients: Dawn dish soap and hydrogen peroxide. Together, these miracle cleaners form a stain remover that’s not just easy and cheap to make, but that can handle everything from yellow armpit stains to grease and oil spots on dark fabric.

In my opinion, not only is this the best DIY homemade stain remover out there, but it’s one of the most effective laundry products of any origin!

What’s In This Homemade Stain Remover?

As I mentioned earlier, combination of dish soap and peroxide so effective? A concentrated dish soap like Dawn Ultra is a surfactant that can emulsify oil and water. This unique ability makes it excellent for treating oily stains, as it makes it easier for the wash water to combine with the grease stain and dissolve it.

The other ingredient, hydrogen peroxide, is an oxidizer. Oxidation changes the chemical structure of the molecules that make up stains, including those responsible for its color, helping to break down colorful stains (such as rust stains or red wine stains) in the wash. (It’s also what makes hydrogen peroxide so effective at removing blood stains!)

I’ve been using these two ingredients in my laundry room for years now, but I used to apply them separately. Luckily, it eventually occurred to me that I could save myself a step by combining them into a ready-made DIY laundry stain remover spray! Here’s how you can make it at home.

How To Make My Ultimate Stain Remover Spray

Ingredients:

• 1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid
• 2 parts hydrogen peroxide (3%)

Note: You don’t really need to use a recipe here — just aim to use twice as much peroxide as soap when you mix it up!

Directions:

Add the Dawn and peroxide to a dark-colored spray bottle, replace the top, and tip gently side to side to mix.

It’s important to store this spray in a dark, cool location, as hydrogen peroxide will break down if exposed to light. I’ve got the perfect amber spray bottles in my shop. Made from durable PET plastic, they’re lightweight but still super sturdy (and safe for essential oils). OGT reader Jan R. called them the “best spray bottle I’ve ever used.”

CLICK HERE TO SHOP

How To Use This DIY Laundry Stain Remover

Spray enough of the soap and peroxide mixture on the item to saturate the stain. (You may want to do a spot test on dark fabrics to make sure they’re colorfast, but I will say that I’ve used this spray on all kinds of dark and colorful clothing without any discoloration issues!)

If you’re treating stubborn stains, like underarm stains or ring around the collar, scrub a bit of baking soda into the stain after spraying it using a small scrub brush or old toothbrush. Leave the baking soda on the stain and let it sit for a few minutes before laundering the garment. (If you want to treat a stain now and wash it more than a few hours later, my homemade laundry stain sticks are great for that!) 

Note: I recommend using this spray for laundry stain removal only, as it generates too many suds to easily rinse out of carpet. If you’re interested in a DIY recipe for carpet stains, see my DIY carpet stain spray with white vinegar and borax. For pet stains, there’s a great baking soda and vinegar trick I can recommend!

See The Results For Yourself!

To demonstrate just how effective this easy homemade stain remover is, I purposely soiled a t-shirt with several common stains, then sprayed them thoroughly and gave them a quick scrub with a small brush.

After washing the t-shirt as usual, I couldn’t find a single trace of the original stains. Check out the before and after pictures — I think those are the kind of results that speak for themselves! :-)

Keep This Recipe Handy With A Set Of Spray Bottle Labels!

My ultimate stain remover is one of the four recipes included in my set of laundry recipe spray bottle labels, along with my favorite spray starch recipe, a DIY wrinkle release spray, and my homemade lavender linen spray. These clear, self-adhesive labels are printed with white text, so they’re easy to read when applied to my amber spray bottles. With these labels, you’ll never lose track of the recipes for your favorite homemade laundry products! OGT readers love them just as much as I do:

Thrilled to death with the bottles and labels with directions for filling!

Andrea D.

Love these labels! I’m a sucker for anything that helps me be organized. These don’t cost much, but they keep me straight on what’s in which bottle and how to make refills for my favorite cleaners.

Kitty B.

I love that I don’t have to look for the recipes…they are right on the bottles!!

Donna B.

CLICK HERE TO SHOP

More DIY Laundry Products To Try

This homemade laundry stain remover is just one of many laundry DIYs you can find on my website! I’ve been making and using homemade laundry detergents (including powder, tabs, and liquid) for years, both because they’re effective and much less expensive than store-bought laundry soap.

The same goes for other DIY laundry supplies too, including homemade fabric softeners (and fabric softener crystals), laundry whitener, homemade oxygen bleach, and more. Another benefit to making your own laundry products is that once you have the basic ingredients, you can make a number of useful cleaning solutions for other household tasks!

Do you have a go-to stain remover?