Tired of gross sweat stains on your sheets and blankets? See this amazing tip on how to easily remove sweat stains from sheets. Your laundry will brand new!
Do you ever wash your sheets but skip the mattress pad or blankets? I am a weekly sheet washer, but I do the mattress pad occasionally.
Recently, I had noticed our pad was gross even after washing. When I saw the tip of using dish soap on clothes to get rid of the grime I had to give it a try!
If you are tired of sweat-stained sheets, check out these simple tips on how to get sweat stains out of sheets. You won't believe how well it works!
How To Remove Sweat Stains From Sheets
Check out my nasty mattress pad below! It is so gross.
If you are dealing with sweat stains on sheets look no further than this simple tip. You can easily remove sweat stains from sheets in your washing machine.
Items Needed To Remove Sweat Stains From Sheets & Blankets
You will need a few things to really get the sweat stains out of the sheets.
- Dish soap (I love Dawn dish soap)
- Borox
- Hot water (this is an important part!)
So grab some laundry detergent, borax, dish soap, and of course, sweaty sheets or blankets, and let's get started!
Let The Sweat Stained Sheets Soak
To start, you need some really hot water. To clean the stains off your sheets or blankets, start the washer on the hottest setting possible.
Add the sheets or blankets to the washer. Make sure they have plenty of room to agitate in the machine.
Then add about 1 cup of borax and 2 tablespoons dish soap to the washing machine. Depending on what brand of dish soap you use you may want to add a little more or a little less. Borax for sweat stains works great!
Note
I really don't recommend using a vegetable-based soap like Dr. Bronners here. Good old fashioned Dawn or Palmolive works best.
Next, let the machine start running for a few minutes to make sure that all of the dish soap and borax are mixed into the water.
Tip
This is a really important step because you want to make sure the dish soap fully mixes in with the water and gets to all the sheets.
Then stop your machine and let the load sit for about 1 hour. If it is a little longer than an hour, don't worry. That is what makes this tip so easy. Set it and go run some errands.
Wash the Sheets
Now that we have let the sheets soak for an hour you can wash them to remove the sweat stains.
After 1 hour, start the machine and let it run all the way through. I usually set the machine for an extra rinse at the end when I am doing this, too.
If you have an extra rinse cycle, I recommend using it. It will help remove more of the sweat stain and get out any detergent or residue in your sheets.
I usually recommend using the extra rinse cycle on all sheet and towel loads.
Repeat if Necessary
When the machine is done, remove the sheets and blankets to see if the stains are gone.
If they aren't, you can always go through the steps one more time.
Make sure you are using hot water and enough dish soap.
If there is just a small spot or two left, you may want to pretreat the sweat stain by adding a little squirt of dish soap to the stain.
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Then let it sit for about 5 minutes before rewashing.
The first time I tried this process, I had to do it twice to get the year's worth of stains from our stuff.
Now, one time usually takes care of all the stains. Once all the stains are gone, I like to wash it one time through with regular detergent.
Follow the drying directions on the items, and you are done!
I can not believe the difference it made in my mattress pad. You can see the before and after below. It is absolutely amazing!
Preventing Sweat Stains
If you regularly have sweat stains on sheets, you can help prevent them from getting bad by adding a small squirt of dish soap to your load each time you wash them.
This will help keep the body oils and sweat stains away. It's easy to do and only takes a minute.
I am amazed at how well this simple trick does at removing all of our disgusting stains.
It works great and the machine does all of the work. If only all stains were this easy. 😉
I have found the borax/dish soap combo works great to get your pillow sweat stains out too. You can see how to machine wash your pillows here.
Susan Abernathy says
Is this method safe for my bamboo sheets which are turning a dingy grey where there is body heat?
Lindsey Mozgai says
My fiance sweats a lot in bed, but it doesn't appear to leave any stains. Maybe it's because we have dark sheets? I know they're there because when he first gets up you can see them. Should I do this method or would a regular wash cycle do the trick?
Julie says
If you don't see stains you probably don't need to bother with the method. Our sheets are darker so I don't notice it. It's our mattress pad that always looks awful.
Briana says
I have white linen napkins and tablecloths passed down from my grandmother that have stains. I wonder if this would be safe to try on them. Anyone have an idea?
Julie says
I would be a little nervous to use this on an heirloom. Maybe try it on one napkin first and see if it does any damage? Definitely make sure you run it on the gentle cycle if you try it.
Julie says
How would you recommend doing this in an HE, front-loading washer?
Julie says
Hi Julie! My sister was asking me the same question. I would recommend trying the borax on the hottest setting and maybe skip the dish soap. She is going to try it out with dish detergent instead so I will let you know how that goes. I have heard that dish detergent won't suds like dish soap does.
Julie says
Yes, please let me know!