Degreasing your clothes

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

I added the list, I figure most of us get in the same predicament every
so often...

"Goop" works very well for this -- it's a brand name for a nationally
(US at least) available waterless hand cleaner.  It's basically a strong
detergent about the consistency of hand cream, it breaks up oil-based
molecules and lets them be washed out of/off of surfaces.  (If you can't
find Goop brand, any waterless hand cleaner should do the trick.  Try to
get one without pumice in it unless you want your jeans to get a little
more frayed.)

Use it without water -- rub it into the greasy parts of your clothing. 
(If that's 100%, rub it all over).  If the grease has a lot of black in
it (like the time I carried an axle housing for the race car and smeared
black 90W diff oil mixed with dirt into the fronts of both legs of my
jeans), you may want to use a stiff brush (like a fingernail brush) to
work the Goop well into the fabric.

When you've thoroughly saturated the fabric with Goop, and the resulting
not-quite-lather is the color of the stuff you're trying to get out,
*then* rinse it in cold water.  Water will immediately render the Goop
inactive for further use, and it doesn't work well on wet fabric, but
it's like magic on waterless greasy/oily stains.

That's all for this issue of "Hints From Heloise Meets Tim The Tool-man
Taylor"...

--Scott