The festive season brings with it many chances to drink red wine and the last thing you want to do is spill it – but if it happens then there’s a quick and cheap way to solve it
It’s Christmas, which for many people means joining in the festive spirit with a glass of mulled wine or two. But accidents do happen and when red wine ends up being accidentally spilled on the couch or carpet, it can quickly dampen the mood – especially if you don’t have any shop-bought cleaning products to hand.
Rather than run around in a total panic unsure of what to do, there are in fact a number of ways you can you remove these annoying stains using a cheap, everyday natural product that you’ll more than likely have lying around in the kitchen.
Firstly, it’s worth understanding that the natural compound found in grapes, known as tannins, is what causes the red wine to stay stuck in materials. While chromogens in the wine are the reason for its deep red colour, making it very visible when spilled.
Cleaning influencer Lynsey Crombie – better known as the Queen of Clean – touches upon two things you need if you want to remove red wine without the use of any chemicals. During a recent Instagram post she warned that, “Red wine stains are some of the toughest to remove.”
She then said that salt and cold water are a solution, explaining: “Salt and cold water work if you can soak the stain for a while.” Elsewhere, earlier this year author and cleaning expert Nancy Birtwhistle appeared on This Morning to explain how tackle tough stains like red wine.
Again, the simple use of water was highlighted as the way to remove red wine, only this method involved using a full kettle. This works best on fresh wine stains and all you do is boil the water then find a large bowl, a colander and a few clothes pegs.
Put the stained fabric over the colander and then place it in the large bowl so that it’s stretched tight across the top. Then pour the hot water from the kettle over the top of the clothing in the bowl – and the stain melted away ‘like magic’. Nancy said you can use this trick for other fresh stains like fruit juice.
Another key tip for when removing these type of stains, this time from wine experts at La Crema, urged people to avoid scrubbing red wine stains as this can have a the opposite effect. They wrote: “Scrubbing will help pull some of the red wine out, but actually negatively impacts the stain as it causes it to spread outward even more.
“And, if you’re applying too much pressure, you’re actually pushing more red wine down into the fabric. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a red wine stain on the couch or on the carpet.”
