I Tried 5 Different Ways to Remove Blueberry Stains, and the Winner Surprised Me
When my family and I lived in Florida, we would go blueberry picking every summer and hurry home to make blueberry buckle and blueberry ice cream with our hand-harvested berries. Since moving to Tennessee, we haven’t gotten a chance to go blueberry picking, but we still, at the very least, make blueberry buckle. An inevitable part of all this delicious blueberry fun is the potential for stubborn stains — which is why in honor of blueberry season, I went on a hunt to learn how to get blueberry stains out.
I decided to try out several popular methods for removing blueberry stains to find out which one would be the most effective. I tried out the boiling water and vinegar methods featured on The Kitchn, a toothpaste and hand soap method I found on a Reddit thread about baby-led weaning, a popular enzyme-based stain remover, and pre-treatment laundry detergent solution that’s been super successful. Here’s how it went.
How I Tested the Methods
To test the methods, I sacrificed one of my husband’s white undershirts. (It was too big for him and wasn’t getting worn anyway.) I stained four separate sections of the shirt with both raw and cooked blueberries (from a freshly made blueberry buckle!). I labeled each section, corresponding to the method sections below.
Before using each method, I used the blunt edge of a butter knife to scrape away as many solids as I could, just as you should do when treating stains in real life. After completing each of the methods, I laundered the shirt with regular laundry detergent in the washing machine.
Ratings: I rated the methods on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. I rated both the results and the ease of use.
Methods 1 and 2: Boiling Water and Vinegar
Results: 4.5/5
Ease of Use: 3/5
Method: For the first method, I turned the shirt inside out and ran boiling hot water through the fibers of the shirt from the back. Turning the shirt inside out ensures the stain comes out of the fabric rather than being pushed farther in. The stain was still visible after the boiling water, so I proceeded to the second part of this trick (aka method two). I turned the shirt right-side out again, filled a small bowl with straight distilled white vinegar, and soaked this section of the shirt in the vinegar for over an hour.
How it went: Boiling water alone worked well enough, but using vinegar after was even better. Although there were a few steps and the soaking took a while, the steps were easy to implement, inexpensive, and readily available. Additionally, and most importantly, the results were impressive. I was shocked at how well the boiling water alone worked to remove the stains. The vinegar on top of the boiling water got even more of the stain out.
Method 3: Toothpaste and Hand Soap
Results: 2/5
Ease of Use: 2/5
Method: To use this method, I got some white toothpaste and some hand soap. I worked the toothpaste into the stain with my finger and then squirted some hand soap onto the stain, working that into the stain with my finger as well. I let this sit on the stain for about 15 minutes and then I soaked the stain in cool water, per the instructions on Reddit.
How it went: The items I needed for this method were also inexpensive and readily available. Hands-on time was similar to the boiling water and vinegar method, and soaking time was similar as well. However, the results were lackluster, especially compared to the previous method. The intensity of the stain was reduced compared to before treatment, but the stain was still dark and intense.
Method 4: Enzyme-Based Stain Remover
Results: 4/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Method: To use this method, I simply sprayed Miss Mouth’s Messy Eater Stain Treater Spray on the blueberry stains.
How it went: Almost immediately, the blueberry stains lightened before my eyes. Plus, this method was super simple to use. The only drawback is that you might not have an enzyme-based cleaner on hand when you need to treat blueberry stains. The stain spray is about $8, which is reasonable for an effective stain treatment (especially if it saves a garment), but costs more than the other methods.
Method 5: Pre-Treat with Detergent
Results: 3/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
Method: Pre-treating stains with laundry detergent is easy. I poured a small amount of liquid detergent into the container’s lid. Then I poured this onto the stain and worked it in with my fingers. I let this sit for over an hour before tossing into the washing machine.
How it went: This method used laundry detergent that I already had and it was super fast to implement. It definitely lightened the stain, but not enough to save a stained garment.
Conclusion
Before I discuss the winning method, a few things to note: I really worked both the fresh and cooked blueberries into the fabric. This wouldn’t happen in real life, with the possible exception of a baby eating blueberries. Additionally, the cooked blueberries came out of the shirt much more readily than the raw blueberries. This is bad news or good news, depending on how the blueberry stains happened.
Now on to the winner. Of all the methods I tried, the best method by far was the boiling water and white vinegar method. I was surprised, not only by the fact that this method was the most effective, but also by how well it worked. This is great because hot water and distilled white vinegar are easily available in most households.
Although the stain wasn’t removed completely, I wonder if repeating the method would get the stain all the way out. I also wonder if I hadn’t squished the blueberries so much into the fibers, if the stains would have been completely removed with this method.
Miss Mouth’s Messy Eater Stain Treater Spray or another enzymatic cleaner would be my second pick. It was so easy to use, and if you weren’t able to spend the time doing the boiling water and vinegar trick then spraying the stain would give you a fighting chance of removing it. Plus, you can easily bring this with you everywhere you go.
