Stains are annoying. What’s worse is that we usually get them when you’re in the middle of something important; coffee dripping on your white button-down shirt when you’re about to give a presentation at work. Wine stains on your white jeans while you’re on a date. Getting barbecue sauce on your favorite t-shirt during your annual family cook-out. These things happen more than we expect them to, and most of the time we’re unprepared.
However, most stains we encounter are removable, mainly when you act fast. This means, doing all necessary steps to remove the stain while it’s still wet or immediately after you get it. Once it dries up on the fabric, the higher the chance that it’ll leave a permanent stain on your clothing. One way to avoid permanent stains on clothes is to take it to a same-day laundry service to ensure that it will get the right treatment. However, if you’re in a pinch, here are a few ways to get common stains off clothes yourself.
Coffee Stain
Coffee stains can be intimidating because of how dark the pigment in coffee is. If you’re at a place where you can’t exactly take off your shirt to deal with the stain, you can try sprinkling some salt on the stain just to keep it from spreading even more which will make it easier to deal with later on. Once you get home and can deal with the coffee stain accordingly, start by placing it face down on a clean towel and gently dab the stain with a sponge soaked in rubbing alcohol. Don’t rub it in too much or you’ll risk ruining the fabric of your shirt.
After that, soak the item for 15 minutes in a mixture of lukewarm water, a little bit of vinegar, and dishwashing soap. If the stain doesn’t come off after that, rinse the mixture off and try laundering the garment, as usual, using a stain remover or color-safe bleach.
Pen Ink
If you’re a student or if you have a desk job, then you probably know ink stains all too well. No matter how careful we are with our pens, the ink just seems to manage to find a way to stain our clothes. Often, we don’t even notice the stains are there. Luckily, since pens have been around for quite some time now, there are a lot of ways you can try to get it off.
Soaking the pen-stained garment in milk overnight is often a sure-fire way to get the stain off. After soaking in milk, all you have to do is wash it as you usually would. If you can’t wait overnight and have a can of hairspray lying around, then you can spray the stain and wipe it off with a clean cloth or a paper towel. If you’ve tried all of that and it still won’t come off, then it’s safe to say that the ink that stained your shirt probably wasn’t water-soluble. A quick fix is to dab the stain with nail polish remover until the stain lifts. Nail polish remover can also remove ink from other surfaces like countertops or walls.
Blood
Whether it’s a sudden nosebleed or a surprise period, blood stains can be pretty inconvenient, especially if they’re on light-colored articles of clothing. Also, you can’t just leave them on while you go about your day because it might lead people into thinking that you’ve just escaped a murder scene. If it’s a fresh stain, then run to the bathroom and run the article of clothing under a stream of cold water, making sure to run the water behind the stain, or on the underside of the garment.
However, if the blood stain has dried then a few lemons and salt from your scheduled Tequila party can help lift the stain. Simply soak the garment in cold water before wringing it, and putting it into a bag with 2 cups of lemon juice and ½ cup of salt. Soak it for a half hour or so and when you notice that the stain is gone, hang it up to dry before washing it as usual.
Removing stains can be a daunting task that can end with permanent damage to your clothes. If you don’t have a tried and tested stain remover on hand, then these tips will save the day and your clothes.
