New Orleans Apartment Blog

Dealing with Stains and Spots (Part 2 of 2)

Concluding our series on how to deal with stains and spots in your apartment, here are some more great tips!

Juice

• Red or purple juice can be removed from fabrics by sprinkling salt on the stain as soon as possible. The salt will absorb the liquid forming a paste that can be easily scraped up.

Magic Marker

• Hairspray will remove marker from hard surfaces and some fabrics. Some permanent markers are just that permanent. Some may fade with repeated washings.

Motor Grease/Motor Oil

• Scrape off as much of the grease as possible, on clothing, rub lard or Vaseline into the stain then launder as usual. The lard or Vaseline may ruin some fabrics, for more delicate items; try a spot stain remover instead.

Nail Polish

• Acetone will remove this from most fabrics but synthetic fibers (ex. Polyester, carpet) will dissolve with acetone use. Check the label of your clothing before using acetone.
• If you spill nail polish on a wood surface, do NOT wipe it up while it is still wet, doing so will remove the color from the wood. Wait until the polish is dry and then scrape it off gently with a credit card.

Oil

• Cover oil stains on fabric with talcum powder, then cover with a paper towel and hot iron the fabric. Launder as usual.

Pencil Marks

• Believe it or not, fresh rye bread can remove pencil marks from non-washable wallpaper.

Red Wine

• Use a dab of shaving cream (the kind in the can) to remove red wine stains from upholstery. To remove a wine stain from clothing, soak the fabric in boiling milk.

Candle Wax

• Place a piece of facial tissue over the stain and hot iron on top. The wax will melt into the tissue and away from your fabric.
• Candle wax can be removed from hard floors by using a hair dryer and paper towels to absorb the wax once it melts.

While these tips are quite useful and most common, use the link below to access the stain index for those extra specials mishaps!
http://housekeeping.about.com/od/stainremoval/a/stainsindex.htm