How to remove coffee stains at home
If you get dirty with an aromatic drink while at home, getting ready for work or school, then you not only have more time to remove the stains, but also have available means that can wash off the coffee without leaving a trace.
There are plenty of products in our kitchen and medicine drawer that can be used to treat the stain of a spilled drink before sending clothes into the washing machine.
Therefore, while at home, we have the means to remove coffee stains cheaply, quickly, and quite effectively.
The most proven and cheapest “first aid” option for a soiled item is ordinary table salt. With its help, a coffee stain from a blouse, shirt or dress can be washed off more easily if you pre-treat the stained area.
You can use this method outside the home if you spilled an invigorating drink on yourself in a cafe or at work. Simply sprinkle salt on the newly stained area; it will “pull” the tannins out of the fibers of the material, thereby preventing them from setting and spreading. After waiting for a while, rinse the stain under warm water.
Remove coffee stains from jeans
Every person's jeans are the most favorite and convenient item of clothing for daily use. But if coffee stains appear, you can remove such stains from jeans if you know the methods. The following tools can help in this matter:
- Lemon acid;
- Ammonia;
- Stain remover;
- Oxalic acid.
Use this recipe:
- Dilute 10 drops of ammonia in 0.5 liters of water and pour completely onto the stain;
- As soon as a short amount of time has passed, the jeans should be rinsed well in cold water.
To remove traces of tea, you can use the same method.
We suggest you familiarize yourself with How to clean a kitchen panel
You can remove a coffee stain from denim using the following method:
- You need to take a small amount of oxalic acid and apply it to the stain;
- After 1-1.5 hours, rinse off the product with cool water.
You can also remove stains from tea and coffee on denim using stain removers designed for colored fabrics. One such effective remedy is Vanish, instructions for use of which can be found on the packaging.
We act quickly
It's no secret that removing a fresh stain from your favorite blouse or shirt is much easier. This is a valid claim, does it work with coffee drinks? Many people believe that it is almost impossible to remove coffee stains, since the tannins that make up coffee have strong coloring pigments that cannot be removed.
Removing a coffee stain is easy, especially if you start this procedure quickly.
To remove a stain at home, start with the following steps:
- Take a clean paper towel and blot the stained area with it.
- Bring the dirt inside out to a faucet with slightly hot water and direct the stream so that it passes through the fabric. So, with the help of water you will get rid of most of the stain.
- When washing, do not rub the stained area to prevent it from spreading throughout the material.
- Then the stain area is treated with laundry soap or soap solution, and then washed off under the pressure of warm water.
- If desired, the entire item can be washed, taking into account the type of fabric when setting the washing mode.
What to do?
First of all, if you have glycerin in your medicine cabinet, take it and mix it with regular table salt. Apply the resulting mixture (in the form of a paste) to the contaminated area. Then, when it dries, rinse this mixture with water, rinse the item itself and voila! – clothes and tablecloth were saved. Coffee can be removed from carpet in a similar way, but it is recommended to use a brush and more glycerin and salt, as well as plenty of water when cleaning it.
If there is no glycerin or soda ash in the house, you can follow the advice of housewives. According to surveys, people most often use ammonia, fine salt, bleaching soap, car cleaner, and even gasoline to quickly remove coffee stains!
The products described above are universal, but are mainly suitable for fresh stains. What to do with old stains?
If the stains are not discovered immediately
The modern rhythm of life often does not allow us the luxury of a relaxing breakfast or lunch. Therefore, we often do not notice how coffee stains or traces of food have appeared on our clothes.
Naturally, it becomes more difficult to remove an old stain, since the coloring pigments eat into the fibers of the material and dry out in them.
The first thing that comes to mind in order to remove old tannins is that you need to soak the item and then wash it in the usual way. Removing coffee stains from clothes that are already set is not so easy. Therefore, let's figure out what we use to moisten the area of stains, stubborn stains and leave them to soak.
Lactic acid
If you mix distilled water and a little lactic acid, you get an excellent stain remover, the cost of which is much lower than dry cleaning jeans. To prepare the composition, you will need to add only 4 grams of lactic acid to 20 ml of purified water.
After this, apply the solution to the stained area using a sponge or cotton pad and allow it to soak into the fabric for 15-20 minutes. Then the stain is slightly moistened and washed as usual.
To avoid coffee getting onto other areas of the jeans, place napkins or cloth under the spot where the stain is treated.
How to remove coffee from white clothes
How many light-colored items have you sent to the landfill or left to work in the garden, only because there were yellow marks left on them from an unremoved stain?
Of course, coffee stains on white are considered the most contaminated; if you know the means that can deal with such stains, then they will not be terrible for snow-white clothes.
The most common and cheapest options for removing coffee from white clothes are boiling and bleaching. Naturally, the second option can only be used for white fabric, and the first option exclusively for natural cotton or linen.
If you decide to wash a cotton T-shirt by boiling, on which you spilled a morning drink, first use the above method, namely, treat the area with salt and rinse under hot water. Next, fill the container with liquid, which should be enough in volume to completely immerse the item.
