It’s so pleasant to sit at a table covered with a white or colorful cloth, hosting guests in an elegant setting. But, after the feast, stains appear, left by wine, juice, fruits, chocolate, and, most annoyingly, greasy pieces of food. How and what to remove stains from a tablecloth?
Many recommendations suggest that caring for the cleanliness of the tablecloth should begin instantly, immediately after the appearance of stains. However, if the hostess rushes to each guest who accidentally dripped wine or dropped a piece of meat with a delicious crust, to wipe, blot, sprinkle the grease with salt, or soak the stain right on the spot, then at most, everyone present will be guaranteed a spoiled mood.
There are a few tricks that can keep the tablecloth relatively clean during the feast:
- Use plates. In addition to being a mandatory element of table setting, they will save the tablecloth from accidental drops. Guests can also put cutlery on them without risking soiling the fabric.
- Don’t skimp on napkins and paper towels. Guests can use them to gently sweep away crumbs, independently blot splashes of wine or gravy.
- Avoid tight seating arrangements. Each of them should have enough space to place their glasses and cups, so that even in the case of a conversation with active gestures, there is no risk of touching a neighbor’s glass with an elbow.
If, nevertheless, the trouble has happened and an ugly stain is already flaunting on the tablecloth, you should not be very upset. Modern household chemicals and appliances will help to cope with almost any contamination. In addition, there are also time-tested recipes on how to remove stains from a white tablecloth. However, you need to choose a remedy or method, starting with clarifying the type of contamination and the composition of the fabric.
The most common types of soiling and methods for their elimination
Risks for the tablecloth are carried by almost all dishes served on the table. Any “colored” drinks, from tea and coffee to red wine and beer, fats of both animal and vegetable origin, berries, sauces, vegetables.
Stains, which most often scare the hostess because of their complexity in removal, can be divided into three categories:
- Colored stains from wines, juices, compotes. First aid is to blot the spilled liquid with paper napkins. To enhance the cleaning effect, you need to put a couple more napkins under the fabric, and press something heavy on top. Citric acid or the juice of a fresh citrus fruit will help with fruit and berry stains.
- Greasy stains on the fabric. They can be removed by smearing with a salt slurry, ordinary table salt slightly moistened with water.
- Beets and tomatoes – it is believed that stains from these vegetables are very difficult to cope with. But if you rub them with laundry soap, then sprinkle with citric acid, and then wash them, then there will be no trace left after them.
All these recipes relate to the so-called “first aid”, which is not always possible. On the other hand, it is not as mandatory today as it was before. After all, there is a large assortment of special chemicals for cleaning any surface from various contaminants, you don’t even have to wash it.
Cleaning stains from a tablecloth in a dry way
On store shelves, you can find many products – these are gels, sprays, powders, pastes. Gels and sprays are considered one of the most effective among modern home “dry cleaners”. The action of the latter is a non-contact method, the substance is sprayed from a distance of 20-25 cm from the fabric, allowed to dry and simply shaken off. Gel, paste and powder are applied directly to the material. The active ingredients of chemicals affect dirt particles, dissolve fats, traces of coffee, fruits, wine, etc.
In order for the stain remover to work properly and not damage the fabric, you should carefully read the instructions, use it only for those materials that are indicated on the label. That is, take into account the composition of the fabric – whether there are exclusively natural fibers there, whether there is synthetics, and also, whether a delicate approach is needed for a thing where only the most safe substances can be used.
If you do not like household chemicals, then recipes from our grandmothers will help, exclusively natural ones.
Top proven methods of dry or combined cleaning:
- a mixture of egg yolk and glycerin perfectly removes stains from red wine;
- soda, salt, chalk, starch have good absorbing properties, they perfectly cope with traces of grease;
- talc is also able to fight fat – it should be poured on the stain, covered with thin paper and ironed over the fabric with a heated iron;
- a tablecloth with embroidery is a special case, here a slurry of bran is suitable, which is rubbed into the stain;
- hydrogen peroxide, which must be left on the fabric for 10-12 minutes, will help with contamination from coffee, chocolate or tea, after sending the item to the wash;
- wax or paraffin are removed simply – first you need to clean the contaminated place with a knife, and then iron it through porous paper.
Specialized products and folk methods can remove almost all stains, both those that appeared recently and those that are outdated. But there is another problem – yellowness. And it is the most difficult to deal with.
How to remove old yellowness from a tablecloth
Often, traces of poorly washed stains or greasy prints that have become ingrained in the fabric over time turn yellow. A tablecloth with such marks is quite capable of spoiling not only the mood of the owners, but also the holiday in general. A few tips will help to remove this disgusting yellowness from natural fabrics:
- Soak the tablecloth for a couple of hours, lightly wring it out. Rub the places with stains thoroughly with laundry soap and send them to “rest” in a plastic bag for 30-40 minutes. Then wash in the usual mode.
- Boiling will help restore the whiteness of the fabric. You can boil with the addition of laundry soap and baking soda, use a mixture of washing powder and silicate glue. Hydrogen peroxide, which can be added during boiling, also works well.
- An effective method of dealing with old stains on linen fabric is boiling with non-fat refined oil. Here you should adhere to the following proportions – for 10 liters of water, you need to take a glass of washing powder (low-foaming), a couple of tablespoons of stain remover or bleach, and two tablespoons of oil.
The methods are effective, they will return the textile to its proper appearance and allow it to remain a decoration of your feast for a long time. However, it is worth remembering that any treatment with aggressive methods spoils the fabric.
There are more than enough ways how and what to remove stains from a tablecloth. They are available to any housewife, both one who is used to using modern chemistry, and one who prefers folk methods, the basis of which are natural ingredients.