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A few weeks ago, an oil spot showed up on one of the DH's favorite sweatshirts. Plus, it had already been through the dryer when it was discovered and then made at least one more trip through the drier before I started working on the stain. I also splattered butter on a fairly new sweater, so I was determined to figure out how to get the stains out.
I went to a great book Queen of Clean Cleans Everything. It's a fantastic book for figuring out how to get almost anything clean, including bad luandry issues. First, I found the recommendation to put WD-40 on it. I sprayed it on, waited five minutes, and then rubbed in dish detergent, as directed by the queen, then laundered as usual. It just left a different stain. Her second suggestion was Zout. I found it for $2.99 at Target and sprayed it on the sweatshirt and another sweater that had set-in stains. One trip through the washer and dryer and both were good as new.
For my money, that's about as good a value as you can get. For $3 I saved two pieces of clothing so far and expect to do the same with more.