Dilute any product in it (white, laundry soap or powder) and put on fire. After bringing to a boil, boil the item for another 20-30 minutes.
Boiling helps remove almost any stain from white, do not forget about the products used. If you added chlorine-containing bleaches to the solution, then try to rinse the item as much as possible and rarely use such substances to avoid damage to the fabric and allergic reactions.
Features of removing stains from various types of fabrics
When choosing a method for eliminating coffee, adhere to the following rules:
- When cleaning colored fabrics, gentle substances are used. Borax or lemon are suitable.
- If a white item is dirty, wash it with bleach. Old coffee stains from white clothes can be removed with lemon juice or hydrogen peroxide.
- When removing stains from woolen products, ammonia is used. You should wet the stained area with warm water and soap it. Then rub in ammonia. If the product has been stained for a long time, soak the damaged area in a solution of ammonia, glycerin and water (in equal proportions).
- When soiling cotton fabrics, use soda diluted in a large amount of water (6 tbsp per 10 l). Rub it with laundry soap and then put it in the resulting composition for half an hour.
- To wash jeans that have had coffee spilled on them, dilute 3 tbsp. l. ammonia in 250 ml of water, moisten the trace and rub.
- Silk is the hardest material to clean. You need to first apply the substance of your choice to an inconspicuous area of the textile and check the possibility of further use.
Advice! Silk that has just been stained should be washed. The coffee trail may dissolve. Otherwise, apply a mixture of glycerin and borax, leave for several hours, and rinse.
Cleaning colored clothes
When washing things, we first pay attention to the color and type of fabric, because clothes washed with the wrong powder, gel or liquid can be irrevocably damaged. Therefore, when planning to wash coffee stains from jeans or a bright T-shirt, do not forget that such things do not accept bleaches and other aggressive substances.
To remove stains from colored clothing once and for all, use the following products:
- Laundry soap. You can rub the contaminated area dry with it, and then brush it off after drying. We also allow the option of soaking in warm water, having previously dissolved soap shavings in it.
- Stain removers. Use such substances with caution, as they must be marked “color”.
- Dish detergent. Such substances are effective for drinks containing milk fats.
Traditional ways to get rid of stains
Not everyone has the finances to send a soiled item to a professional laundry, where they will use dry cleaning to return the clothes to their original shine. Therefore, you can try the best traditional methods that effectively remove stains and are very cheap.
To remove coffee stains, pre-treatment of the stained area is necessary.
Among the substances that almost everyone has at hand, salt, soap, alcohol, vinegar and ammonia can quickly remove stains. Also, greasy stains from a coffee drink with milk can be removed with dishwashing detergent or lighter gasoline.
Vinegar
A mixture of equal parts vinegar, water and washing powder applied to a stain can help wash even very heavily soiled items. Apply the solution to the stain, wait 5-10 minutes and rinse the product thoroughly. It is also convenient to use a solution of vinegar and water (1:1) to treat a stained sofa or carpet of any color.
Advice
If the product (for example, a sofa or carpet) cannot be placed under running water, try to remove as much coffee from the pile or upholstery as possible with napkins. This will greatly facilitate further manipulation of the stain.
So don’t rush to throw away a damaged item: even dried coffee can be washed off from any product if you know truly proven products!
Taking into account the material
We have already said earlier that in washing and removing coffee stains from fabric, speed and the right choice of products are important. In addition, it is important to know which material will withstand such treatment. For example, not many people know that tannins can take hold in hot or warm water, so boiling water should not be used.
Also, things made of synthetic materials will not withstand high temperatures. Therefore, when planning to find a product to remove coffee from clothes, be sure to take into account the material from which it is made.
Cotton and linen
Natural fibers are traditionally considered to be those that require careful care and the correct selection of cleaning products. For cotton fabric and cotton with the addition of synthetic fibers for strength, this rule does not always apply. So, it is much easier to wash natural material by boiling, but real synthetics will not survive such procedures.
Cleaning silk
It is often very difficult to remove stains from fabrics that require careful handling and leave behind unpleasant, barely noticeable yellow marks. Silk is usually washed in a warm soapy solution with the addition of an ammonia solution. The item is either soaked entirely, or only the contaminated area is treated.
From woolen fabrics
If you put a stain on a sweater, then removing it also takes into account the type of fabric. Natural wool pile is a delicate item, so it does not accept boiling, bleaches or solvents (gasoline, white spirit).
A simple and gentle way to remove coffee stains from wool is as follows:
- Rub the spilled drink area with a dry bar of soap.
- Take a soft brush and soak the bristles in an ammonia solution.
- Use a brush moistened with ammonia to treat the stain.
- Wash the item by hand or on the appropriate machine cycle.
Synthetic materials
Despite the fact that synthetics are a fairly durable material, they do not tolerate high temperatures and aggressive detergents, just like silk. Therefore, if we wash a stain from synthetic clothing, we must observe the temperature regime.
If your jacket is white, boiling it is contraindicated. Never use chlorine-based bleach or gasoline. To remove traces of a coffee drink on synthetics, use diluted vodka or ethyl alcohol in a ratio of 4 or 2 tbsp. l. per liter of water.
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