Chocolate stains: the best remedies to remove them easily
It took days and days to make a chocolate stain disappear until today: how long will it take you to brush these delicious pancakes instead? Try them now!
Chocolate: the spots of the gluttonous
Chocolate makes adults and children crazy, but no-one likes chocolate stains and they are the most feared by mothers because the little gluttons make really incredible messes with chocolate and can stain clothes in an instant. Chocolate is in fact a fatty food that can ruin your clothes: it must be removed quickly and effectively. Chocolate melts easily: this is what makes it so difficult to remove from our tissues. A secret may be to absorb it with talcum powder (you don't have any? Use white flour!).The dust must be pressed onto the stains so that it penetrates well into the fabric.
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The first thing to do
The first thing you can do in case of a chocolate stain is to scrape off the chocolate with a butter knife with a blunt blade (if you don't have it, a spoon is fine too!) This solution allows you not to spread the stain and to remove all chocolate that has not yet come into contact with the fibers.
Try to be quick: the chocolate hardens quickly and then removing it is more difficult! Among the food residues, chocolate is the most complicated to get rid of, and if you don't treat the stain first, and do a normal washing in the washing machine in lukewarm water, then removing it will be more difficult!
Remove chocolate stains with detergent
After scraping the chocolate off the stain, massage a little detergent on the stain and leave it on the dirty clothes for at least 10 minutes. At this point, dip the garment in cold water and brush the stain with more detergent. Cold water will help you melt the chocolate fats!
If you prefer stain remover to detergent, apply it to dry fabric and let it act for 20 minutes. Always pay attention to the type of fabric you use the stain remover on, some items can get damaged or fade! If you want to massage it with your hands, don't forget your gloves: hydrogen peroxide will damage your nails and crack your hands!
After waiting the right amount of time, you can rinse in cold water, first on the right side and then on the inside out to push away the chocolate trapped in the fibers.
Then you can safely wash, proceeding with the traditional washing method: at this point you should have removed most of the chocolate stain. Always look at the label on the dress so as not to damage your garments, and pay attention to the best recommended washing, whether by hand or dry in order to respect the colors and protect the fibers. If after washing in the washing machine in typical water there are residues of chocolate on the fabric, you must repeat the immersion in water quickly. Never put a stained garment in the dryer: you would fix the stain making it impossible to remove it completely! These stains are very stubborn but as you can see it is not impossible to get rid of them!
Remove the chocolate stains with ice
As we have seen, what counts against chocolate is time. However, if you haven't noticed a chocolate stain on a t-shirt or tablecloth, you will surely notice that a stiff and brown halo has formed: fear not, you still have a chance! Use an ice cube: wipe the dirty area of your clothing several times. Swirl the cube until it covers all the stain by wetting the area. After a few minutes you will witness the miracle: the stain will be considerably diminished! At this point you can proceed with the normal washing in the washing machine. Ice cubes are really practical always in the freezer because they can also help you against other types of stains, such as those of hot glue.
Chocolate stains? Try with a vacuum cleaner
Did your favorite carpet get stained with chocolate? Using a vacuum cleaner is an excellent idea: in this way you will avoid making the stain enlarge and you will limit the affected area. Vacuum the carpet several times, you will be sure to eliminate all the chocolate that has not come into contact with the deepest fibers.
When you have completed this operation, you can proceed to remove the stain. Apply the specific detergent or stain remover directly to the carpet as for fabrics. Help yourself with a cloth or even better with an old toothbrush to brush gently but effectively: rinse the toothbrush frequently so as not to spread the chocolate you are removing on the carpet again! In the absence of laundry detergent or stain remover, you can use vinegar: it has excellent cleaning power and will not damage your carpet!
Vinegar is a very useful natural remedy for many household cleaning. Cleaning your home in an ecological way is a great advantage for the environment and also for your wallet (think about how many products you can avoid buying)!
Specific remedies for each fabric
As you read, there is no single remedy for removing chocolate stains. In fact, the result does not depend very much on the type of stain as much as on the fabric to be stained! The effectiveness of a remedy, on the right tissue, doubles! This is why before choosing which remedy to proceed with, you will always have to carefully evaluate the fabric of your tablecloth or dress. If the chocolate has soiled a delicate garment, such as silk, you can blot the stain with water and ammonia. Being fast will reward you! If, on the other hand, you want to remove the chocolate stain from a wool garment, you can create a mixture of water, alcohol and lemon, to remove all traces. On synthetic fabrics you can be a little more daring: the ideal with synthetic fabrics is to use hydrogen peroxide! While for cotton you can proceed with all the methods listed and with more generic products even repeating them several times until you reach a white, shiny, bright and spotless laundry!
And now that you've learned how to remove chocolate stains from any fabric, indulge in some guilt-free gluttony!
