It's always the day when you are wearing a white shirt, i.e. yesterday to work, when it all goes wrong. You get your take away coffee on route to the office and you take a quick sip which morphs into attractive brown drips on the white fabric. Then there's your hands from the bus/luas/dart that you fix your buttons with and leaves a dark mess on the front. And don't get me started on make up and collars. Our lives just lead us to stains.
But I have some tips for getting those nasty and annoying things off your finery.
- The red wine / white wine solver
Sometimes the oldies are the goodies. On my wedding day I happened to get the tiniest, yet most annoying red wine stain on my dress. The trick to getting it out was not to apply the white wine directly to the stain, but to pour some on a white napkin and press the solution into the fabric. This stops the stain from spreading when you add more liquid to it. It took it out without damaging the dress, which was, of course, specialist cleaning only.
- Makeup
Make up is the worst. It seems to get everywhere. If it's a small stain, even make up transfer on your collar, take a make up wipe and rub gently to get the excess and topical stains off. I am also finding micellar water to be terrific on a napkin again, to remove any more pigmented make up.
Once you have the stain off, wipe it with water to remove the product so it doesn't cause any lasting damage to the fabric. I would use this trick on cotton, or any mad made fibres, but avoid delicates like satin or silk that need to be dry cleaned and scream at any contact with moisture.
- Pens
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This is one of the most popular stains. I have pen everywhere. And this trick is a good one. Hair Spray has an alcohol base, so apply a small amount to the stain which will dissolve the ink. Just give it a dab to get the excess liquid off and then pat with some water and let it dry. Ta-dah.
- Coffee and food stains
This is a random solution, but sanitiser like Milton for sterilising is a fairly good stain remover too, especially for food. Pour some of the fluid into a small bowl and pop the area with the stain into the solution for a second or two. Then rinse with warm water which should remove the tough bits. This is a good way of pre-treating the stain before you put it in the washing machine.
- The magic of bicarbonate of soda
This is one my grandma told me off. Mix with some water to give a "fizz" and apply to the stain with a gentle rub to disrupt it. Then rinse it with water. I have no idea how this works, but the soda is a great magic trick for dissolution.
Now I won't say that these will get rid of all your stains, in the history of stains but hopefully they are a DIY approach to getting your clothes back to their original glory!
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Have you any tricks to share on stain removal?
