How to Get Honey Out of Clothes

Drizzling a heaped teaspoon of honey across your pancakes and indulging in the golden goodness is one of the best ways to kick-start a hectic week!

That is until you get a little sloppy and feed some of the sticky spread to your jeans instead. That’s not quite so good.

The bee-st thing to do in this situation is to act fast and get rid of the sweet, gloopy mess before it taints other surfaces. Read on to find out how to remove honey from outfits.

 

Things to Remember When Treating Honey Stains

• Don’t scrub or rub the honey stain. Scrubbing forces the honey deeper into the material’s fibres. This can make removing the honey more difficult.
• Keep the honey contained in one area. Always work from the outside of the stain towards its centre.
• Act fast! The sooner you remove the honey from the surface, the better your chances are of clearing the entire blemish. Plus, fresh stains are far easier to eradicate than older ones.
• Use cold water to treat the honey mark initially. Only use hot water when instructed.
• Test your chosen cleaning solution out. Do a discreet patch test to ensure the product you’re about to use won’t damage your garment further. If there is an adverse effect, stop using the solution and find something else.
• Always read and adhere to the washing instructions on the care label. Not sticking to what the care tag says could result in you ruining your outfit.
• Don’t dry an item of clothing until it’s completely free from honey. Heat will set the stain and it will be challenging to get rid of. Check the item of clothing after you wash it, and re-treat it if necessary.
• You may have to repeat the methods listed below more than once to remove an entire honey stain. This is not uncommon.
• After treating your honey-blemished item of clothing, you must launder it. Wash your item at the hottest water temperature permitted for the material, and use detergent to clean your garment.

 

Method to Remove Honey from Clothes

What you’ll need:

• Teaspoon
• Running cold water
• Biological liquid laundry detergent
• Laundering method: washing machine or hand washing tools
• Optional: Cup
• Optional: White vinegar

 

Steps to follow:

1. Remove the item of clothing from your person.
2. Use a teaspoon to scrape off the excess honey.
3. Flush cold water through the back of the honey blemish.
4. Coat the stain in biological liquid laundry detergent.
5. Wait five minutes.
6. Launder the item of clothing as usual.
7. Optional: Add half a cup of white vinegar to the cycle to remove the stain’s remains.
8. Only dry the item when it is free from honey.

 

Alternatives methods

Washing up liquid

Instead of coating your honey stain in liquid laundry detergent, blot it with some washing up liquid. The dishwashing cleaner will act as a degreaser in this case.

Repeatedly blot the honey blemish until the sticky substance and all of its colour have transferred onto your neutral-coloured cloth.

When you’re done, you can flush hot water through the back of the item to push out more of the honey. Then, launder your outfit as usual.

 

Cornflour

If you’re not able to treat the honey blemish immediately, scrape as much of the sweet treat off your item as you can, then cover the area with cornflour. The cornflour will absorb the sticky honey, and you can treat it later in the day (follow the steps above).

 

Rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide (for white clothes only)

If you’re having trouble removing the golden stain from an item, clean it with rubbing alcohol OR hydrogen peroxide (3%).

• Rubbing alcohol: Pour a small measure of the liquid into a shallow dish, dip a neutral-coloured cloth into it, wring it out and repeatedly dab the stain. Watch as the colour transfers from the outfit to the cloth. When you’ve finished blotting, run hot water through the back of the honey stain to dislodge even more of it. Launder your item when you’re ready.
• Hydrogen peroxide: Dilute a dose of hydrogen peroxide in water. Then, dip a neutral-coloured cloth into the solution, wring it out and repeatedly dab the honey stain. The colour will transfer from the garment to the cloth. Rinse the stain with hot water and launder your piece when you’re done.

 

Stain remover

If you’d prefer to try an official stain remover, consider using Vanish Oxi Action Stain Remover. It’s an all-around blemish remover that can be used as a pre-wash treatment, soaking solution or an in-wash stain remover. It’s also safe for colourful garments and works at cooler temperatures.

If you’re treating white laundry, use Vanish’s Oxi Action Whitener and Stain Remover instead. The chlorine-free formula whitens dull laundry and can take out deep blemishes.

 

Dry cleaning

For ‘Dry Clean Only’, delicate and vintage items, you should carefully scrape as much honey off the surface as possible, dab the stain with a neutral-coloured, damp cloth and take the piece to a dry cleaning store.

A professional at the store will be able to manage the cleaning from here. If you’ve acted quickly, the honey blemish should easily lift off the material, and you won’t be left with a horrible stain.

To find a dry cleaning store near you, do an online search. Pick a reputable company/person who has a wealth of experience and good reviews.

 

How Do You Clean Dried Honey Off Clothes?

You can try to use the method above to remove dried honey from your items. However, aged honey can be challenging to remove, so you’ll likely see mixed results by the end of the treatment.

When it comes to older honey blemishes, you’re better off targeting the stains with a tougher cleaning agent like bleach.

Soak the stained piece in diluted oxygen bleach overnight (see package for exact dosage), check it the next day, rinse it, and launder it if the honey blemishes are completely gone.

For white clothes and hard-wearing materials, you can soak them in chlorine bleach. After soaking the entire item in bleach, rinse it off, then wash it as usual.

You can repeat this process to remove the toughened honey mark if needed.

Note: The garment must be bleach-friendly before you try this method out.

 

Does Honey Always Come Out of Clothes?

If you react quickly and remove the honey stain with the right tools and cleaners, you stand a good chance of clearing the sticky blemish from your garment.

However, if you allow the honey to dry and age, it will be trickier to remove. These stains are not necessarily impossible to eradicate, but they often require more time, energy and stronger cleaning solutions.

In the worst case, you may be left with a faint trace of a honey blemish on your outfit if you don’t treat it effectively or in time.

 

Does Honey Come Off in the Wash?

Just washing honey-stained clothes will remove some honey from them. However, it’s better for your clothes if you pre-treat them and then clean them. Essentially, the pre-treatment breaks down the stain and the washing cycle clears away the remaining honey residue.