How To Remove Grass Stains
From Clothes and Shoes

For parents, there are few things more smile-inducing than listening to your kids joyfully play in the backyard, bubbling with excitement and enjoying the outdoors. Active outside play is both valuable and fun, but it can also bring about some cleaning challenges when your kids come back inside covered with dirt and grass stains.

Getting rid of dirt stains isn’t usually too tough, but laundering grass-stained clothes can be quite the challenge. When you know how to remove grass stains the right way, you can keep those grass stains from ruining your kids’ clothes. Here’s the best process for how to get grass stains out of clothes:

• Pretreat the stain before washing. Fill a sink or tub with cold water. Make a paste-like mixture of powdered detergent and water and apply it to the stain. Allow the garment to sit for up to an hour. 

• Another method for removing grass stains is to use distilled white vinegar. Rub the stain with a 1:1 solution made of vinegar and warm water. Continue until it has been totally removed. 

• If the stain happens to be on a white piece of clothing, it’s safe and effective to use this mixture of bleach (1/4 cup), hydrogen peroxide (1/4 cup), and water (3/4 cup). Cover the stain with the solution and gently rub. Allow it to soak for 30 minutes to an hour.  

• Launder the item as usual only when the stain has completely disappeared. Wash the garment separately in order to protect other clothing items. 

• Never use the dryer until the stains have been entirely removed. Applying high levels of heat to an existing stain will only make it permanent. Generally, allowing the clothes to hang to dry is a good option. 

With lots of outdoor play, grass stains are inevitable, but they don’t have to be a pain. These tips will keep your kids happy and their clothes spotless. 

How To Get Grass Stains Out of Jeans

If there’s one stain removal skill you must have, it’s knowing how to get grass stains out of jeans. Thankfully, you can use a little more elbow grease with jeans than you would with more delicate fabrics and safe stain removers like distilled white vinegar, dish soap, and non-chlorine bleach.

Here’s how to get grass stains out:

• Submerge your stained jeans in a tub of cold water for 30 minutes.
• Remove your jeans, wring them out, and lay them on a flat surface.
• Mix one part distilled white vinegar with one part warm water and soak the stained area.
• Let the solution soak into the fibers for five minutes.
• Grab some dish liquid and scrub it into the stain with a nylon brush.
• Let the dish liquid sit for about 15 minutes and then rinse with cold water.
• Wash your jeans in cold water with regular detergent.
• Hang your jeans to air dry instead of throwing them into the dryer so you can be sure the grass stain is gone.

Once your jeans are dry, you can see if your stain treatment worked. If it didn’t, use a non-chlorine bleach to treat the stain, wash the jeans, and let them line dry in the sun.

How to Get Grass Stains Out of Shoes

You can remove stains from many shoes with a quick pre-treat and a wash. But if you don’t know how to get grass stains out of shoes, they could be ruined. That’s because once grass stains set, they could be there forever. Luckily, all you need to get rid of grass stains is distilled white vinegar, baking soda, a cloth, and a toothbrush:

• Use a bucket outside and fill it with one part vinegar to two parts warm water.
• Submerge your shoes enough to soak the stained area.
• Scrub the stained area with the toothbrush while the stain is underwater.
• If it looks like the stain is gone, remove the shoes and rinse them with cold water.
• If the stain is still visible, make a baking soda paste with water and rub it into the stain.
• Wait 15 minutes and either wash your shoes or rinse them thoroughly.
• If you can still see the grass stain, repeat the process above, starting with the baking soda.

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