Coffee stains are stubborn and easily visible, rendering your clothes fit for the trash bin. We present 3 easy fixes to get coffee out of your clothes.
Coffee is one of the most wonderful beverages in the world. It provides comfort, whatever your mood or time of the day. Most people cannot begin their day unless they’ve had a cup of coffee to kick-start their morning. Many others use coffee to stay alert at work, or to chat and gossip with friends, or to just sit aside for five minutes to savour some much-needed alone time.
Coffee also does not really annoying thing – it leaves almost permanent stains on the clothes. But you can clean the stains right off if you use –
1 Baking soda. The abrasiveness of baking soda is effective in removing coffee stains even from the insides of coffee mugs. But do keep this property in mind before using baking soda on a delicate fabric – it might cause colour to leach out, and even damage the fibres permanently. Generally, baking soda is safe to use on cotton, raw silk, jute and linen. Pour some warm water – not hot or boiling water – on the coffee stain and gently rub some baking soda on the spot to form a thick paste. Cover only the coffee stain and set the garment aside for the paste to dry completely. When it dries, you will see that it develops cracks. Scrape off using a blunt knife – the stain will have been absorbed by the baking soda.
2 Vinegar. Vinegar is an effective cleaning and coffee stain removal agent. It is mild on the skin and clothing fibres, but it has a tendency to isolate impurities (such as grime or dirt) and stain molecules. However, do not use it undiluted, or it might react with the clothes’ fibres and colours. Take a teaspoon of vinegar and mix with one cup of water. Now apply this solution to the coffee stain and set aside. Reapply about twice more, each time allowing the garment to dry completely. Now wash the garment under cold running water – do not rub the stain – and you will see that the vinegar solution has lifted the stain off the clothing completely.
3 Stain removing powder. Often, your best defence in coffee stain removal is a really good stain remover. Use the best one, which has more active oxygen molecules to lift and remove the stain molecules out of the garment. This is how you use it – wet the coffee stain (after blotting out the excess) with plain water and gently rub some of the stain removing powder on it to make a paste. Cover the stain completely and set aside for one hour. Now wash the garment with your other clothes and usual detergent, adding a scoop of the stain removing powder to the wash. Voila – the coffee stain is gone forever!