Living in the house with a husband who is in the paint industry and 3 messy children who love to craft, I needed to find a way to remove paint from clothes. Sure, we buy our clothes frugally, but I would like to keep it frugal. If you have crafty kids you know how hard that can be on clothes.
I tried several methods and was excited to find a simple fix that everyone already has in their cabinet at home. With just a bit of experimenting, I figured out how to remove paint from clothes in no time. My clothing budget can breathe a bit easier, although sometimes my husband’s clothes still look like he bathed in paint. Thankfully paint accidents of that magnitude are rare at the paint store. He still comes home speckled in many colors quite frequently though.
How to Remove Paint From Clothes
(Note: I have only done this with tempera or latex paint)
You Will Need:
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Cotton Swabs or QTips
Steps to Remove Paint:
- IF IT IS DRY – I use my fingernail to scrape the excess off first.
IF IT IS WET – I dab the excess paint off the spot with a dry cotton ball. - Drench the spot in rubbing alcohol and gently dab the spot, adding a bit of pressure as you go.
- You will likely have to add more alcohol as it dries fairly quickly.
The most recent paint I removed was red on a blue shirt. The spot is still there, faintly, but it came out in the wash. I wish I had thought to take a before picture for you but I wasn’t thinking. I will also note that I rubbed it quite vigorously as the spot became lighter, hoping to get more out. Some blue dye came up with the paint but my thought is that the shirt is completely ruined if I don’t get the paint out anyway so if it is slightly lighter in that spot I can live with it. Thankfully, after a wash it looked perfectly fine.
I also found my son’s red shirt had a few spots. I have the before and after pictures of that one. I know the pictures aren’t phenomenal but I didn’t want to do any touch up on them so you could see the true results. You may see some white flecks from the cotton balls. They always come in the wash for me.
Products NOT to use
- Goo Gone – okay, you can try it but it never worked for me.
- Paint stripper – yeah, don’t try this at home.
- Krud Cutter – it just doesn’t work and is incredibly harsh.
- Peroxide – did nothing.
DISCLAIMER: This is not professional advice. This is just the experience of a desperate mom who “gave it a try”.
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