How do dry cleaners remove stains? 3 secrets they don’t want you to know!

It seems to me that these days, nearly all our clothes seem to have a dry-cleaning label on them. The manufacturers seem to err on the side of caution and don’t trust us to do our own laundry. Sometimes it seems as if they’re covering themselves just in case the item shrinks or gets damaged in the washing machine. I understand where they’re coming from. It’s good not to get sued. However, sending all of our clothes to the dry cleaners comes to work out very expensive. So how do dry cleaners remove stains from fabrics, and can we replicate this at home without damaging our favorite garments. I will show you some simple home remedies that you could do at home, so you don’t have to take your clothes to get dry cleaned every time you need a stain removed.

What are stains?

First, there are three different stain groups. 95% of all stains come from three different groups. Knowing which group your stubborn stains come from will help you in the stain removal process. There are rules to follow when removing stains, but you can’t go far wrong if you follow these rules.

Earth stains.

 The first group of stains is earth stains. So that’s anything from the earth, such as juices, colas, teas, red wines, grass stains, and mud. These often come in the form of tough stains on kid clothing or carpets.

Body Stains

Protein-based body stains cover all the icky stuff, like blood, milk, perspiration, sweat, tears, poo, urine, and anything nasty from the body that might stain the mattress, clothes, and bedding. It isn’t just human body stains. It can be animal stains, too, such as feces, urine, blood, meat juice, and meat blood from cooking.

 Oil-based stains

The third stain is all oil matter. The mineral, vegetable, and petroleum oils can be found in hair gels, cooking oils, greases, lipsticks, and makeup. These are often found on clothing, tablecloths, tea towels, and children’s clothes.

So now we know the basic three types of stains, we can determine which category of stain ours comes under, and we can either try to remove the stain ourselves or decide to send it to a professional dry cleaner. Obviously, if you are trying to get a tough stain out of a wedding dress, it would be more sensible to send your garment to the dry cleaners to be put through the dry cleaning process. However, if you’ve got a kid’s pair of trousers that have a grass stain on them, you might prefer to try spot cleaning at home first to remove the stain. I’m going to show you how to do that.

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Before you start removing stains

• Before you use any of the stain removers below, you should always test the solution in an inconspicuous area of the garment to make sure that the color doesn’t bleed.
• You should always rinse with cold water to see if it will come out if it is a fresh stain. Using hot water, rather than cool water may set the stain further into the garment.
• If you have an excess amount of stain on the surface of your garment, remove it with a round object like a spoon to prevent transferring it to other areas of the garment.

• Always use a white cloth or white paper towels to prevent dye from being spread from cleaning cloths or towels onto your clothes.
• Always work from the outside of the stain into the center of the stain to avoid transferring the stain onto the rest of the garment.
• Always use a white cloth underneath the stain to prevent the stain from spreading to other parts of the garment. This is important when removing stains because the last thing you want to do is make it any worse and spread it around.

How to remove earth-based stains

The first category we are going to remove is earth-based such as coffee, tea, grass, or mud.  

To make the solution, you need:

• 2 oz of dishwashing detergent, dish soap, or degreaser,
• 2 oz white vinegar
• 2 oz of water

1. Mix it up well
2. Take the solution and tap it on top of the stain until it passes straight through onto the white cloth below. You should be able to see the stain disappear before your eyes.
3. You can clean it in the washing machine with a mild laundry detergent when the stain has gone.
4. You can add a little laundry bleach like this one, to the wash for an extra stain removal boost.

How to remove protein-based body stains.

These are the worst kind of stains to remove as they are particularly unpleasant to get rid of, so let’s get straight to it. You will need:

• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of ammonia
• 1 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide
• 1 teaspoon of detergent or dishwashing soap

1.  Mix the solution well
2. Pour it onto the stain and gently work away at the stain with a stiff brush until it disappears.
3. We need to repeat this process with exceptionally stubborn stains.
4. You may need to allow the solution to sit for a few minutes to dwell and loosen the stain.

How to remove oil-based stains

The last group of stains is the oil-based stain which covers makeup, vegetable oil, coconut oil, cooking oils, hair gels, lipsticks, engine oils, etc

• 1oz of degreaser
• 1oz of water
• You can make this stronger if you need to by adding a few tablespoons full of acetone or nail polish remover, but you need to make sure that it is not an oil-based nail varnish remover but purely acetone.It works well, but you need to make sure you are not trying to remove stains from acetate fabric, or it will melt and ruin the garment. Check your garment care label fabric before you begin.

1. Spoon the solution onto the stain.
2. Let it sit there for a few minutes, sometimes, it works better over time, and you can’t always be in a rush with oil-based stain removal. Sometimes it’s good just to let it work its magic.
3. You may need to repeat the process with tough stains like lipstick with a high dye content.
4. Launder afterward with mild detergent and some laundry bleach like this one

Frequently asked questions and answers.

For more info on how to wash clothes read this post

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