How to remove tea stains?
“Daag Acche Hain” (Stains are good), is the tagline of a leading detergent company. But deep down we all know that not all stains are good, especially when you are working in your office while having a cup of coffee or tea simultaneously and a small amount, of the size of, say a sip falls on your white shirt leaving a stain. A small stain might ruin your remaining day in office. Not only will it be irritating and embarrassing, but it might also negatively affect your level of confidence unless it goes unnoticed. So here is a DIY tip for removing the unattractive tea or coffee stains. Read it quickly before receiving a surprise call from your boss.
How easy it is to remove a stubborn stain? A pessimist might say that spending a surfeit of time, beating the cloth on the bathroom floor is the solution, while an optimist might wonder if a washing powder intact in a newly bought packet would pass through the stain making a “whoosh” sound which exactly happens in the television ads. While the second option is not really feasible, one may not like to put much effort in a job as trivial as removing tea stains. Here is a middle way.
When The stain is fresh :
Rinse the cloth.
Wash the cloth with cold running water. You can notice a huge decline in the intensity of the stain as it removes 80-90% of the stain.
- The remaining 20% of the stain can be removed by washing the cloth further with fresh water.
- Dry your cloth, preferably by exposing it to the sunlight rather than drying it in the washing machine.
When the Stain is old:
When the stain remains intact in the cloth for a long time, its longevity makes it quite difficult to remove it from the cloth.
Check Label:
Check the washing instructions on the garment label. If the label says “Dry Clean Only”, take it to the dry cleaners. If the label doesn’t say “Dry Clean Only”, you can yourself remove the stain using some household methods.
Wet the cloth:
Add a little moisture over the stain in order to moisturise the stain.
- Put some Baking Soda (Cooking Soda) on the spots having stain.
Dry Baking soda sucks the moisture out when it comes in contact with wet stain (tea stain in our case). It also sucks laundry odors as it comes in contact with it.
- Sprinkle a little amount of water on it.
Sprinkle a small amount of water particularly on the stain(s).
- Apply a soap on it
Take a normal bathing soap and rub it over the stains before washing the baking soda for a minute or so.
- Scrub the stains with the help of a toothbrush for a couple of minutes.
It is important to brush the stain and remove the baking soda before washing the cloth further.
- Take water in a bucket.
Take 2-3 litres of cold water in a bucket.
- Add detergent.
Add 2-3 spoons of detergent in the water and mix it well.
- Add fabric whitener.
Add 2 tablespoon of fabric whitener in the bucket. You can consider using baking soda instead if you do not have a fabric whitener .Use bleach if the fabric is white. If the fabric is colored, you can use oxygenated bleach or color-safe bleach.
- Mix the solution well.
After adding detergent and bleach in water, mix it well.
- Put the cloth in the solution.
Put the cloth in the freshly prepared solution and let it soak the solution. Generally 90-120 minutes is enough but you can leave the cloth in the solution for overnight if the stain is big.
- Take out the shirt.
Finally, take out the cloth from the solution and rinse it well with cold water. Dry it, preferably by exposing the cloth to sunlight.
Warnings:
- Carefully read the instructions in the garment label.
- Fabric whiteners or bleach is used for white clothes only.
- In case the garment is not white/colorful, an oxygenated bleach can be used.
Though it is inevitable to clean the clothes and remove all sorts of stains, some stains are really good, given that they do not appear in your favorite clothes.
With that being said, Dhobi G is a go-to help for anything related to laundry. You may browse many more similar tips at https://blog.dhobig.com/. Visit Dhobi G at www.dhobig.com. Make sure to check them out on Facebook as well at https://www.facebook.com/DhobiGOnline/.