Slime is the latest DIY craze among kids, but hell hath no fury like a craft gone wrong. There have been safety issues surrounding homemade slime recipes (primarily if they're safe enough for children), but there's also another thing to consider — the mess. Slime sounds gross enough, but if you're not careful, you could be dealing with some other yucky side effects. Before you let your kids make their own slime and ruin your kitchen, you'll want to know — can slime stain your clothes?
The first thing you need to realize when it comes to stains is what exactly is causing the stain in your clothes. If you follow the "traditional" homemade slime recipe of glue, water, and Borax, you probably don't have to worry too much about stains. But, if you used food coloring to tint your slime or to create some kind of magical, rainbow craft, you'll want to be careful. The blog Kathie Cooks noted that the slime she created (water, Borax, glue, and food coloring) not only got in her hair, but also on her clothes. The horrors.
Luckily, the blogger suggested vinegar for removing slime stains out of clothes, and that seems to be a pretty safe way to do it. The Spruce, a lifestyle website, had some more intense ways to remove food coloring stains from clothes. Because your food coloring has been diluted with water, Borax, and glue and isn't just a straight shot of the dye to your fabrics, these probably aren't tips you'll have to use, but it doesn't hurt to keep them in mind.
The Spruce recommended using a stain pre-treater on your clothing stains before soaking the garment in some oxygen-based bleach and water. If that still doesn't get rid of the stain, you might need to try soaking it again or repeating the process until the stain is gone.
I know — this sounds like an awful lot of work just to make up some DIY slime. But again, you're not using just straight food coloring as slime — it's all mixed together. So although slime itself could stain your clothes, all you need is vinegar to wipe it away. The blog, atypicalmomof2, also suggested vinegar for slime stains in clothes and carpet.
You'll want to be careful when you and your kids are playing with slime, but as long as you have a jug of vinegar around, you'll probably be fine. Slime won't last forever and neither will the stains. (Hopefully the DIY trend will end soon so you can stop smelling like vinegar, too.)
