With five children, Shifrah is learning a thing or two about how to keep a fairly organized and pretty clean house with a grateful heart in a way that leaves plenty of time for the people who matter most. Shifrah grew up in San Francisco, but has come to appreciate smaller town life in Tallahassee, Florida, which she now calls home. She's been writing professionally for twenty years and she loves lifestyle photography, memory keeping, gardening, reading, and going to the beach with her husband and children.
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Many people reach for bleach to clean all of our toughest stains. It brightens white fabrics, gets rid of mold and mildew, and can be trusted to disinfect all kinds of germs. But there’s one stain that bleach can’t handle: rust. In fact, if you use bleach to treat a rust stain, your “cleaner” is going to make the stain significantly worse!
The main ingredient in common bleach—sodium hypochlorite—is an oxidizing agent. That oxidizing reaction is what makes a stain like tomato sauce disappear from your t-shirt, but it’s also the same process that causes rust to form on metal objects. So if you’re dealing with a rust stain on objects or fabrics, applying bleach is just going to create more rust.
That’s the bad news. The good news: Rust stains can still be removed. And it might surprise you how simple it can be. Whether rust has damaged clothing or other household items, here are a few ways to address it:
1. Distilled White Vinegar and Salt
The acid in vinegar helps dissolve discoloration from rust, and the salt acts as an abrasive to help scrub the stain off. For small objects affected by rust (like keys), soak in a bowl of white vinegar for up to 24 hours and then rinse clean and dry.
For larger objects, apply vinegar directly to the rust-affected area and sprinkle with salt. Use a wad of aluminum foil to scrub the rust away. Saturate rust-tainted fabric with white vinegar and sprinkle with a layer of salt. Rub the salt gently with your fingers, let the stain soak for a few hours, then rinse.
2. Lemon Juice and Salt
Similar to the vinegar and salt method, lemon juice and salt work in conjunction to pull out discoloration and scrub away residue. Again, the combination works on household objects like bathtubs or fabric. If using on fabric, try setting it out to dry in the sun after treatment for an added stain-busting boost.
Rust-stained fabric may be treated by holding the affected area over steam from just-boiled water (make sure to turn off the burner). Saturate the stain with lemon juice and let it sit over the steam for several minutes. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
3. Cream of Tartar
Rusty kitchen tools can be cleaned with a paste made from cream of tartar and hydrogen peroxide. Cream of tartar may also be used to treat rust stains on fabric. Boil two pints of water and add six teaspoons of cream of tartar. Add your garment and let it soak for up to two hours.
4. Commercial Rust Remover
If the gentler, greener methods aren’t quite cutting it, try a commercial rust remover such as Whink Rust Stain Remover. It can be used on colorfast fabric as well as on household items like toilet bowls, sink basins, or bathtubs affected by rust. Many reviewers comment on how they hardly even needed to scrub when using this rust remover on their trouble spots.
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