How to wash kitchen curtains and tulle from greasy stains

by Abbas Jahangir · July 10, 2024

Which curtains get dirty most often? Kitchen curtains, of course. Splashes from the stove and accidental touches from dirty hands often leave oily marks on them. How can you effectively wash curtains from greasy stains?

Preparing for cleaning

Before moving on to active actions, it is necessary to evaluate the following points:

The scale of the disaster. Washing is stressful for any fabric, even the most durable one. If the stain is isolated, it makes sense to try to remove it locally, without removing the curtain from the rod.
Time of appearance of oil trace. It is not so difficult to remove fresh stains with gentle detergents. Stubborn stains will require aggressive cleaners, soaking and washing.
The type of fabric the curtain is made of. Different materials react differently to the same cleaning methods. While linen and cotton react calmly to most substances, polyester and viscose are selective.

Once all the questions have been answered, you can begin to select a cleaning agent and treatment method.

Removing fresh stains with improvised means

If the greasy stain has just appeared and there is no desire or opportunity to remove the kitchen curtain from the cornice, the following products are suitable as cleaners:

Dishwashing gel. Wipe the stain with a cotton pad soaked in warm water. Then use it to carefully apply the detergent to the stain. After 15-20 minutes, use a damp swab again to remove the greasy stain.
“Pemolux”. The powder is poured onto a gauze pad or cotton wool and rubbed into the contaminated cloth moistened with water. When the product dries, its remains should be brushed off with a sponge.
Soda and lemon juice. Place your palm under the stained area so that the fabric takes a horizontal position. Sprinkle the stain with lemon juice and sprinkle soda on top. When the hissing stops, leave the curtain for a quarter of an hour, and then wash off the remaining cleaner. Before use, it is worth considering that lemon juice has a weak bleaching effect.
Starch(talc, crushed chalk, tooth powder) or salt. The product is poured onto the greasy stain in several stages, each time scraping off the powder that has absorbed the oil. In order not to hold the curtain while the substance is in action, it is diluted with water to a slurry state and only then applied to the stain.

The curtains are washed from the inside, pressing a paper towel to the front side. To prevent the formation of halos around the area of contamination, before cleaning the edges of the stain are moistened with water or sprinkled with starch (chalk, talc).

If the stains are fresh but numerous, the best way to remove them is to soak them in one of the following solutions:

Laundry soap and soda. Rub the curtain with a bar and dip it into a warm soda solution (1 teaspoon per 10 liters). Wash after 3 hours.
Dishwashing liquid and washing powder(1 tbsp. per 5 l). Soak the curtain for half an hour.
A solution of table salt(30 g per 5 l). The curtain is immersed in a basin for an hour and a half, then washed. If the stains do not come off, the soaking time is doubled.

Fresh oil stains from durable fabrics can be removed with a hot iron. Place napkins on both sides of the stain and iron until all the grease is absorbed into the paper. You can sprinkle crushed chalk on the place where the iron touches the fabric and then cover it with a napkin.

Household chemicals for removing greasy stains

If you do not trust gentle folk methods, you can turn to household chemicals. For soaking curtains, including white ones, “Bos Plus Maximum” is suitable, for colored ones – Vanish OXI Action. Also effective:

Stain remover pencil, for example: Faberlic, Meine Liebe, and also roller Dr. Beckmann. The area of the curtain with the stain is moistened and then treated with a cleaner. After 10 minutes, the product is washed off with warm water.
Dry spray against stains. The stain remover is sprayed on the greasy print and left until it dries completely. When the aerosol turns into white flakes, it is cleaned off the curtain with a dry brush. For curtains of any color and texture, the following are suitable, for example: Bagi, SC Johnson Europlant BV Shout, Amway PreWash Spray (also suitable for white curtains).

We remove old stains

It is a little more difficult to wash out ingrained grease stains. Various methods and means are used for this.

Mechanical cleaning method. The section of the curtain with ingrained fat is brought to the spout of a boiling kettle or held over a saucepan with steam pouring out for several minutes. After that, it is washed in a soap solution. A stronger effect is achieved by treating the stain with a steam generator.
Household chemicals (for example, Udalix, Astonish, ACE, SARMA). When choosing an industrial product, you should focus on the color and composition of the product.
Grease from white curtains can be easily removed using laundry soap with a bleaching effect.
Home cleaners. Old greasy stains can be effectively combated with substances that can be found in any kitchen, pantry or home medicine cabinet. They are used separately and in the following combinations:

Ammonia (60 ml), 9% vinegar (60 ml), table salt (30 g). The mixture is thoroughly rubbed into the dirty material and left for a quarter of an hour.
Laundry soap and ethyl alcohol (arbitrary proportions).
Acetone and purified gasoline, taken in equal parts.
3% hydrogen peroxide dissolved in water (30 ml per 1 l). The curtain is soaked in the solution for an hour and a half.
Aqueous solution of 9% vinegar (15 ml per 1 l). Exposure time to contamination is 1-3 hours.
Ammonia (5 ml), glycerin (15 ml), water (15 ml). The mixture is applied to the product for 15 minutes.

After local stain cleaning, the curtains should be washed by hand or in a washing machine.

Some of the substances listed (peroxide, vinegar, acetone) can discolor fabric, so they should only be used on colored items after preliminary testing.

As we can see, there is no shortage of means and methods for removing grease from curtains. The main thing is to remember that the sooner the contamination is treated, the greater the chances of returning the curtains to their original cleanliness.