Recently, I attended a special annual event for which I purchased and wore a lovely cream colored maxi-style dress. I don’t normally wear delicate, light colored fabric because grace is just not a trait I was born with. Clumsy, klutzy, ungainly, destructive- pick an adjective. My husband and I have been brought to tears on many occasions laughing so hard at my fumbles. I have actually come to appreciate this about myself. However, inside my grownup body, there lives a hyperactive eight year old that sometimes climbs to the surface at inappropriate moments. This was one.
As I passed a small glass of red wine to my mother-in-law sitting in the seat beside me, I kept repeating to myself, “Don’t spill! Just DON’T SPILL!!”.
Well, it’s pretty obvious that I spilled.
The rest of the evening, I was picking people’s brains about ways to remove a substantial amount of red wine out of a light dress without fading the fabric. A friend recommended a solution that is so easy and will work for gals on the tightest of tight budgets!
Cold water.
Yup, it’s that simple.
Set your washer to a small load, and fill with cold water. Let the garment sit in the washer for several hours. (I let it sit overnight)
Switch it to spin cycle to get rid of excess water.
Inspect garment for remaining stains. Generally, this will do the trick. With my dress, the cold water lifted 90% of the red wine stain. (This is probably because I let the stain sit for a few days instead of cleaning it immediately) Then, I sprayed any remaining visible stain with Shout stain remover and washed in a normal wash cycle.
Boom. Stains gone.
If I would have gone straight to the stain remover and washed it, there would have been a permanent pink hue that would be impossible to remove.
Such a simple trick but oh, so effective.
Modern Mommie 