No matter how hard you try to avoid them, stains happen. And if you have pets or kids, stains are probably a common occurrence in your household. Many people throw something out once it’s stained, but the truth is that many items can be saved by removing the stain.
While people may think that the product that caused the stain—coffee, paint, wine, etc.—is the thing that determines how it has to be removed, what matters more is what kind of material you’re working with. This post will share a few tips that can help you remove the most common kinds of household stains.
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Carpet stains
While having carpets in your home has many benefits, one major downside is that carpets can stain. If you spill something on tiles, you can most likely just wipe it up with a towel, but the same can’t be said for carpet stains. When we moved into our condo, it had new white carpets. Five years later, the carpets were no longer so white, despite all my efforts at spot-cleaning and stain removal.
There are many recipes on the internet for mixtures that will help you remove stains from your carpet. I found the best solution was the Norwex carpet stain remover. It was easy to use and effective for nearly anything my kids dropped on or mashed into the carpet—blueberries, bananas, my cold coffee, goobers, puke, you name it. Simply spray, wait, scrub, and the stain was gone.
However, there came a time when spot cleaning a white carpet where five kids lived (especially young kids) no longer worked. Scrubbing the carpet in the entire dining room didn’t really work. That’s when it’s time to get a professional carpet cleaning company to come in. I should have probably done this at least annually to keep our carpet looking its best.
Mattress stains
It happens to the best of us: you’re having a late-night cup of tea in bed while reading a book, and then you accidentally spill it. And no matter how quickly you try to remove the sheets, it’s already leaked through to the mattress. Or maybe you’ve taken all the sheets off the bed to wash them, and your toddler wanders along with a green marker.
The best way to prevent this is to get a mattress protector. Otherwise, you can mix water and white vinegar for a cleaning solution that you can spray on the stain. It should help to draw it out so that you can blot it with a cloth. If that fails, well, there’s sheets for a reason… you’re the only one who sees the green marker meandering along one side of the mattress.
Clothing stains
So many kinds of food can stain your clothes, not to mention other things like paint or makeup. The best way to remove stains from clothes is to immediately take off the item of clothing and spray it with a stain remover. Again, I recommend the Norwex stain remover as it’s natural and effective.
If you don’t have any on hand, you can use the vinegar and water solution mentioned earlier. A ratio of 50/50 works best. You can also place the piece of clothing in a bucket and add some laundry detergent and let it soak, then try scrubbing the stain out.
Unfortunately, not all stains will come out of your clothing, no matter what you try. However, that doesn’t mean you should toss it out. Consider tie-dying the item; the stain will then be much less noticeable. If it’s on a shirt sleeve or pant leg, you may be able to hem the shirt to be short-sleeved or make the pants into shorts or upcycle the piece of clothing into something else.
Furniture stains
Having a clean home is important, which is why you need to try to keep everything in your house clean, including your furniture. Unfortunately, some kinds of furniture like couches and chairs will stain very easily.
Mix some water with dish soap. Using a sponge, gently dab the mixture onto the stain, and then use a clean cloth to blot it so that the stain lifts. You may need to do this a few times before it’s successful.
What’s the worst stain you’ve faced as a parent or pet owner? How did you fix it?
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