How do I get blood out of sheets that have been washed?

November 22, 2013 2:17 PM

I have a 3-4 quarter sized blood stains on white sheets. The sheets were laundered and ran through a dryer. Anyway to get it out? They're definitely a lighter color then before, but still visible since the sheets are white.

If it matters it is menstrual blood. I've seen a dozen things on the internet on getting blood out and they're all ... different. A lot of them are geared towards fresh stains too unfortunately.

posted by geoff. to Home & Garden (27 answers total)

You should be able to bleach out the stain with white fabrics.
posted by DoubleLune at 2:19 PM on November 22, 2013

If that doesn't work, my mom gave me Wash Away and it's pretty magical.
posted by DoubleLune at 2:20 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

There's a lot of methods because there are many different ways of getting blood out of sheets.

My MO is an old toothbrush (used for cleaning grout, etc) and a bar of regular old soap. Takes a bit of elbow grease, though.
posted by homodachi at 2:22 PM on November 22, 2013

I have had good luck with pre-treating with liquid detergent, then soaking in Oxiclean.
posted by ambrosia at 2:22 PM on November 22, 2013

Hydrogen peroxide works well for me. If you have white sheets, bleach should do the trick too.
posted by Comrade_robot at 2:28 PM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

The 99 Cent Store carries a brand of stain remover called Soilove that is *amazing.* I used to work a food service service job that required a white uniform (terrible, terrible idea) and it was a godsend. You can probably get it other places, too, but that's always where I've found it. It works better than bleach. Just be sure to use plenty of it, and let it soak into the fabric for about an hour before washing.

You might want to let the sheets soak before putting them through the washer's cycle, as well. If you use a top-loading washer, you can just start the cycle, wait until the washer fills with hot water, and then prop the lid. I'd let the sheets sit for about half an hour, possibly forty minutes. Then close the lid and you can put them through the rest of the washing cycle. If you don't use a top-loading washer, you can soak the sheets in a bucket, a sink, or a bathtub, depending on how much space you need. Again, a half hour, forty-minute soak is good. Just make sure to put them directly into the washer after you finish soaking them, because otherwise the water will discolor them as it dries.

For the soak and wash, you might want to add bleach and Borax as well as detergent. Most grocery stores carry Borax and it's only a few bucks for a big box -- it makes a surprisingly huge difference in how clean your clothes get from a wash in general.

Also, you might want to pre-wash the sheets if you used fabric softener when you dried them last time, because the fabric softener coats them and makes them less responsive to stain-removing stuff.
posted by rue72 at 3:00 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it's some trick of anatomy or the way I sleep or what, but this is an almost monthly occurrence for me and my white sheets. I use Spray & Wash Stain Stick (a wonderful product, really effective on all kinds of stains), then wash with chlorine bleach. Done.
posted by HotToddy at 3:08 PM on November 22, 2013

In future try spitting on them :-o if you can conjure enough up ... it's something to do with having the same enzymes as blood.. and/or leave soaking in cold soapy water.
posted by tanktop at 3:08 PM on November 22, 2013

I just had to go through this and you have to work harder because the stain has gone through the dryer. What worked was 1) soak the stains in cold water and bleach for 20 minutes; 2) rub the stains hard with salt and let the salt sit on top of the stain for another 20 minutes (this really worked to lift the broken-down stain) 3) rinse in cold water 4) launder in Oxyclean.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:13 PM on November 22, 2013

Well ventilated area. A half cup of peroxide and a half cup of ammonia. kind of twist the part(s) of the sheet with the blood up a bit, loosely, so they fit into the bowl with the mixture.

Do not use this solution on anything that might have any bleach in it.

Soak from a half hour to a few hours. Wash in cold water with your regular detergent.. Inspect thoroughly before drying.

