I deal with stubborn stains, dirt and grime all day, every day. So I know that there’s nothing more frustrating than to see your favourite shirt with a splodge of food – or that awful feeling when you accidentally drop a glass of wine on your new cream carpet! Sometimes, we’re not even sure what the stain is or how it got there. Nevertheless, there are some interesting facts about what stains are and how we can get rid of them.
What are stubborn stains?
Stains occur when the chemicals in a substance bond to a surface. Unfortunately, some stains are much more difficult to remove than others.
A stain is made up of specific pigments. For example, red wine and coffee stains are due to tannins present in the plants that are used to produce them. Once you’ve spilled them onto fabric or carpet, they begin to bond to the surface as they dry. This explains why the best advice, when dealing with something that has the potential to become a stubborn stain, is to deal with it quickly, whilst it’s still wet.
What makes tomatoes red?
If you’ve ever tried to remove a ketchup stain, you’ll know how difficult it can be. Tomato is a tricky stain to remove from fabric because it contains lycopene, which is a bright red carotenoid hydrocarbon. Lycopene is also found in other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, grapefruits, and papayas. Weirdly, though, it’s not present in strawberries or cherries.
The colour of strawberries and cherries is due to anthocyanins, which are water soluble pigments found in plant cells. And, did you know, they are also responsible for the red colour in some autumn leaves.
Interesting Fact: Tanic acid and vegetable tannins are used to fix pigments to fabrics and are vital in the textile industry for dying material.
Simple cold water is essential in tackling a stain at first, particularly if you’re not sure what the substance is or what to use in order to get rid of it. Combinations of acid and alkali solutions can help to break stubborn stains down. Oily stains, though, are more difficult to remove and dried-in stains are also tougher to remove. If you’ve tried to remove a stain from clothing and it hasn’t come out, I would advise against using a tumble dryer to dry it. The heat from the tumble dryer might just make the whole thing worse.
It’s true that the longer the stain remains the harder it is to remove it. That’s because stains penetrate into the fibres of the fabric the longer they’re there. When you rub a fabric stain, you’re only helping to embed the stain further into the fibre.
I share more of my top cleaning tips to remove stubborn stains in some of my other blog posts here.
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