One thing about cooking is that it sure is messy! Even when wearing an apron, I still somehow always manage to end up with splatters all over my sleeves. The very worst are the grease stains, which always seem totally impossible to get out. Bacon is probably the messiest thing I make (oh, the splatters!), but it's not like I'm gonna stop making bacon!

The good news is that I don't have to, because I have learned a very simple trick to getting grease stains out of my clothing.

Once when I was complaining about grease stains ruining all my clothes, a friend of mine suggested a simple dab of dish soap. She's an artist and she said that dish soap is the only thing that will consistently get oil paint splatters out of her clothes, short of using expensive products.

So I gave it a try!

I rubbed a little squirt of dish soap right onto one of our most recent stains and let it sit for a little while before washing. I sent the shirt through the wash and didn't see a stain, so I went ahead and dried it too. Like magic, the stain was officially gone.

I even tried this trick on old stains — ones that had been washed and dried repeatedly — and the clothes came out as good as new. I could hardly believe it!

I think it must be something about the grease-busting properties of dish soap that makes this work. Whatever it is, I'm glad to know about it.

Do you have any sure-fire tricks for removing food and grease stains from clothing?