The Ultimate Stain-Removal Guide
How to tackle spills and spots fast—from coffee, tea, and wine to mustard, tomato sauce, and more
By Janet SirotoPhotographs by Ben Goldstein.
It’s a common scenario: You’re enjoying wearing your favorite shirt or sinking into a comfy armchair when suddenly the mustard squeeze-bottle misfires or your coffee cup takes flight and makes one heckuva mess.
While you can’t hit the rewind button, if you act quickly and appropriately, the splatters might not have a fighting chance, says Kathlyn Swantko, president of the consumer textile information resource FabricLink.
Ground Rules for Dealing With Stains
To help you keep your home and clothes stain-free, we’ve gathered the smartest, simplest stain-removal advice and tools to tackle common offenders, starting with food spills. First, some ground rules:
Take care of any mess ASAP. The sooner you treat it, the easier it will be to remove.
Many stains benefit from blotting. Use plain white paper towels or a clean white cloth (cotton or microfiber—a dry cloth, unless otherwise noted) to dab up messes.
Blot from the edges of the spill toward the center. Do the reverse and you may spread the stain.
Be very sparing with water when working on upholstery fabrics. You’ll avoid ending up with a water-ring stain.
Check tags and labels for laundering information. “Dry clean only” means the washer may ruin the fabric or trim.
After using a pretreat product on an item, it’s okay to launder it with other items. Trying bleach? Check that the other fabrics are colorfast. If in doubt, wash the stained item separately.
When colorfastness is a concern, test your cleaner using a cotton swab. Do this in a small, unnoticeable area first.
Avoid scratching hard surfaces. Use a nonabrasive scrubbing pad on stone countertops and other hard surfaces.
Be patient. Don’t toss an item in the dryer until a stain is gone. Heat may lock it in.
Wherever a detergent solution is called for in the stain-busting advice below, use this one: Mix 1 teaspoon of a mild white or clear dishwashing liquid (Dawn is often recommended)—no bleach—in 1 cup of warm water.