This has worked on the most wretched white period panties even after they've been washed and dried repeatedly. (Though now I use black panties for that particular week. Because you were wondering, right?)
posted by bilabial at 3:17 PM on November 22, 2013

Yeah, the one great thing about white sheets is that whatever you get on them, you can bleach it. This is why hotels have white sheets. Try that first, get fancy only if for some reason the results aren't working out. A lot of the more complicated advice for stuff like this is geared towards people who've got colored/patterned linens.
posted by Sequence at 3:50 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't like using bleach on my linens, so I do the following on new and old blood stains: soak with a bit of peroxide, rinse with cold water, spritz with Zout or some other laundry treatment and let sit for a while, and then an extra long soak/wash cycle (leave the lid open and keep resetting it to agitate every so often for a few hours) in HOT water with lots of Oxiclean.
posted by elsietheeel at 3:50 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have not found bleach to work well for laundered blood stains. Hydrogen peroxide soaked liberally on the spots, followed by toothbrush scrubbings with more hydrogen peroxide mixed with Dawn dishwashing liquid. When washing, run the sheets through only the washer before reviewing the stains. If they are still there, repeat as needed. Do not dry again until you are satisfied with the results. Additional cycles may also include soaks with various spot removers.
posted by RoadScholar at 4:00 PM on November 22, 2013

Dilute citric acid solution removes old, set blood stains. Citric acid is used for canning. Lemon juice doesn't seem to work, though.
posted by jet_silver at 4:00 PM on November 22, 2013

a less damaging way to get the stains out (and bleach/scrubbing *will* damage the fabric, to some degree), is to soak the stained area in heavy concentrate of Oxyclean (2-3 scoops per 3-4 gallons of warm water). Let it soak for days, if you can. Then wash again (you may not need any detergent, this is just to get the Oxy out) - snowy white!
I've done this routine with stained old napkins from the thrift shop, barbeque sauce on napkins, and menstrual stains - it always works!
posted by dbmcd at 4:08 PM on November 22, 2013

Oxiclean. Strong solution. Soak for...a while. Several days. Works great on blood stains.
posted by leahwrenn at 4:19 PM on November 22, 2013

Zout, zout, gets it all out.
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 4:29 PM on November 22, 2013

I used to get bloody noses a lot. Era detergent worked well to get out blood stains.
posted by alex1965 at 5:31 PM on November 22, 2013

Seriously, hydrogen peroxide. It undergoes a specific reaction with the colored heme molecules in blood which breaks the heme down into an uncolored compound. And oxygen, while fizzing satisfyingly.
posted by overhauser at 5:34 PM on November 22, 2013

Whatever you do (in the future), always, always COLD water. Hot water will set bloodstains.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 6:08 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oxyclean also makes a gel stain stick that I've had a lot of luck with.
posted by brilliantine at 6:09 PM on November 22, 2013

Another vote for Oxyclean. I just got a shirt back from the laundry with a stain in the pocket and a tag saying nothing they were willing to try would take it out. I soaked it in a fairly strong Oxyclean solution for two weeks and the stain is completely gone.
posted by Bruce H. at 8:52 PM on November 22, 2013

I use hydrogen peroxide on menstrual blood. My husband successfully uses Soilove on stains on the used clothing he buys.
posted by amapolaroja at 9:51 PM on November 22, 2013

a 12 hour oxyclean soak got bloodstains out of sheets I had given birth on.
posted by KathrynT at 10:31 PM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

My pretty-darn-foolproof method for removing menstrual and other blood stains: get yourself a bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap and an old toothbrush. Wet the stains with cold water and scrub each one with a wet toothbrush that you've rubbed across the surface of the Fels-Naptha soap bar several times so that the bristles are saturated with soap. Scrub the stains on both sides. Then pour enough hydrogen peroxide on to each stain to thoroughly wet it. Scrub again with the toothbrush and launder as usual.
posted by Lynsey at 11:14 PM on November 22, 2013

I use an old toothbrush dipped in straight bleach, brush hard till stain is gone, immediately rinse off bleach and wash.
posted by claptrap at 7:24 AM on November 23, 2013

If nothing suggested above works, wash the sheets and put them--wet--out in bright sunshine to dry.
posted by Carol Anne at 6:24 AM on November 24, 2013