Flirting with Disaster: Emergency Stain Removal Tips
It’s a funny thing about stains – they do not appear on our clothes when we are vigilant. But take your eyes off the ball for one second, and there you have it – a fresh stain on your clothes! The worst part is, the stain almost always appears when we are short of time, or wearing a light colour that makes hiding the stain impossible. But instead of panicking and looking for new clothes to wear, it is wiser to act fast and get as much of the stain out of your clothes as quickly as possible. You might not have Vanish on hand right away, but you can follow our expert stain removal tips to keep the stain off and your clothes looking new. Your mantra should be: Keep calm, and wash it off.
Staining Situations
So what are the situations that cause stains to appear on your clothes? You could spill food or drink over even ink on your dress. You could be headed to a summer party with white trousers, or to a job interview in a crisp sky blue shirt. And then disaster strikes – you get a splash of coffee on your clothes, or spill ketchup from your sandwich, or get an ink stain on your pocket, or even grass stains. Ketchup, ink, chocolate, grass and grease…these stains can be quite difficult to get out of your clothes. But they are not impossible to remove, though you will require a rapid response.
Quick Fixes
Follow these three tips to remove stains in any situation
- Treat the stain with clean water immediately after it occurs. Turn the fabric inside out and flush it with running water, so that the stain is pushed out of the fabric instead of settling in. This removes most of the stain and makes cleaning the rest of it easier.
- Blot the stain – do not rub – with a damp cloth, paper towel or tissue removes any excess liquid. Do this gently to pull the stain away – blotting too hard will only set the stain in further.
- If the stain is sticky or quite solid, try scraping away the excess with the soft edge of a spoon or the blunt edge of a knife. This makes the stain smaller than it appears, and you can clean the rest easily.
- Look up our Vanish stain solver for tips on stubborn stains. Blood stains, for example, must be flushed with cold water at once. But mud stains should be allowed to dry so that the excess mud becomes easier to remove. The stain solver provides many handy tips for various kinds of stains.
For After’s
Once you return home, (or even before you’ve gone out) take the stained clothing and treat them with Vanish Oxi Action Gel. Start by soaking the garment in warm water and Vanish, when some of the stain might be lifted off the clothing in just 30 seconds. We recommend leaving the clothes soaking for up to an hour if they are colored, and up to six hours if they are white. Wash as usual after soaking.
If you have a pile of washing ready to go, just add 120ml of Vanish gel for tough stains, or 60ml for light stains, to the dosing pod. Now place the dosing pod on the laundry in your machine, then wash as normal. See – no more stain nightmares!