If you came home from a romantic dinner only to find that your favorite dress or suit now has an unfortunate stain, you may be tempted to try a DIY remedy. Pre-treating stains can be a helpful mitigating factor until you bring your clothes into our Highlands Ranch dry cleaners for removal, but be careful to avoid these common DIY at home stain removal mistakes:
Seltzer – The main ingredient in seltzer is carbon dioxide. If not used appropriately, this can become carbonic acid and ruin the fibers in your clothes.
Hair spray – The same ingredients that allows hair spray to keep your hair style in check all day can leave sticky deposits on your clothing. Once the spray evaporates, your clothes could be left with glue residue that could result in a much worse stain than the one you were trying to remove.
Nail polish remover – These removers often contain acetone, which can harm certain fabrics. This can also leave an oily, smelly ring on your garment which may not wash away completely.
Lemon Juice – Though this can sometimes be effective, lemon can result in oxidation. This can be helpful for whitening garments but can result in discoloration of other fabrics. Over time, oxidation could leave your garments with a yellow or brown stain.
Color-safe bleach – Even bleaches labeled “color-safe” can have negative effects on your clothes, causing discoloration or damaging fabrics and dyes. Read labels carefully and never use bleach on garments with a bleach warning.
Not all fabrics respond the same way to stain removal methods, so always use caution with DIY solutions. If you have questions about best practices for at-home stain treatment methods, call Green Care Cleaners at 303-798-0515. Remember that pre-treating stains is only a preemptive method — your garment should be brought in for our organic wet cleaning process to fully remove the stain.