Post-Christmas Stain Removal Tips

Experience More - Subscribe to Our Weekly Events Newsletter

As the extended family return to their homes and friends bid farewell, mums everywhere turn to the cleaning cupboard. There is that stain on your daughter's new dress that just won't budge. There is a mark on the white leather lounge that wasn't there before. Those spots on the carpet look brand new, and you are confused about how vegemite attached itself to your new bedspread. Maybe there are coffee and wine stains that also need attention given the frivolities.

It seems appropriate to end the year with some effective stain-removal tips. I will own that I am a clean freak. Stains and I do not co-exist well. One of us has to go and I don't intend to move out anytime soon. It is for this reason that I have developed a healthy respect for the following methods and tools.

Cleaning vinegar is your friend. It is fabulous for removing pet stains from carpets and attacking stains on most fabrics and upholstery. Pour some 50/50 diluted vinegar on the red wine, marker, paint, or lipstick stains on your carpet and top it with a healthy pile of bi-carb soda, leaving it to fizz and then dry. When dry, vacuum it up and enjoy the satisfaction of stain removal. The key is not to rub the stain too much or to create too much wetness in the carpet as this may bring further staining up from the underlay. Many 'carpet sprays' don't seem effective in my opinion, although I have also had success with the lavender-scented Oz Clean Carpet Power combined with the bi-carb soda method. I will say I have a houseful of cream carpet and three young kids so cleaning carpets is one of my hobbies!

WD40 belongs as much in your laundry as it does in the garage. When applied to fabrics sporting vaseline, Vicks, fish and chip, and butter stains, it works wonders in their removal. If you have tougher stains that everything that claims to be a stain remover won't remove, apply some WD40 and then top it with some eucalyptus oil. Allow it to permeate for 15 mins then wash in your regular wash. I swear by this method for tougher clothing stains.


Mix coconut oil, baking soda, and lemon juice to make a potion to attack stickiness on cupboards and hard surfaces. Trying to remove stickers that your kids 'didn't put there'? Try this. Trying to get those advertising stickers off new appliances and products? Try this. Straight coconut oil is also great for removing marks on leather lounges and handbags. If this doesn't work, you can try hairspray or toothpaste. Coconut oil will also take crayon off anything.

The cream cleanser you get with your Caeserstone benchtops is fabulous for removing marks from painted walls. It is also great for removing marks on cupboards and taking unwanted paint and scuff marks off your car. It is dynamite on removing blue tack and sticky residue left behind when kids stick things to walls. And kids love to stick things to their bedroom walls! If you don't have a bottle of this on hand, you need to fix this. It is highly effective and very gentle.

Toothpaste has many functions other than cleaning teeth. Use it to clean up your bathroom vanity. Use it to remove pen and scuff marks from your white bedroom furniture (it is just me or do you have a load of white furniture too?). It is very effective for polishing up your jewellery and when combined with a toothbrush, it is also effective in removing stains on the carpet, including vegemite and pen.

Here's to winning the battle between yourself and the mysterious stains no one knows anything about, including the extra ones that appeared over Christmas and New Year!

%brisbanemums
%goldcoastmums

#kids
#family