Stain removal

[CatInTheHat]

Does anyone know of a way of really, properly removing gravy and red wine stains from clothing? Mucky pup that I am, these are the things I most frequently spill, and find that the proprietory stain removers are useless. Most of the materials which suffer are cotton or polycotton mix. Many thanks.

[slinkycat]

maybe you ought to wear a bib:-)
otherwise red wine is easily removed if you put the stained item in cold water straight away, also its true that white wine neutralises a red wine stain, it worked for me on a carpet.....such a waste though! Also salt can soak a lot of it up, but you have to act fast.
if you know of a way to get a blackcurrant stain out of a t-shirt let me know!

[CatInTheHat]

You are quite right slinkycat, that I ought to wear a bib! Thank you for the tips - I've tried instant dunking and salt once or twice, but either I'm not fast enough, or my wine/gravy is of industrial strength. There's only one thing for it: I must keep a contingency white wine. In the absence of mishaps I could drink it.

I'd have thought the measures you suggest for my stains might have worked for your blackcurrant, but maybe that's even harder to shift. Older books seem to advise bicarbonate of soda quite a lot, so perhaps that's worth a try.

[masterchef]

Vanish Oxy-action should deal with all those stains in the washing machine.

[CatInTheHat]

masterchef, have tried various Vanish treatments to no avail, but possibly not that one. Thank you.

[Haakee16]

Stain Rx gets them both out. Also known as Erado-Sol since 1963. www.StainRx.com