10 Great Tips for Removing Stubborn Stains

When all it takes is a slip of the hand and a glass of wine, punch or even coffee to ruin a designer label, taking your wardrobe for granted is a potentially expensive proposition. Rather than assuming that ordinary washing protocols will take care of every little discolouration, try following these straightforward tips for removing stubborn stains.

#1: Cold is Your Friend

Chewing gum of all types is famous for its adhesive qualities, and it may seem all but impossible to remove this sticky substance from any porous scarf or sweater. The trick to getting rid of gum lies in using ice cubes to harden it, allowing you to flake away the majority of it with a dull scrapping implement. Afterward, normal washing procedures can finish off the job.

#2: When Vinegar Can Get Rid of Salt

The aftereffects of a workout often involve sweat stains that, over the long term, can become unsightly and embarrassing. Want to use that jogging suit outdoors without feeling any shame for how you look? Soak any sweat-stained spots in a small tub of white vinegar. The vinegar shouldn't be diluted by water, and you should follow up by a hot water wash afterward.

#3: When Salt is Your Friend

On the other hand, salt isn't always the bad guy when it comes to maintaining your wardrobe. If you've got a blood stain to deal with, it's absolutely urgent that you soak the item in question as soon as possible, while the blood is still fresh. Use cold water - not hot! - with salt added to it, and then a normal washing cycle after. Salt also can be helpful when you're fighting ink stains, which also are time-critical in treatment.

#4: Toothpaste is for More Than Just Your Teeth

If you've got kids or are a fan of the outdoors, sooner or later, you're going to have to deal with grass-stained pants knees. One of the easiest ways to remove this telltale green stain is by brushing toothpaste directly onto it. However, you should be very careful to use a non-whitening brand, since whitening can alter the colour of the garment. Avoiding gel-based toothpaste types also is strongly recommended.

#5: Baking Supplies to the Rescue

For grease-based stains, such as gravy or range of other food-based products, the first order of business is to saturate and soak up as much grease as possible. Ironically, the same ingredients that often go into thickening these foods also can soak them up out of clothing. You can use baking soda, flour or even salt for this purpose. Hot water and liquid detergent can then finish the job.

#6: Getting the Earth Out with a Little Help from... the Earth

Although mud and dirt stains are both ubiquitous and difficult to remove, Mother Nature has been kind enough to grow a solution to the problem of her own soil. A slice of fresh, uncooked potato can be rubbed firmly across fabric to remove both dry and moist dirt. Depending on how set the stain is, a significant amount of pressure can be required. Of course, after that, you'll need to do a standard wash to remove the loose particles of potato. Regardless of the stock of your larder, don't use a cooked potato, or else you'll find your wardrobe soon resembles mashed potatoes more than clothing!

#7: Countering the Slow Build Up of Neck Stains

Unlike sweat or dirt stains infused over short periods of physical activity, the gradually-developing collar and neck stains of your shirts often are the result of lengthy periods of use. To prevent these stains from setting in for good, you'll need to let your shirts soak for half an hour in shampoo. Using a shampoo with ammonium lauryl sulfate is highly encouraged, because that's the ingredient that lets shampoo swipe through oil - including the natural oils of the human body.

#8: Keeping Your Drink Where It Belongs

One of the most common nightmares for any upscale partygoer is the possibility of a gala's red wine ending up on their expensive dress or suit. When you're forced to make do with the supplies at hand to get rid of this grape-based beverage, you'll want to run for the club soda as fast as possible. On the other hand, if you're at a home, milk is equally helpful. Like bloodstains, any delay in dealing with a wine-based stain will make it monumentally harder to remove, so don't hesitate!

#9: A Little Sour for a Lot of Whitening

If you need to bleach a stain out of your clothes but don't have any actual bleach on hand, you can use lemon juice as a viable substitute. However, you never should use lemon juice on non-white clothing; the same acidic enzymes in lemon juice that eat stains are more than happy to eat through the dyes in your clothes, too.

#10: When to Apply a Little Heat

While using heat can be disastrous for some types of stains, for others, it's a godsend. Wax is one of the most obvious cases of a difficult-to-remove stain that may seem to be as impossible to remove as gum. However, like gum, the key to dealing with wax lies in temperature management. Wax can be fought most efficiently with heat, rather than a fancy cleansing solution. Just lay a paper towel beneath the stains and iron the fabric until the wax reheats and drips down to the paper. However, the opposite method - utilizing ice - should be used for some fabrics, including wool and silk.

If you're stuck on how to manage a stain, always identify the stained fabric, before all else. From there, you can find the appropriate solution that has no risk of making things worse - or simply being completely ineffectual for the problem at hand. Always match your cure to your clothes and react with all due promptness as called for, and you'll never have any problems with removing stubborn stains from even the most expensive garments.