REMOVING CURRY STAINS

Are you clumsy like me or do you have a messy family which means curry night can be quite a messy affair and leaves you washing off stains from clothes or even worse furniture and your carpets?

Well hopefully here we have some top tips for how to rid those pesky stains from your life:

The main culprit behind curry stains is turmeric, it’s very good at making stains and hard to remove. Which is a pity because turmeric is in almost every curry, in one form or another.

There are several ways of trying to remove stains. Please note that care should be taken when removing ANY stain (not just a curry stain) – you should try the removal method on a small part of the stained area to make sure that you don’t ruin the clothing, furniture or carpet.

You try the following at your own risk!!!

LINEN/ FABRICS

Step 1: Scrape off any excess curry from the fabric, being careful not to spread the stain further.

Step 2: Pretreat the stain with a laundry prewash stain remover.

Step 3: Launder in the hottest water the fabric will allow to get out the stain, and either chlorine bleach if the fabric will allow it, or colour bleach if not.

Step 4: If this gets out the stain from the curry go ahead and dry the item, but if it does not, the next step for removing curry stains is to apply a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide to the stain, and let sit for approximately half an hour.

Hint: Test the hydrogen peroxide in an inconspicuous area of the garment first to check for colour fastness.

Step 5: Rinse, and then launder as normal.

Hint: Make sure the stain is gone after washing but before you place in the dryer, or you may set the stain. Repeat if necessary.

UPHOLSTERY

Step 1: Scrape off as much curry as possible from the upholstery, being careful not to spread the stain further.

Step 2: Mix a solution of two cups cool water, one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid, and one tablespoon of white vinegar.

Step 3: Using this solution, sponge the stain caused by the curry with a clean white cloth.

Step 4: Next, blot at the stain until the liquid is absorbed.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3-4 until the curry stain is removed from the upholstery.

Step 6: If that completely removes the curry stains, you should get plain cold water and a new white cloth and sponge the area to remove the cleaning solution, and then blot dry. If not, blot the stain with rubbing alcohol, and follow the blotting directions above.

Hint: Be sure to get the upholstery only as wet as necessary to remove the stain.

CARPETS

The instructions for removing curry stains from carpet are the same as for upholstery.

However, if you don’t have luck with these stain removal methods above you can also do something additional with the carpet stain, which is to mix a solution of one tablespoon of ammonia, one teaspoon of dishwashing liquid, and two cups of warm water, and use this as a stain removal solution.