Granny Mouse Country House & Spa shares how to remove your impossible holiday stains the five-star hotel way.
The KZN Midlands property is spilling the “detergent” on how to make clothing clean and remove unwanted stains.
Some of the housekeeping team's tips:
- Use a technique based on the fabric you wear as not every tip works on all clothing. For example, if you are wearing linen, to test first, rub alcohol on the spot and then place the section where there is a stain into a glass facedown over the mouth of a jar or glass. Hold the fabric taut, so the ink spot won't spread, and drip rub alcohol through the stain. The alcohol will pull the ink along as it drops into the jar. Rinse well and line-dry. Check that the stain has been removed before laundering per fabric-care instructions. If you are wearing cotton, spritz the area with hair spray to loosen the stain. Soak for 30 minutes in ½ teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 tablespoon white vinegar and warm water. Rinse and then dry. Remember to check the washing instructions on different fabrics.
- For red wine spills, don’t scrub or leave it, but rather face it head-on without delay. Like any liquid, red wine will move toward anything dry that it comes into contact with.
Grab a dry, powdery material and apply it generously on the red wine stain. These include table salt, baking soda, sodium percarbonate, known as a granulated form of hydrogen peroxide, dry soap powder or talcum powder.
"These dry materials will “pull” the red wine out. Don’t just start rubbing them in," the team advised.
"Always apply the blotting method, even when it comes to cleaning the salt or powder. Let the salt or any other dry, powdery material you use settle for a few minutes. In some cases, this may be enough to remove the stain completely. If not, you may need to apply additional methods. Do not apply white wine, it will just make it spread even further."
- For curry or sauce stains, use a spray bottle with one part hydrogen peroxide and nine parts water. Saturate the stain and leave to soak for up to four hours. Then machine wash and air dry.
- Lemon is also a natural cleaner and can remove stains from your clothes and other surfaces. It also removed stains on your chopping board.
- Toothpaste, which contains baking soda, is a great stain remover.
- Hydrogen peroxide helps break up the chemical bonds in a stain and removes the colour. While it doesn't remove the stain, it does make it invisible.