How to Remove Bacon Grease From Clothing

Clearly, you really enjoyed your breakfast, and you have the bacon grease stain on your shirt to prove it. Getting bacon grease out of clothes is something that every bacon enthusiast needs to know how to do. With most cotton and synthetic fabrics, the best grease remover for clothes is currently sitting by your kitchen sink. Once you master this cleaning technique, the hardest part about dropping your bacon isn't getting the stain out of your clothes – it's deciding whether the five-second rule applies.

Getting bacon grease out of clothes always starts with pretreatment. Act quickly to keep the stain from setting in. If you get a bacon grease stain while you're away from home, try sprinkling salt over the area to absorb some of the oil and minimize the damage until you can get home.

When you're ready to treat the stain, don't reach for the laundry detergent. Despite being formulated to clean fabric, it's not necessarily the best grease remover for clothes. Treating a bacon grease stain calls for something that was designed to treat food stains: dish soap. It's great at cutting through the grease on the pan you used to cook the bacon, and it should be able to cut through that same grease on your T-shirt, jeans or other machine-washable fabrics.

Squirt dish soap over the spot and rub the fabric together to work the soap into the grease and then let the clothing sit for about 10 minutes before washing. Alternatively, apply a laundry pretreatment spray or foam to the grease or use a laundry stain remover pen to pretreat the area.

Once you've pretreated the bacon grease stain, wash machine-safe clothes like normal using your normal detergent. Don't move them straight into the dryer, however. Examine the clothing carefully after it comes out of the washing machine to see if any of the stain remains. Better yet, let the fabric air dry completely so you can accurately assess the stain.

If you can still see any remaining grease in the fabric, try repeating the pretreatment process and wash the clothes again. Don't put anything marked by grease into the dryer or the stain will be set by the heat, and you probably won't be able to do anything more to get rid of it.

Maybe you were enjoying some bacon in your Sunday best, and now there's a stain on something made of silk, leather, suede or another expensive natural fabric. They require a little more care than your cotton or synthetic clothes do.

The best grease remover for clothes made of silk is something that will absorb the oil. Sprinkle talcum powder, cornstarch or baking soda over the stain and let it sit overnight. If the stain remains in the morning, try rubbing a little clear dish soap into the area or take the silk clothing to the dry cleaner so you don't risk causing permanent damage. To remove bacon grease from leather clothing, let an absorber like talcum powder or baking soda sit on the stain overnight. After shaking off any powder in the morning, clean grease stains from leather using a leather cleaner and brush.

Getting bacon grease out of clothes made from suede may be even harder than cleaning them from silk or leather fabrics, partly because even a minor oil stain may be highly visible on suede. Leave cornstarch or another absorbing powder on the stain until you notice the powder looking caked or greasy. Brush it away with a clean toothbrush or other stiff brush and then repeat this process until the powder no longer seems to be pulling oil from the fabric. If a visible stain remains, use a suede cleaning kit or bring it to a dry cleaner.