Tuesday Tips: removing stubborn stains

We’ve had a few emails come in lately requesting a Tips post on how to get rid of stains, and while none of us consider ourselves to be stain removal experts, we thought it would be a fun post to encourage readers to share their tips and tricks (so please do share!).

What I’ve learned is that it’s really important to treat the stain (even small ones) before you attempt to wash it in the machine, and that the sooner you treat it, the better luck you’ll have at removing the stain. Here are some other tips that quickly come to mind:

• Soak stains as soon as you can.
• Dish soap works well on grease stains like butter or oil, and then it’s best to wash with the warmest water that’s safe for the fabric after you’ve let the soap soak into the clothes.
• Ice cold water is best on blood stains (and again, try to soak as quickly as possible).
• If stains don’t come out in the wash, don’t put clothes in the dryer (that will set the stain and it will never come out after that). I usually hang-dry clothes that were stained, just to be sure the stain is out completely when dry.
• Hanging washed clothes to dry in direct sunlight helps to naturally bleach stains (especially fruit and berry stains).
• Lemon juice, baking soda and vinegar are natural stain removal agents that have been used for years and years.
• According to my mum, white wine is great at removing red wine stains (who knew?!).
• When Easton was a baby we spent a week in Paris with my family. My mom and I went to the supermarket to ask for a small container of laundry soap to hand wash some clothes and the lady handed us a bar of basic Marseilles soap and told us to wet the clothes and scrub with the bar of soap. I was skeptical, but I tried it out and it worked SO WELL. It’s a perfect laundry soap to travel with because it’s not a liquid, and it really works! (Esther and Emilie both keep a bar of Marseilles soap in their laundry rooms for this reason.)
• For sticky stuff like chewing gum or silly putty, you can stick the clothes directly into the freezer and then pull the sticky stuff off the clothes once it’s frozen.
• For very stubborn stains you can, of course, use a chemical stain remover like Vanish or Oxi Clean (though we usually try to avoid these harsh cleaners because they’re not good for the environment or your clothes).

I think that’s it, but again I’m really excited to see what other tips you all have up your sleeves, so please share!

xx

p.s. Photo above is of the sink in the laundry room of my old house. Oh how I miss that laundry room! : )

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