How to Get Rid of Stains

None of us wake up in the morning and say to ourselves "I think we need to practice our stain removal skills today”.

At least for me, I know that at some point in the day those skills will be put to the test.

As soon as I got married, I was introduced to the art of cleaning up my spouse’s trail of messes. Apparently, our children inherited his “Oops. I spilled it” gene.

My skills have now been honed and I have successfully reached the expert level.

Kids And Kool-Aid:

As a child, my mother always had a cold pitcher of Kool-Aid in the refrigerator. I loved Kool-Aid, however I was not the most coordinated kid in the world and always wound up with it on my school clothes. My favorite cherry flavored drink always splattered my white blouse. My Mom always found a way to get rid of the stain.

Here's what you can do if you have kids that spill Kool-Aid on their clothes.

• Mix a spray bottle with half ammonia and half water, shake to mix.
• Break out the iron and ironing board.
• Place the garment on a white towel and spray it with the ammonia mixture.
• Place another clean towel on top of the stain.
• Now, grab that trusty iron and go over the stained area.

Shift the towels when necessary to avoid spreading the stain on clean fabric.

Do this until the stain has been transferred onto the towels. Once the Kool-Aid is gone, wash as usual. This works like a champ.

Chocolate Everywhere:

Every parent has experienced walking into a room only to discover your little one’s face covered in chocolate. You think yourself this would be a great picture to send the grandparents, that is until you look down. Your child has chocolate all over his jeans too.

Let the stain training begin as chocolate will always be on your kid’s clothes. It isn’t that difficult to remove chocolate from clothing.

• Using a butter knife, scrape the chocolate from the garment.
• Sprinkle the area with corn starch and work it around to absorb the grease from the chocolate. (Yes, chocolate has grease.)
• Keep doing this until you are satisfied that all of the grease has been absorbed.

Dump the excess powder in the trash. Apply rubbing alcohol to the spot and work it into the fabric. Wash as usual. Make sure to check the stained area prior to putting in the dryer.

Pass The Mustard Please:

Oops, it was a quick lunch and we opted for the quick and easy hot dog - and what's a hot dog without yellow mustard? Well we were passing the mustard around the table for everyone to use and my son dropped the mustard bottle getting mustard on his new shirt.

Oh boy; great. Yellow mustard contains turmeric, which is used as a dye. We finished eating and I went to work on his shirt and the mustard stain.

• Get a clean towel and put it under the shirt where the stain is.
• Put one drop of dish soap on the spot and follow that with flushing the area with rubbing alcohol.
• Run the garment under the faucet. If the stain is not gone, keep repeating this process until you can no longer see the spot.
• Launder as usual.

Stain removal shouldn’t be a major problem. I have found that old-fashioned home remedies work just as good or better than commercial treatments.