Tips For Removing Sweat Stains From Textiles

Removing sweat stains from textiles can be a challenge, especially with delicate laundry.

Removing sweat stains from textiles is often not easy, especially when it comes to fabrics that cannot be washed at high temperatures. But with a few tips and tricks, it is still possible. We’ll show you how!

Why is it so difficult to remove sweat stains from textiles?

Removing sweat stains from textiles is often not easy. Sweat stains usually consist not only of the body’s own sweat, but are often complex compounds that the sweat forms with the deodorant and the textiles.

Therefore, not every sweat stain is the same and not every stain can be removed equally well or with difficulty.

Many people do not know this problem because every person has a different composition of body sweat and there are countless combinations of deodorant + sweat + textile fiber.

It is therefore possible that not every method always works equally well to remove sweat stains from textiles. It is possible that one method does not work at all, while the other removes stains perfectly. Nevertheless, you should try the following remedies!

vinegar

Sweat stains don’t like acid. Therefore, vinegar is the first choice if you want to remove stubborn sweat stains from textiles.

Make sure that you use white wine vinegar or – even better – vinegar essence, because these are colorless and do not distort the result! Vinegar essence is available in small bottles from discount grocery stores or as branded goods in supermarkets.

Soak the affected garment in a strong vinegar solution for at least overnight and then rub out the stains. Then put the dripping wet piece in the washing machine as usual and wash it with your usual detergent. The vinegar smell disappears when washing and then drying!

You can also treat stubborn stains directly with vinegar essence. To do this, soak the stain directly with the vinegar essence and leave it on overnight. As a preventive measure, we recommend wetting fresh sweat stains with vinegar essence before each wash!

citric acid

Citric acid is also well suited to remove such stubborn sweat stains from textiles. In addition to acidity, citric acid also has a bleaching effect when the textiles hang in the sun.

Therefore only use citric acid on white textiles! You can get citric acid in the drugstore as a powder. Alternatively, you can also use bottled lemon juice from the small plastic lemon bottles or you can squeeze your own juice.

Make an acidic solution out of the powder or juice, in which you soak the garment at least overnight, as described above for the vinegar.

Then rub the stain out and wash as usual. If the stain is still visible after washing, apply citric acid or lemon juice directly.

Soak the stain with the solution or the juice and hang the garment in the blazing sun so that the UV rays can work together with the lemon to take effect.

Please only use with white clothing, colored textiles could fade!

Washing soda

Washing soda only works in warm water. The hotter the water, the greater the effect. Therefore, please do not use washing soda if the textiles can only tolerate delicate or hand washing or low washing temperatures!

You can get washing soda in the drugstore. Use gloves as it dries out the skin very much due to its high fat dissolving power!

Dissolve the washing soda in hot water according to the label and soak the affected textiles in it. Rub and rub the stains or use a washing brush.

Once the water has cooled down, you can put the clothes dripping wet in the washing machine and start a normal wash cycle.

alcohol

In the pharmacy you can get pure alcohol for medical purposes. You can also use this for laundry care.

Some sweat stains can be easily removed from the textile fibers with pure alcohol, others not. It’s worth a try!

Soak the stain in the alcohol and rub it on. Let the alcohol work for as long as possible (it evaporates, so re-treat more often!) And then wash the textile in the washing machine in the correct program with a suitable detergent.

baking powder

Many swear by baking soda against sweat stains. This method is gentle on the textiles and completely unproblematic.

Wet the sweat stain and rub some baking soda into the stain. A paste should form that you rub over the stain like a kind of cream. Just before the paste dries up, put the garment in the washing machine and wash it as usual.

Some also swear by a combination of baking soda with lemon, vinegar or alcohol to remove sweat stains from textiles. Try it!