How to Remove Mystery Stains From Clothes

It happens to almost everyone—you see a mystery stain on your clothes and wonder where it came from. Or, if you have little ones in the house, you pull dirty laundry from the family hamper and have no idea what that brown spot or sticky spot is on a shirt.

A stain usually offers three clues—the location of the stain, how the stain smells, and the color of the stain. Like an armchair detective, you will have to identify the stain and then treat accordingly. In most cases, high-quality, heavy-duty laundry detergent will solve the problem. Always use the most gentle stain removal method first on mystery stains.

Before You Begin

Before you begin trying to clean the stain, you should first attempt to determine what caused the stain. The location of the stain is a big clue. For example, food stains are often on the front of the garment or the seat of trousers. Perspiration stains are typically under the sleeves and around the collar. Black grease is often on pants or skirts at car door levels. Bleach stains usually occur around waist level after cleaning in a kitchen or bathroom.

Old oil or grease stains may smell rancid, but appear dry. Gasoline and fuel odors linger, too. Of course, if the color matches a familiar smell, like a brown spot that smells like coffee or chocolate, or a red stain with a berry scent, you have more information to go on.

Typically, if a stain is brown, it is protein-based and needs a product with the enzyme protease as an ingredient (found in most quality laundry detergents). Or, if a stain is gray, it is in the oil or grease family and requires the enzyme lipase to remove the stain; this is also found in most heavy-duty laundry detergents.

The absence of color means that the color has been bleached from the fabric. This is most often caused by splashed or spilled chlorine bleach. There is no way to reverse bleach stains.

Sometimes, stain colors can be misleading. Rust-colored stains may be tea, coffee, caramelized sugar, felt marker, rust oxide, or another culprit. Cosmetics containing benzoyl peroxide can leave rust-colored stains. It may be tempting to use chlorine bleach to remove brown stains on white cotton fabrics, but this should be avoided. If the brown stain is actually rust, chlorine bleach will make the stain permanent.

If the garment is labeled as dry clean only and stain removal cannot wait for a professional cleaner, try spot treating the stain.